June30: Our Christian world? Get real.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cbc-election-poll-1.5188097
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/insulin-prices-united-states-canada-caravan-1.5195399

There is nothing new about this U.S. (and Canadian) plundering of the rest of us by the very rich.

In their imperial days, wealthy British built their fortunes by plundering the rest. At the peak of empire when the wealthy were building vast fortunes, the children of the poor were being sent to work at the age of 5 or 6 - for fifteen hours a day, 6 full days a week - and sometimes 7. The Royal Navy took the women on board its ships as servants. They slept on the floor of the gun deck - with the sailors. And when a woman bore a child, the captain entered the child's name as 'son of a gun'. Then the child would be dumped in an orphanage -  until they were ready at five or six to work. Soldiers of the British Empire got high praise, but little else. Their pay came in pennies. And very few pennies because they had to make payments to buy their own rifles and uniforms - which they had to buy from the colonel - on his terms.

In a typical event of the late 1800s, a teen age child working at a factory in Canada lost his arm to a machine. Immediately, his pay was stopped and he was fired. And how he was to get home was entirely his problem.

In the U.S. (or Canada) today the rate of poverty is very high - this despite the fact that profits are probably the highest in history.

And in the U.S., medicines essential to life are wildly overpriced. Any American who hopes to live longer had better be rich.

I went to school in a very poor district. The rich kids could get private schooling with tutoring, and the rich knew, in any case,  they would grow up rich - not because they had more brains than the poor ones but because they grew up in a world which taught them the rich were winners. (Private schools are NOT better than public ones. The difference is that kids in private schools grow up in a world of different expectations. Donald Trump is not a man of unusual intelligence. If born into a poor family, he would now likely be a pimp.)

And our empires are simply even worse examples of our abuse of fellow humans. People of Latin America are starving not because of laziness or tough markets. They are starving because the American empire is deliberately starving them to make its profits higher. The people of Guatemala did not die because they were lazy. They died because the agents of American capitalism murdered them.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/30/tragedy-is-inevitable-if-we-fear-migration-rather-than-celebrate-its-benefits
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http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2019/06/trudeau-government-will-do-anything-keep-donald-trump-happy
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The only people who have a right to fear immigrants as destructive are our native peoples.
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https://www.commondreams.org/

I've been called an anti-semite for saying the same thing. Now maybe we'll understand that Israelis are this world's anti-semites.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/30/saving-lives-not-crime-captain-refugee-rescue-ship-arrested-italy-faces-10-years

Sorry. But in the world we have shaped, people who murder children and civilians are heroes. And saving lives IS a crime.
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And, for be good to a billionaire week.....

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/29/im-not-willing-do-trump-says-he-wont-take-climate-action-because-it-would-threaten
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This could be overdone. But it also has a good deal of truth.

https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/usa-if-it-cannot-be-loved-it-will-rape
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https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/the-lie-of-the-century

Smart businessman, Kushner. Though sent to the middle east by his daddy-in-law in an official capacity, he has managed to make some millions of dollars for himself out of the trip.
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https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/capitalism-vs-the-world
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51839.htm

The death of Christianity.....

Christianity has never been good at being....you know.....Christian. Almost from the start, the church devoted itself to the state in war. (I can remember in my own childhood during the war with the pulpit draped in a Union Jack. I can still remember the popular song about the American chaplains, "Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition". (Hard to think of any Bible passage that could be joined with.)

German clergy certainly knew about Hitler's treatment of Jews. But I've never seen an example of German clergy criticizing it. Nor did any of our churches have a word to say as the U.S. murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people, children, babies at Hiroshima, Nagasaki.

And as capitalism rose, impoverishing millions to enrich a few, how did that fit into Christian thinking? Where were the churches when the Americans slaughtered almost the whole indigenous population of the U.S., when the British Imperial armies slaughtered millions in Asia and Africa, when Americans imported slaves..... Where was it when American Christians slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans, courtesy of that Christian gentleman George Bush Sr.?

Our Christian churches have always been offering a sort of slobbering praise to whoever our leaders are. And that's never been more evident than in the U.S. right now. We want to starve Yemen babies to death? Sure. What the hell.... We wanted to murder over a million innocent Iraqis? to plunder the lives of Latin Americans? The U.S. wants to let people die if they can't afford exorbitant health care? Say the churches why not?

Christians cheer for Trump. 'nuff said.

I'd rather go to hell as an atheist than to spend eternity in a heaven stuffed with Christian hypocrites.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/26/opinion/mythical-oil-markets-shovels-ground-debunking-trudeaus-claims-trans-mountain

And it's still not clear to me why all Canadians should be paying for a pipeline which is surely something that the oil company should be paying for.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/21/opinion/serious-70-billion-climate-plan-youve-heard-nothing-about
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/17/news/faith-leaders-rally-declare-climate-crisis-toronto-photos

Well, the good news is that some Christians are okay.
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And some aren't.

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/06/28/migrants-detail-conditions-texas-border-patrol-stations/
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Well, this view of the chances of war between the U.S. and   Iran is a cheering one. I'm not sure it's right. But I hope it is.

https://www.voltairenet.org/article206827.html
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I had a couple of passages that were longer than usual. That's because it seemed to me that today's news was a little brief.  Of course. It's a Saturday, so some of the usual sources don't publish. And so I added some of my own.
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June 29: we are a disaster waiting to happen.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china-fighters-buzzed-regina-asterix-east-china-sea-1.5193149

Why is Canada sending warships to the East China Sea? Have the Chinese threatened some Canadian interest? Are they going to attack Canada?

No. We're just acting as bumboys for our American masters.

Oh, I know. Why not send our ships to Venezuela to tell the Americans to bug off? Or we could send aid to Guatemala where the U.S. murdered at least 200,000 Guatemalans.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/28/france-on-red-alert-as-heatwave-forecast-to-reach-record-45c

Naw. Ain't no climate change. If there was, we got some real smart oil executives and Doug Fords and Twit Cheneys who'd tell us.
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Hey, we need more pipelines.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/28/what-is-causing-the-european-heatwave
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/europe-italy-migrants-sea-watch-1.5193677

Are us humans racists? You bet we are. We have to get over this idiocy and arrogance that some humans are more deserving than others - according to where they were born. We have only this one world. We have to do something we have never learned to do - to live together.

As an historian, I am dismayed by our failure to see all people as one and  equal. Alas! Our school history books fill us with nonsense about how different we are from each other. (Was it praiseworthy for British soldiers to serve the monarch? Okay. Then it was also praiseworthy for German soldiers to serve der fuhrer. Was der fuhrer a mass murderer?  - Well, yeah. So were all the British monarchs.) And mass murder has been an American characteristic for much of its history.


Did George Washington create a nation of equals?  well, actually, Washington never believed all people were equal.  Did American rise in the civil war to free the slaves?  Uh - no. Actually that isn't what the civil war was about.

a day later----

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/europe-italy-migrants-sea-watch-1.5195218

We are all one people. And we have very little time to learn that. But our survival depends on us learning that.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/28/california-mussels-cooked-heat

Nah. It ain't happenin'.  High school graduate Doug Ford,, premier of Ontario, will tell you that.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/27/yemen-refugees-usa-trump-asylum

God bless America. Mind you, they could have saved some of the tens of thousands of children that they preferred to starve to death.
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Trump has heaps of praise for the most backward ruler in the world. Well, yeah. He buys heaps of American weapons to murder innocent people at home and abroad.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/29/trump-praises-saudi-crown-prince-for-doing-spectacular-job-g20

Oh, and he keeps women in their place.
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https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/9367698-on-iran-no-one-is-in-charge-gwynne-dyer/
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/29/im-not-willing-do-trump-says-he-wont-take-climate-action-because-it-would-threaten
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/28/2019-predicted-be-among-planets-hottest-years-frances-114o-heat-absolutely

Nah. It ain't happenin' Just ask any Conservative politician in Canada. (The Liberals admit it's happening. But they don't intend to do anything about it.)
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/19/pipeline-will-not-be-built-indigenous-and-climate-leaders-tell-trudeau-after-canada
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/18/trudeau-approval-tar-sands-pipeline-say-critics-would-make-absolute-mockery-climate
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http://rabble.ca/columnists/2019/06/despite-government-reset-fords-main-problem-remains

Very seriously, Doug Ford is a hopelessly incompetent ass. His whole political history proves that. So how could be win an election in a large, prosperous,  and well-educated province?

This is a  serious question. If people like Ford get elected, it is frightening to think of the "values" and thought processes of the people of Ontario. This must be a province of people who start every sentence with 'duh'.

In general, most of the news services of this world encourage ignorance. And it's quite deliberate. We are way, way behind the level of thinking and information that is required if we are too survive. Here, in the capital of the province of Ontario, the only newspapers are propaganda sheets, That has always been the curse of journalism. And we're about to pay one hell of a price for that.

Oh - and if the Conservative party could pick such a dead head for leader, what does this tell us about the party?
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Israel has been the opposite of everything that Judaism means. Indeed, the worst thing about Israelis is that they are acting like Christians.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/independent-jewish-voices-canada/2019/06/independent-jewish-voices-canada-condemns

Real Jews - and I have known many - are not at all like Israelis.
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https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/23/patrick-lawrence-accelerating-imperial-decline/
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https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/the-lie-of-the-century
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https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/06/28/Andrew-Scheer-Real-Bad-Climate-Plan/
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https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/06/26/Experts-Evaluate-Party-Climate-Plans/
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Our best friends and allies.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51836.htm

You won't read much about this in the Canadian or U.S. press. That's because they are powerfully influenced by The Israeli Lobby, a group designed to squash any criticism of Israel.

I shall always treasure the memory of a day when I was speaking at a Jewish Library. I had been speaking there once a month for 14 years to audiences of  300 or so. As a headed for the platform, the library director (a new one I had just met) said she wanted to speak first.

"Of course", I thought. She wants to thank me for 14 years of talks. She took the mike....."Wait till I tell you who your next speaker is. You're going to forget all about Graeme Decarie".

The next speaker was, of course, the local head of the Israeli lobby. (But he only lasted a few months.)
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51839.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51840.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51841.htm
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https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2019/06/24/israel-u-s-engage-in-attack-simulations-preparing-for-war-against-iran/
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https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/6/26/18750566/nuclear-war-polling-americans-support-civilian-deaths

Hey! What's a million more? The U.S. has already killed more than 20 times that since  1945.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/26/opinion/climate-pollution-us-military-and-albertas-oilsands-industry-reports
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https://theantimedia.com/us-threatens-to-sanction-any-nation-that-imports-iranian-oil/

Yes, Trump can tell the whole world what it is allowed to do. God wants Americans to rule the world. That is broadly understood to be in true in much, perhaps most, of the U.S.

The world really has to do something about American history text books.
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https://truthout.org/articles/washington-meddling-in-haiti-neglected-by-u-s-press/

Canada  had a hand in this story. The U.S. , always eager to control its empire, threw out the elected president of Haiti. Canada, as always, wagged its tail at a chance to help the U.S. So it sent "peacekeepers" to  help out.
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https://thesaker.is/russia-india-china-will-be-the-big-g20-hit/

India was an American ally. Now it is a part of a triple alliance that faces the U.S.
And, like China, it has rapidly been climbing to world power.
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If the U.S. goes to war against Iran, will Canada join it?

It's quite possible. Australia which, in the old days, fought British wars, now fights them for its new master. Canada, once it was obvious British wars were no longer worth fighting, has already fought wars for the U.S. - Korea, Afghanistan, Libya and others. And it, quite improperly, supports the U.S. in Venezuela. Fighting for the master is one of the things an imperial colony does.
And the Canadian Legion, which should be defending our military and urging Canada to stay out  will, as always, wimp out.
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As a history prof, I'm also interested in how governments and schools use history to give us a false opinion of ourselves. In the U.S., for example, the civil war is seen as a war to free the slaves. (In fact, it was not - the issue was not even raised until that war was a year old.) Then there's the gospel that George Washington fought to bring democracy. But it's not true. Washington, like many others, was big on expanding the US into indigenous lands so they could make money out of selling some, getting some on the cheap  - Washington was a big-time farmer, and perhaps the wealthiest American of his time. Nor did he think all people equal. Certainly, women were not. But so also were the poor dumped on. Poor farmers, for example, had no right to vote.

Similarly, the British praised themselves for their building of an empire. In fact, it was responsible for centuries of enforced labour, of deliberate starvation, and of mass murder.  But it was called 'serving the king" or queen.

In fact, it was serving some of the cruelest and most murderous people in history - the British upper class. And, like today's American upper class, they really served only themselves while driving others into poverty and early death.

We get false impressions of ourselves from our history books. And we are led into making bad decisions from those impressions.

Oh, in the U.S., the belief that God wants Americans to rule the world is so widespread that there is a 'think tank' actually devoted to that topic - Project for the New American Century. It's available on the web. And, yes, they're for real.

Yep. God wanted the U.S. to nuke Hiroshima, to massacre Iraqis, and God wants them to obliterate Iran.

Of course, if you look at the political thought and behaviour of the North American Christian churches, it would make sense that God is as indifferent to killing and greed as they are.

June 27: Damn fools - all of us

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/europe-heat-records-1.5191106

Gee. Can you imagine how bad it would be if there was a real climate change going on? Aren't we lucky there's no such thing?
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/will-migrant-photo-salvadoran-father-daughter-change-minds-1.5191462

Too bad nobody at the U.S. border patrol knows how to spell precaution.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/26/credit-line-to-be-announced-to-ease-eu-and-iran-trading

In my last blog, I reported an accusation that The Guardian is not always honest. And that makes this story a little troublesome. Iran has to ease the crisis?
Come off it. Iran never caused the crisis. The U.S. is the one that has been bombarding Iran with threats and with economic sanctions. The U.S. and Britain are the ones who destroyed democracy in Iran by putting the Shah in power. Even now, Iran is more democratic that many of the U.S. allies.

And Iran is a danger because of the Americans believe it is producing nuclear weapons?  Israel, which is threatening Iran, has nuclear weapons. How come the U.S. has never complained about that?

In any case, nuclear weapons are not the major issue here. The major issue is the U.S. determination to get control of the Iran oil fields for American billionaires.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/26/a-young-family-left-el-salvador-for-a-better-life-their-tragedy-focused-the-immigration-crisis

Why are these people fleeing their homelands? Contrary to the Trump line, it is not so they can murder Americans and sell drugs. It's because they have been forced into poverty and hopelessness by an American empire that, like every empire that ever was, exists to  degrade, abuse and exploit the people it conquers. And it does so to enrich American (and Canadian) capitalists operating in those countries.

That was what the Roman, Portuguese, Spanish, French, British empires were all about.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/27/jamal-khashoggi-warned-moroccan-journalist-before-his-arrest-says-wife
So where are the big stories about this one in our news media?
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/27/yemen-refugees-usa-trump-asylum
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/25/trump-saudi-arabia-toadyism-richard-wolffe
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/18/mike-pompeo-saudi-arabia-yemen-sudan-child-soldiers

Can you spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y?
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https://www.thenation.com/article/iran-media-alterman/
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https://www.thenation.com/article/dilley-texas-immigration-detention/
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This is what we - all of us - have come down to.
This sort of savagery is the history of the world. It's the savagery of the rich and powerful which, in our society, has reached the level of the savagery of the Roman Empire.

This is what we have to defeat - and we  have very little time to do it.

https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/image-of-drowned-father-and-daughter-sparks-global-outrage-against-us-anti-immigrant-rampage

The US has not yet reached the level of Hitler. But it's working on it.
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Most sadly, the horror that Hitler unleashed no lives on in the horror of Israel. We are all, it seems, vulnerable to it. Jews are people with long traditions of concern for others, of charity, of caring. I say that have lived the greater part of my life among Jewish friends. I kid you not. Christianity is pretty pale stuff compared to Judaism.

But the horror of the death camps changed that. The Jews who survived them and fled to Israel are a people as vicious as any this world has seen. These are the products not of Judaism, but of Nazi racism. Hitler won. And, oh, they have fit into our Christian greedy and murderous society.

Am I being anti-semitic? No. I am mourning Hitler's destruction of Judaism - as reflected in the behaviour of Israel. - and the behaviour of us Christians who have always been murderous.

https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/a-hackneyed-betrayal-of-gaza
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Funny how this never made our news.

https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/ny-times-admits-it-sends-stories-to-u-s-government-for-approval-before-publication

This is the final betrayal of what we like to call a free press. Now, we get news on the Nazi system - whatever is approved by the state.
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https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/06/27/Urban-BC-Wildfire-Threat/
And this will have to other villages, towns and cities across Canada.
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https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/06/26/Experts-Evaluate-Party-Climate-Plans/
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https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/06/21/Trudeau-Climate-Policy-Inadequate/
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A climate change report from the UN will almost certainly not appear - Saudi Arabia doesn't approve of it.

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/un-climate-talks-in-bonn-saudi-arabia-15c-ipcc-rejects-a8970481.html

There is an emergency here folks. We may have as little as ten years to deal with it. This is one hell of an emergency - and we're seeing almost no action at all. Indeed, the Conservative party is committed to doing nothing - this to please its very rich friends.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/27/when-trump-did-the-right-thing-twice/
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Watch for this one.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/the-post-millennial-journalism-conservative-advocacy-1.5191593
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Canada's Christian neighbours.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51826.htm

What centuries of war have done to the U.S. - the most warlike nation on the planet.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51825.htm
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https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/arms-dealers-and-lobbyists-get-rich-as-yemen-burns/

God bless America.

God wants our military heroes to kill children.
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https://www.euronews.com/2019/06/23/us-to-impose-fresh-sanctions-on-iran-following-escalating-tensions

I think it almost a certainty that the war in Iran is going to happen. Gee! this world has a lot of civilians and children that God wants the U.S. to kill.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/

How could this ignorant lover of billionaires and sneerer at everybody else have been elected by the people of Ontario? They must be really, really stupid.
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I've run the next one before. But it's worth repeating. How could the people of Ontario have voted for the complete ass and servant of the very rich. This isn't a man of even normal intelligence - except, possibly, in Ontario.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/07/news/heres-everything-doug-ford-government-cut-its-first-year-office
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https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/new-york-climate-emergency/
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https://thesaker.is/the-saker-interviews-a-b-abrams-about-the-geostrategic-developments-in-asia/
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Critics of "America the Beautiful" have, for some time, been operating their own anti-media gang. The intention is to discredit them, the ones we can social media, and then put on pressure to get them removed from the web.

Sounds reasonable? Clean up the news so we'll get the truth?

That would be nice. But what we'll get is a truth as defined by Adolph Hitler - or a Donald Trump.

It not just social media who might lie with the news. It's also our mainstream commercial news media. Almost all of them are liars. And so they have been for some 150 years. But the people who want to destroy the social media have no interest in attacking them. Quite the contrary.

For forty years, I dabbled on the side as a news critic for radio, newspapers and TV. I did thousands of broadcasts and columns . And I   could make a very long list of those liars who call themselves reporters and commentators. And I have known the orders to come from top management. (With great affection, I should mention a Gord Sinclair who I worked for some thirty years. Note - he was not the Gord Sinclair of Canadian TV fame - who was a pompous ass. He was the son or that one - and a journalist's journalist.)

But the good ones are few. And I have noted that in the last couple of days, CBC news in Canada seems to have dropped its campaign to examine climate change. That's the sort of thing I would expect of top management at CBC and of it's private news competitors.______________________________________

To everybody, wake up. Europe is experiencing it's highest temperatures in history. The ice at both poles is disappearing. And the exposed land, much of it, is proving dangerous to human use.

Yes. Climate change is happening. It is already, in these early days, killing people. We face the greatest challenge in human history - and we have very, very little time to deal with it. But none of our political parties or our news media have paid much attention. Instead, we get high school dolts like Doug Ford to tell us it isn't happening.

The reality is that it IS happening.  And we have let it go for so long it may well be too late. But if we are going to do something, it has to be now, and it has to be a massive effort all over the world. But this isn't happening because our oil barons don't what it to happen. What can we call people who are that stupid?
This could be a good newspaper quiz.

Oh, I might as well get a lot off my chest. WE, the Canadian people, are paying for the oil companies to get an oil pipeline. That will cost 4,3 billion dollars of our money.

Why the hell are WE paying for a pipeline for oil billionaires? Shouldn't companies pay for their own expenses?

June 25: Let's get real. Let's get angry.

https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/inourbackyard/

Again, the CBC is doing what all of our news media should have been doing for the last 30 years. Get used to it. But most of your news media lie to you - and always have. CBC has taken a brave and intelligent stand.
_https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/confronting-carbon/

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http://rabble.ca/babble/international-news-and-politics/guardian-propagandistgatekeeper-state-mouthpiece

Well, yes.  As I've said before, The Guardian has weaknesses. But even at that it far outclasses most of the journalism world.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/25/climate-apartheid-united-nations-expert-says-human-rights-may-not-survive-crisis

That's an important story that you ain't never going to see in most of our news media.
And, indeed, human rights are not surviving it.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/after-secularism-law-women-ask-what-now-1.5187806

Quebec is racist. But don't just blame the French. I lived most of my life there - and there was profound racism directed at Blacks, Orientals, Jews and others. And it came from both French and English. Indeed, I don't know of any province in Canada that is not racist.

http://rabble.ca/news/2019/06/new-generation-quebecers-resists-legaults-discriminatory-law
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Nah. There ain't no climate change.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/25/highs-of-45c-expected-in-france-as-heatwave-scorches-europe
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I'm not surprised by this news. But I fear the results for my students and friends in Hong Kong.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/25/we-have-no-other-choice-as-china-erodes-democracy-hong-kong-citizens-prepare-to-leave

I have not heard from them lately. And I fear for them.
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This next item is several weeks old - but still timely.

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/columnists/iranian-war-is-unwinnable.html
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https://www.thenation.com/article/dilley-texas-immigration-detention/
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https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/06/21/Trudeau-Climate-Policy-Inadequate/
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Paul Craig Roberts always sounds extreme. But he is very, very knowledgeable.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51813.htm
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One often hears Americans who have the impression that the U.S. has been the leading force in bringing democracy to the world. In fact, It's been a leading force in destroying democracies.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51816.htm
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I don't what to say about this next one.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/06/22/guar-j22.html?view=print

I have felt that, on occasion, it was not honest. But generally, I have thought it the best of the dailies. Certainly, most of its news is honest. But does it stray?
I'm going to have to pay more attention to it.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/18/opinion/think-canadas-politics-are-polarized-trumps-america-think-again

Well, that's good news. Now, if only we had candidates, somewhere, worth voting for.
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https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/
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https://off-guardian.org/2019/06/22/us-and-canada-back-the-white-supremist-minority-in-venezuela/
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https://off-guardian.org/2019/06/25/the-ongoing-restructuring-of-the-greater-middle-east/

The frightening (terrifying) part of all this is that Bolton and his friends are still running loose acting as though they are the presidency. They are the ones who almost started a war - without bothering to tell the president - and he let them get away with it and has kept them in power.

They are now consulting with Israel as a partner in their schemes. And Israel is one of the most dangerous nations running loose in this world Those are our friends in the region - an Israel which has been busy destroying Palestine: a Saudi Arabia, another vicious one that murders its own people is running loose..
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/climate-change-rich-poor-un-report-1.5189662
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/25/photo-drowned-migrant-daughter-rio-grande-us-mexico-border

Why are migrants fleeing their countries? In Latin America, it's largely because they are fleeing countries kept in poverty and even starvation by American and Canadian corporations.

Empires, almost by definition, are brutal, exploitative, indifferent to human need. And American empires are not different. God bless America? Get stuffed.

In Africa, the empires are the same - with the addition of bombing of civilians and of climate change - which is going to get a lot worse.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/25/trump-saudi-arabia-toadyism-richard-wolffe
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I have often said that most of the commercial news media deal in propaganda rather than news. I think of that whenever I pick up the paper in Ottawa, the city I live in. It's owned by a big-selling paper - The Last Post.

One of its items for the day is by Andrew Coyne, a columnist highly respected by intellectually challenged editors. Today, he takes on the issus of taxing the rich. Most research shows that the super rich walk away every year without paying taxes. But Andrew Coyne knows better.

Shucks, says Coyne, The amount would be so little, it ain't worth payin'. In fact, Coyne has no evidence for what he is writing - and it is, at best, vague. Roughly, he seems to say that the rich are poor. Right.

This is the kind of writer the  The Last Post just loves. The doesn't criticize the rich. And anyone who wants to do anything for the mass of the population is a crackpot.

And climate change? Forget it. Just read Rex Murphy's column. For a start, it's a big problem and Canada is too small to fix it. And any money the Liberals might spend on climate change won't matter because it's not enough. So what the hell.  Relax. burn all the oil you want.

This is typical Natonal Post fare.

I have never seen  honesty in these papers. That's because they are designed to be propaganda sheets. Long years ago, I was on radio at almost the same time as the founder of National Post, Conrad Black.  (He always closed his eyes in conversation because he just loved the sound of his voice.)

His thinking was extreme right wing. And that's what  his paper was - essentially a propaganda sheet. It has never done honest reporting on climate change, for example. Eventually, his sins caught up to him, and he was sent to jail for several years in the U.S. But he then kissed up to Donald Trump and was pardoned on all charges.

Delightful person.

Almost all Canadian dailies are branded with stinkership. But the National Post is the leader - perhaps surpassed only by the New Brunswick papers of the Irving Press.
_______________________________________________________________

We face one hell of a challenge in dealing with climate change. We cannot trust most of our news media. Most are just propaganda sheets.

Canada is owned by the very, very wealthy, so wealthy they can buy politicians - notably those in the Liberal and Conservative parties. That's why Trudeau  promises to deal with climate change while at the same time  building a new pipeline that will last for decades, guaranteeing no significant action on climate challenge.

Let's be clear. Canada is NOT a democracy.  It cannot be a democracy so long as the wealthy have the power to buy our politicians - and so long as the Liberals and Conservatives hold their hands out - and so long our news world is so corrupt. And so long as Canadians are dumb enough to accept this corruption.

We cannot deal with world problems that have an effect on us so long as we and our politicians kiss the American rear end. At the end of World War Two, we were going to create a new world, a world to end wars. We didn't do it. And over 20 million have died because of our failure to do it.

The UN,  intended to end war was, almost immediately twisted into the American attempt to conquer China by way of Korea. And ever since then, the U.S. has fought wars entirely in its own commercial interest - and we have supported it. It has completely ignored international law  - as it is now doing in Iran. We became partners in greed and torture. Indeed, just about every war since 1945 has been a war for American corporations - notably in oil - to murder and steal, to murder children and civilians on a scale never before dreamt of.

Now, as we are faced with the strong possibility of the end of our planet, we are using all our time and resources to murder men, women, and children all over the world. And we have not lifted a finger to save ourselves and our world.

This is worse than stupidity. This is insanity.

June 22: A Quiet Day - as they go.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/what-on-earth-newsletter-climate-change-1.5183329

https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/inourbackyard/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/the-national-climate-change-courts-1.5182876

CBC news has been promising much fuller coverage of climate change - and so far it's delivering it. That's very different from our privately owned news media.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/texas-el-paso-migrant-children-neglect-1.5185329

God bless America.
__________________________________________________________________https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/21/trump-iran-democrats-congress-oversight-warren-biden

We're not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot. It's not really clear who is in charge in Washington - Trump or Bolton and  Pompeo? And even if it still turn out to be Trump, this is the man who illegally interferes with Iran trade. He has no business giving orders to Iran on who it is allowed to trade with. As well,
Trump is  under pressure from Saudi Arabia, Israel,  and United Arab Emirates. This is all really just one more version of the determination of American big business to rule the world.

There is no telling how big this war could get.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/22/refugee-eviction-peak-in-france-bid-halt-channel-crossings

Look. We have to get used to it. We have to become one world. We  have to get over our racism and race superiority. We now have some  71 million migrants in the world - and most of them due to our greed. In the not very different future,  that number will rise to over a billion.
We really don't have a choice.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/20/child-migrant-deaths-us-border-cbp-funding-warning

Bring me you tired, your poor.....
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We don't pay the attention to public schooling that we should. It has the power to mould children for the rest of their lives. It, badly and cheaply run,  has the power to destroy them for the rest of their lives.
My early schooling was in the schools of the poor. I know well how such schooling drives them into poverty for life. Schooling on the cheap - as the political servants of the rich are showing us (check out Doug Ford and Ontario which imprisons the poor for life in poverty.)

Give your children a chance.

We can afford to let our billionaires skip taxes. We can afford to given them our money whenever they ask for it. Show your children as much care as you show your billionaires.

Better still - give some thought for offering public education for the adult poor.

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2019/06/public-education-has-economic-payoff-says-report
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https://www.taxfairness.ca/en/newsletter/2019-06/tax-gap-reports-find-billions-lost-revenue-tax-avoidance

We are all being systematically robbed by our wealthy.
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__https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/canadas-fossil-fuel-conspiracy-against-theblueplanet

We've know n this for over thirty years. And we're doing - nothing. ______________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/canadas-fossil-fuel-conspiracy-against-the-blue-planet
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https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/patterns-of-occupied-palestine-part-1-of-uncountable

Wasn't this a terrible thing when Hitler did it?
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https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/the-sorry-state-of-canadian-democracy
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https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/06/19/Hard-Questions-PM-Pipelines-Climate-Emergency/
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https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/06/21/Trudeau-Climate-Policy-Inadequate/
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Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq "1,455,590" impudent site. move to right to see missing part... https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/17/news/faith-leaders-rally-declare-climate-crisis-toronto-photos Gee. I wonder how man Ontario papers covered this story. ______________________________________________________ __https://off-guardian.org/wp-content/medialibrary/ali-arif-soydas-370399-unsplash-smaller.jpg_____________________________________________________ This is a relatively blah blog for a blah day. The world, especially Canada, is showing little thought in the midst of a moneyed class that has gone wild. It buys politicians. It supports wars that are to its profit. It creates immense horror in parts of the world. And will soon be causing it much more. Around the world. basic needs of humanity are ignored. And deliberate starvation and murder are the rule of the day. And, oh, the general population is passive. We are approaching the greatest disaster in world history. And the Canadian people are scratching their rear ends wondering whether to vote Liberal or Conservative!!! (And the NDP and Greens, while better, are still well short of what has to be done. Climate change is happening. It will destroy us. The wealthy of Canada, the U.S., and other countries are robbing us all blind. And they won't stop until there is nothing left to take. We are sliding down hill very, very fast. And we're building a new pipeline. ___

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In U.S. War And Occupation Of Iraq 4,801 Gee! No wonder Trump is so proud of his brave American soldiers.

June 20: Things are very, very dangerous.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-resettled-most-refugees-un-1.5182621

Get this. Canada led the world in accepting refugees while the U.S. at many, many times the size of Canada came second. - which makes one wonder about the bigotry and racism of the rest of the world.

And you know what? Despite the warnings of Donald Trump these refugees are not running through our streets raping and murdering and pushing drugs.

This world now has over 70 million migrants fleeing war, climate change and racism. And it's going to get worse, much, much worse. Europe is actually penalizing people for trying to save refugees from drowning.  Let's get real.

We are all of  us people who have to live on this planet. We have to get over our bigotry and racism.  You don't want Africans or Latins? I'd accept them a lot faster than Americans who set records for shooting each other.

I went to school as as a kid whose family goes back to 1650 in Canada. My friends were kids born in Poland, Syria, Italy....in university I taught Palestinians, Chinese, Dutch and, as an adult, most of my friends were Jewish. I survived, and it was great.

Add to that the reality that the whole world is being madly shaken by climate change and war. We can either help the victims - or we can kill them as the Donald Trumps of this world are doing.

Get real. Centuries of migrants are what created Canada.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/irg-shoots-down-us-drone-1.5182581

Why is the U.S. threatening Iran? Has Iran threatened to attack the U.S.? No. Has it in any way interfered with U.S. oil supplies? No. Has it flown spy planes over the U.S.? No.

All of  this fuss and danger is because American billionaires want to own the oil that belongs to Iran. (The billionaires won't pay for the war, of course. They don't pay taxes.) The American tax payer will pay for it - the price being even greater damage to the American public education system. And of course,  the poor will pay for it by not getting the help they should be getting from their own country.

This is greed and murder. Nothing else. And it's strongest supporters are American Christians.

And Jesus wept.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/andrew-scheer-climate-change-carbon-emissions-1.5181744

CBC has lately make a point of offering criticism of parties - notably Conservative - that are not taking climate change seriously. This is a serious and important direction. And you will find very little of this sort of questioning in most of our news media. And you won't find it at all in that Gawdawful Toronto Post or New Brunswick's Irving press.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/20/a-jerusalem-hospital-where-palestinian-babies-die-alone
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/quebec-law-hijab-ban-religious-symbols-public-employees

I grew up in a Quebec in which we had religious symbols shoved down our throats. The biggest one, a monstrous cross still stands to dominate the whole city skyline. But the horror of seeing muslim women wearing hoods changed all that.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/19/himalayan-glacier-melting-doubled-since-2000-scientists-reveal

When that glacier melting ends, 1 billion people will lose one  of this world's greatest agricultural regions. Then what?
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It's hard to know who is calling the shots in Iran. The person who started the problem is, certainly, John Bolton with the support of Pompeo. Both should have been fired on the spot. But Trump has been gentle. He seems certain to get rid of Bolton - but in a gentle way. And, meanwhile, he has been remarkably slow to take charge. He's drifting - and that's not good.

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/jun/20/trump-dangerous-brinkmanship-on-iran
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lose....lose....

Saudi Arabia has not been impressive as a military power - and notably not so in Yemen. But the U.S. supports it against even American principles - it's use of children soldiers, its starvation of at least tens of thousands of Yemen children,, it's supply of weapons to the Saudis at a time when much of the world is backing off, it's proven role in murdering a Saudi journalist....

And they're on our side...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/18/mike-pompeo-saudi-arabia-yemen-sudan-child-soldiers
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http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2019/06/instead-squabbling-over-scarce-jobs-and-incomes-we-should
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http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david-suzuki/2019/06/avoiding-climate-chaos-means-zeroing-emissions
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Canada is NOT different.

/countercurrents.org/2019/06/towards-understanding-terrorism-in-canada-perceptions-and-realities
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https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/06/18/Opponents-Slam-Approval-Trans-Mountain-Expansion-Catastrophic/
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Let's get real. Canadian leaders don't care about what happened and what is happening to indigenous   women. No. Not just Canadian leaders - the Canadian people.

https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/06/17/RCMP-Army-Protect-Pipeline/
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Most of our news media  have been ignoring this. But the reality is that the U.S. has been negotiating a way out of Afghanistan for some time now. Given its wealth and massive spending on weapons, the U.S. has not been militarily a dazzler since 1945 - Korea, Vietnam spring to mind.
Twenty years of war that should never have been fought in the first place. And all those dead who died fighting for their country....like hell they were fighting for their country. That's one of those brainless terms that some people love.

Fighting for one's country might mean something if one were fighting off an invasion..... But murdering thousands of people who had done nothing to harm the U.S.? The only ones who might have made money out of this were land and mineral companies. Those soldiers weren't fighting for their country. They were fighting for a handful of greedy billionaires. And the same can be said of the Canadians we sent there.

Wake up Canadian Legion. Represent your members who were sent into a war that had nothing to do with us and should never have been fought. Wake up. As it is you spend most of time kissing up to the     billionaires and their political hacks who were responsible for the deaths of your comrades.

The did not die fighting for their country - and if you think they did, tell me what "our country" was supposed to get out of this.

On armistice day, we remember our veterans - as we should. We - and the Legion, should also be giving serious thought to whether, in wars like Korea and Afghanistan we were throwing our soldiers to die in somebody else's war.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51792.htm
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Since 2001, the U.S. has spent almost 5 trillion dollars on war. Would you seriously believe this has made the U.S. a happier and better place? In Iraq, it murdered one and a half million people - mostly civilians.  The U.S. loss was less than 4,500. Does that make you cheer their heroism?

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51794.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51796.htm

Oh, our billionaires are so good to us. They create jobs and everything.
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http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2019/908-the-shaving-kit-manufacturing-the-julian-assange-witch-hunt.html
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/20/opinion/scheers-climate-plan-was-it-worth-wait
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/19/news/trans-mountain-gets-shovels-ready-pipeline-first-nations-vow-protect-territory
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It has become obvious that Trump is not the one in charge of decision-making about Iran. Who is? I don't know. it may be Bolton and Pompeo. It may go much deeper into the American military command.

https://off-guardian.org/2019/06/20/gulf-of-oman-international-context/
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https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/court-judgment-blow-uk-government-over-arms-sales-saudi

As a child, I read the story of Lawrence of Arabia, the British soldier of World War 1 who became the darling of the British Empire by organizing the Saudis into a nation, and establishing them and their oil with British companies.

Well, I was only 12. I had no idea that Lawrence was simply working for British oil, and no idea that the rulers of Saudi Arabia were and are the most brutal bastards on the face of this earth.

Today, Saudi Arabia record of brutality is so vicious that many countries refuse to deal with it. Even the British courts denounce Saudi Arabia and have blocked its attempts to get more weapons and kill more people - including it own. But the U.S. just loves the Saudis. That's why it sells weapons for it to kill children in Yemen. That's why it protects the Saudis against charges it uses child soldiers.

And Israel, in defiance of Jewish religious values, buddies up to help Israel steal Palestinian and Syrian land. That's why it supports Israel's murder of Yemenis.

Yep. Britain, U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia - these are the murderers on our side. And they are all unspeakably  vicious and murderous.
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https://theantimedia.com/un-finds-credible-evidence-mbs-ordered-khashoggi-murder/

Our best buddies.
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This has been my most unpleasant day at the computer since I started this blog.
There is nothing here but greed, viciousness. arrogance - stupidity.

Who's in charge in the U.S.? I don't know. The decisions seem to come from every direction. and Trump seems to be running just to give the impression he's leading.

The western world, at least, has a leadership of vicious capitalists supported by political hacks who take orders from the capitalists. Even Trump is in no sense in charge of what is happening. And Canadians, Americans and Europeans,at least,    show no sense of what is happening. It's as though they have hypnotized themselves into stupidity.

Enough. I can't write anything sensible about what we have become.

June 18: It is probable that on this post....

......we shall get our 1,000,000 viewer.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iran-us-tanker-accusation-1.5175368

Oh, yeah. Those Iranians are always attacking people. Not at all like peace-loving Americans. And millions of Christian fundamentalists in the South will actually believe this transparent crap, and feel the virtue running through their veins.

Shortly after Trump blamed Iran for the attack, the owner of the Japanese tanker announced that Trump was not telling the truth. Iran, he says, did not attack his ship.

When Trump spoke, Britain jumped in on his side. Of course. The days of British glory are over. And it now has to kiss up to the U.S.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/wikileaks-assange-extradition-hearing-1.5175331

Not to worry. The British have him sealed up, and they know as much about torture as the U.S. does.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/14/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-revenue-income-2018

I worry that they're working too hard. Don't you?
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Take this next one VERY seriously. The whole world is in a state of decay. That's why we're producing Trumps and Fords, and Cheneys. There is a profound disillusion, a sense of loss of direction that produces these people. Their rise is one hell of a strong reminder of our failure to prepare for the future back in 1945. We  blew it. In particular, the very wealthy of the world arose in a frenzy of making money no matter what the cost to humanity. And it's going to get worse.
And we're living through a horrible slough of greed, hatred, racism, mass murder and, most of all, fear.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fortified-schools-a-sobering-but-growing-response-to-u-s-shootings-1.5174149

We missed the world of Vera Lynn.

"There'll be blue birds over
The white cliffs of dover.
Tomorrow when the world is free.
There'll be love and laughter
And peace ever after,
Tomorrow. just you wait and see.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hong-kong-protesters-china-extradition-disperse-1.5177924

Wow! Those Hong Kongers are one tough  bunch. This really is very impressive.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/climate-change-editor-note-1.5175490

This is a major change in its relationship to commercial news coverage across Canada. You would never see such a statement in, say, any of  the national post papers. Or in almost all of the commercial news media across Canada.

I'll save my praise until something actually happens. But one has to live in hope.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cra-corporate-taxes-1.5179489

And how come most of the other news media haven't noticed all this going on?
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Los Angeles, the city of fun and glamour...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/18/los-angeles-death-penalty-sentences-jackie-lacey
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/18/arctic-permafrost-canada-science-climate-crisis

A high percentage of Canadians believe that climate change is happening. But many of those feel we mustn't rush. No. Lotsa time. Lotsa time.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/18/murder-rape-claims-of-contamination-tanzanian-goldmine

Be proud, Canada. This goldmine whose staff murder the locals and the employees in large numbers is owned in Toronto. Isn't that nice.
And it's not just in Africa that Canadian mine-owners murder people. Check out their mines in Latin America. Gee. Funny how no Canadian news agency has ever noticed that.
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The war industries don't just supply weapons to countries like Saudi Arabia. They also supply training, field guidance, even leadership.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/18/the-saudis-couldnt-do-it-without-us-the-uks-true-role-in-yemens-deadly-war
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The Hong Kong protesters are young. That means this could be a protest with legs for many years to come.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/16/hong-kong-protests-carrie-lam-china
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The Christian solution to the refugee crisis at sea? Let 'em drown.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/15/italy-adopts-decree-that-could-fine-migrant-rescue-ngo-aid-up-to-50000
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The first intelligent analysis of the Iran crisis I have seen.

https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/9439947-gwynne-dyer-hopefully-iran-is-behind-tanker-attacks-because-the-alternatives-are-worse/
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/18/if-true-they-are-even-bigger-lunatics-we-realized-un-officials-reportedly-believe
________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/18/should-scare-hell-out-you-photo-greenland-sled-dog-teams-walking-melted-water-goes

We have lotsa time to deal with climate change, lotsa time.....
________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/suicide-rate-americas-latest-epidemic/
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http://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/2019/06/watch-how-canadian-taxpayers-bought-climate-killing-pipeline
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http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2019/06/pope-says-global-warming-real-what-will-publicly-pious-carbon

Yep. He's a man of God is our Jason Kenney of Alberta. just like all those other greedy, selfish. and self-serving Christians all over the world.
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http://rabble.ca/news/2019/06/canada-has-long-history-ignoring-reports-mmiwg-inquiry
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http://rabble.ca/columnists/2019/06/ndp-unveils-2019-electoral-program-new-deal-people
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https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/16/the-danger-of-leaving-a-president-out-of-the-loop/
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https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/11/extending-the-us-embargo-on-cuba-hurting-the-people/
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https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/14/john-pilger-the-global-war-on-assange-journalism-dissent/
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https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/12/john-boltons-long-goodbye/
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https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/the-coming-show-trial-of-julian-assange

Journalists are supposed to dig out information - especially those things government doesn't want us to know. Assange was a journalist. But oh,  there's a lot the U.S. government doesn't want people to know.
_________________________________________________________________
__https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/06/17/RCMP-Army-Protect-Pipeline/__
_____________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51773.htm
________________________________________________________________

https://theantimedia.com/report-us-planning-massive-airstrike-iranian-facility/

Quite possible. The U.S. has come to see bombing as it's preferred method of war. Casualties are usually light for the attacker. But very, very heavy when aimed indiscriminately at civilians, children, schools, hospitals.
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This has been one of the most depressing reports I  have had to write. In problems of climate, of social services, education, of insane killing, of mad greed, we have been sliding into the pit for thirty years and more. At our present pace and lack of direction and organization and leadership, humanity will not last for this century. Indeed, as the U.S. seeks wars against Iran, China, Venezuela, Latin America.......and as we fail to do anything about any of our problems, our future could be a very short one, indeed.

June 23: Praise the Lord....

....and pass the ammunition...
(The following item is not the usual  blog. That will appear on June 18 with regular blog.  This one, dated June 17, is not at all a regular blog. It's an extra.)

"praise the Lord and pass the ammunition...."

That was a popular song right after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, a song about 3 pastors who joined the soldiers at the guns during the attack by Japanese bombers.

You think that was a suitable activity for Chistian clergy? Care to pick out the section of The Bible that would recommend this? And why was Japan doing this in the first place?

In 1942, Japanese troops were stomping all over British and Chinese in China. This concerned the U.S. But not for the reasons you might think.

For well over a century, British invaders had been plundering China,  India and other countries. These were valuable parts of the British Empire. The Chinese and India had suffered brutal working conditions for low and even non-existent pay. In many cases, the British even starved millions to death, though food was available. The British people didn't get much out of this but, oh, the upper class was smothered in money. (In that respect, it was much like the behaviour of U.S. billionaires today in places like Latin America where the U.S. billionaires murder and plunder - which the American lower classes get little of.)

But by 1940, the British hold on China had been replaced by a massive Japanese invasion. Britain was helpless. However, the American upper class slavered at the possibility of stealing China from Britain.  (In the same way, American capitalists were eager to join the war against Germany in Africa. There again was there British wealth to be stolen - as in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia which the British had got hold of in World War One.)

But there was no way the American people were going to be interested in war whether in Africa or China. And this was a question for President Roosevelt. How could be set up a war? The answer was to make the Japanese strike first. That would rouse American support for a war.

And that is why, in 1941, the U.S. cut off oil to Japan. It controlled virtually all of Japan's oil supply. Americans wouldn't go to war? Well, if Japan's oil supply was cut off, it would have to attack the U.S.

The weakness of Roosevelt's plan? He had no idea where Japan might strike. Certainly, nobody expected it would be an attack by aircraft carriers on the heavily armed base of Pearl Harbour. Of all the attacks in World War 2, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was probably the most brilliant.

But who started the Japanese/U.S. war in Asia? It was the U.S. And it certainly wasn't a U.S. attempt to help the Chinese or anybody else. It was the desire of US capitalists to help themselves. And if it had done so, it would have been as brutal as  Brutish capitalists - and Japanese ones - would have been. (The U.S. had always been brutal and dictatorial with The Phillipines for over forty years.)

N.B. our news media then and to this day have never, ever referred to the American actions as anything but noble.
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And who set off World War 1 in Europe? Actually, it wasn't Hitler.

At the end of World War 1, it was generally agreed that Germany had NOT started that war. It was much, much more complicated than that. The war happened because the countries in the region had all prepared for years for a war. And anything could trigger that war because, since they were all prepared and since the preparations would be difficult to disentangle a war would be hard to stop.

A young man murdered an archduke. Every country is terrified this could mean war. So every country pushed itself into war fearing that any delay could be fatal. One of the last to enter was - Germany. 

Of course, in the press on our side, any country that entered the war on the other side was evil. And so Germany was evil.

When Germany surrendered in 1918, most of the other countries agreed that Germany had not started the war, and so should not be penalized for it.

But the British refused, saying that Germany had to be heavily penalized financially.  Did even the British believe that?  Probably not. But heavy penalties on Germany would pretty much destroy Germany as an economic rival to British capitalists. And the British won.

Germany was shattered by that decision. Conditions in the German economy got so bad that its paper money became worthless - so worthless, it was common to burn sacks full of it. The Germans were devastated, a whole nation virtually paralyzed, destroyed.

And this created the atmosphere in Germany of fear, suffering, anger of a frightened and hopeless people.

It was exactly the atmosphere for the angry speeches of a young Adolph Hitler who, choosing his scapegoat much as Donald Trump has chosen Latin American migrants, whipped the German people into fury at Jews.

Who caused World War Two? Who turned a Hitler loose on the world?

There was a strong case to be made that Britain did. But our headlines never mentioned Britain as evil.

June 20:sometimes one has to hate everybody.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hong-kong-protests-thursday-peaceful-1.5173320

For a couple of centuries, Hong Kong has been more a nation than being a part of a nation. For a very long time, it was forced to be a British nation despite the arrogance and obnoxiousness of the British. Then -

- I remember walking down a street at a time when China had kicked out the British, and took over control.  I noticed lots of activity as we passed a large building. I turned to one of my students who was walking with me, and asked, "Why is that place so busy?"

He frowned in disgust. "These", he said, "are our new masters."

Yes, even as Hong Kong thought it was rid of its British parasites. It, briefly, was a nation, and one with a distinct character But now that's gone - and I greatly fear the consequences.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tankers-gulf-oman-hormuz-1.5173404

And here is what is called fake news. A couple of tankers were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz. The implications of the report are pretty clear if not absolute. The dirty deed came from Iran. That implication and no other runs through this whole story. This is a repeat of a similar report on an attack on tankers in Emirate waters. The implication of all news reports I saw was that Iran did the dirty deed.

In fact, there is no evidence it did so - and the nature of the attack suggested to me that it has nothing to do with Iran. It was a setup.

And now this case? Again - speculation, but no evidence.

So far, all the reporting I'm seen suggests Iran is evil. (And there is, of course, no mention of U.S. interference with Iran shipping.)

It reminds me of the time -   many years ago now -  an American navy communications ship in the Mediterranean was attack by Israel  aircraft. The attack was quite deliberate. The ship was bombed in many attacks. crew members escaping in lifeboats were machine gunned for a high death toll. There is no doubt the attack was ordered by Israel, and no doubt it knew this was an American ship. Why the attack?

Nobody knows - possibly a paranoid fear that this ship was feeding information to Palestinians - though that's pretty wild even by Israeli standards.

Funny thing, though. The western press almost entirely ignored the story. And to this day the incident has never been explained.

Fake news - it's been around for a long time. And our news media have been prominent in using it. Yes, even the CBC.

Here's the story.

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/08/a-uss-libertys-heros-passing/
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/old-news-shared-as-if-its-new-disinformation-1.5172449

Yes. There is fake news. But the biggest sources of fake news are our commercial news media. (In my spare time, I am writing a blog on  use of fake news by our most respected news media dealing with world wars one and two.)
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Here's a better report from The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/13/oil-tanker-attacks-will-inflame-conflict-between-the-us-its-allies-and-iran
Incidentally, it's rare to find any report accusing the U.S. of interfering with shipping. But it has done so for decades, threatening and forbidding the shipping of countries like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Yemen, leaving millions to starve and die.

How many stories have you seen about that?
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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/13/mini-trump-across-the-channel-european-media-on-boris-johnson-as-british-pm

In 1939, the British Empire - the largest in history - began its rapid collapse. Within a decade it was all over.
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As I said at the start of this blog, the Hong Kong riots are not the usual sort. Hong Kongers are not just dissatisfied street demonstrators. They have become, over centuries, a nation, a people...We could be watching a dreadful tragedy. I fear we are.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/13/mass-street-protests-are-an-expression-of-hong-kongs-identity
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/10/saudi-teenager-could-face-execution-protests-child-murtaja-qureiris

The Saudis are good guys. That's why we're so happy to sell them weapons to kill the children of Yemen, and to hunt down their own women who try to flee the country.

Meanwhile, we gotta kill more of them Syrians and Palestinians.
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In 1945, we were going to move beyond a world of squabbling nations. We were going to move toward some form of world government- a world of equality and sharing. The UN was supposed to be a step in that direction.

We didn't do it. In fact, the first major step of the UN was to let itself be used for an American war in Korea. The American decision post-war was to rule the world for the benefit of its very wealthy. But that, like the old British empire,
 has failed.

Can we still do what we said, in 1945, we would do? Can we still do what we told those all over the world that we would do?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/11/pragmatism-and-ideology-drive-kremlins-interest-in-africa
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https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/columnists/the----people---s-republic-of-amnesia---.html
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/12/sick-horror-trump-administration-plans-detain-migrant-children-former-japanese
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In New Brunswick, thank you Mr. Irving for all those years you sprayed weed killer all over the  province. Now, little babies won't have weeks growing in the tummies.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/12/new-testing-revealed-popular-kids-cereals-contaminated-weedkiller-roundup
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http://rabble.ca/news/2019/06/canadas-top-military-general-needs-resign

Rabble has some old hands who go back to the days when CBC was allowed to be really good.
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http://rabble.ca/babble/indigenous-issues-and-culture/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls-final-report

Lots of reports. Not much action. Can you imagine the turmoil there would be if the wives of rich men disappeared?
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The world of 1939 hasn't worked since (or before) 1939. We have to forget a world that isn't practical any more.

https://www.thenation.com/article/climate-change-refugees-open-borders/
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https://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-socialism-capitalism-2020/

Nothing short of that will do the U.S. any good.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/13/warnings-effort-maneuver-us-war-trump-officials-rush-blame-iran-attacks-gulf-tankers

Yes. Trump officials are rushing to blame Iran for the tanker attacks. And most of the news media - including the CBC - are helping them.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/12/adding-planetary-alarm-bells-top-us-finance-official-warns-climate-crisis-recipe

Hey. Common sense. If there were any crisis here Donald Trump would tell us. (Like, he used to be on TV.)
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https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/13/un-palestinian-refugee-agency-looking-for-support/

Hey. Not to worry. Jared Kushner just made 60 million dollars in his spare time in the middle east while working for the American taxpayers. Lots of money there.
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https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/u-s-military-worlds-single-largest-producer-of-ghg-says-study
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Forget your glorious past, Britain. It was never glorious. And you need the time for full attention to your ass-kissing present.

https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/british-home-secretary-signs-extradition-order-to-send-julian-assange-to-usa
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https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/climate-crisis-and-the-2020-us-elections

Take a good look at those U.S. election numbers - all three of them.
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https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/sanctions-are-genocidal-and-they-are-the-uss-favorite-weapon
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Judaism has a long record of caring and encouraging. Never confuse Judaism with the governments of Israel.

https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/no-way-to-treat-a-child/
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51763.htm

We live in a world that George Orwell foresaw some 75 years ago.

And Julian Assange is going to die for telling the truth.

We are not the Naziis of our time. We are worse.
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http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2019/906-mirthless-laugh-the-persecution-and-torture-of-julian-assange.html

Oh, and did I mention a gutless Canadian population?

The most vicious nations in the world today are the U.S. and China - and then there's the snarling, sharp-toothed rats like Saudi Arabia and Britain.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/13/news/michael-e-mann-took-climate-change-deniers-court-they-apologized
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/13/opinion/keeping-wary-eye-transnational-extreme-right-during-election-2019

Yes, we have people just like this in Canada - mostly in the Conservative Party but also support from Liberals.
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Canadians - does Doug Ford make you proud to be a Canadian?

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/07/news/heres-everything-doug-ford-government-cut-its-first-year-office
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https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/residents-vacating-drought-hit-villages-in-india/

We've seen a lot of this. We're going to see much, much more. Climate change, war, brutality, exploitation have created millions of homeless and countryless people. And it's going to create many times more of these. Many, many, millions of starving, wretched people are fleeing unlivable conditions  And what are we doing?

Virtually nothing. Those who make it to Europe are crammed into primitive conditions. Those who flee to the U.S. experience broken families and brutal treatment and, often enough, death.

Climate change, soil destruction, starvation are destroying a world we knew. And so we are doing - nothing.

The old world of nation states should have been changed many decades ago. And the only alternative to denationalizing the world is to massacre all of those who are poor or 'different'. Trump's wall, the refugee camps of Europe are only a mild taste of what's to come.

We need government by saints. We're getting government by brainless and murderous louts.
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Oh! I wish I'd been there.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-13/valedictorian-thanks-alcoholic-teacher-and-negligent-counselor-teaching-fend
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https://truthout.org/articles/corporate-media-enable-industry-war-against-medicare-for-all/
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Donald Hitler Trump and his Naziis.

https://truthout.org/video/dhs-watchdog-confirms-horrific-conditions-at-immigrant-jails/

Betcha haven't seen this post in most of Canada's corporate press.
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Here's a sketch of the Bilderberg group I had not known about.
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There will be no blog this Saturday. However, I am toying with the idea of a special issue of this blog  with some truths about World War 1 and World War 2 - and who the bad guys were. It wasn't just Hitler.
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