Thursday, February 27, 2020

Feb. 27: We may be getting close to the end.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/27/democrats-need-to-take-a-long-hard-look-at-bernie-sanders-before-taking-the-plunge

I like Sanders - though I think we exaggerate the extent of his socialism. But even if he should win the presidency, how would be accomplish anything? Some of the worst opposition he would face in his presidency would come from his own party - much of which is no different from the Republicans. From the start, way back in the American revolution, the U.S. has not been a democracy. Starting with George Washington, a very wealthy landowner, American politics have always been controlled by the wealthy.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/26/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-anti-democracy-protests

Bolsonaro, president of Brazil,  has a good deal of the Nazi about him. He doesn't even try to hide it. It's not a coincidence that U.S. governments admire him. It's no coincidence that the Canadian government and most of the Canadian news media never critcize him.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/24/haiti-police-soldiers-gun-battle-presidential-palace-carnival

Some years ago, Haiti had a democratically elected government. But the U.S. didn't like that. So it overthrew the president, replacing him with a dictator. Canada, in it's usual role as America's wimp, sent Canadian troops as "peacekeepers". So Haiti remains a brutal dictatorship - and a very poor one. And that's the poverty U.S. and Canadian investors like to see. Indeed, they inflice a good deal of such poverty on us.
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This opinion piece is more than a little kind to Canada's oil industry. But a basic truth is there. Canada's oil industry is doomed - and doomed for reasons that have to do with the oil industry itself.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tasker-teck-frontier-future-oilsands-1.5475658
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/teck-frontier-cost-benefit-leach-olszynski-1.5460151
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https://rabble.ca/news/2020/02/teck-stands-down-cops-roust-tyendinaga-camp-turbulent-day
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/02/what-really-happened-teck-frontier-oilsands-mine-its-market
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david-suzuki/2020/02/pipeline-actions-signal-need-true-reconciliation
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https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/wetsuweten-canada-pipeline-protests/

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https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/bernie-sanders-michael-bloomberg-nevada/
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https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-whistle-blowers-like-julian-assange-should-be-praised-not-punished
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/27/oas-has-lot-answer-new-mit-study-disputes-key-claim-paved-way-right-wing-coup

The American Empire, just like the British Empire, the French Empire and all the empires this world has known, exists to use it's colonials as cheap labour - and even as slaves. That's what empires are for.

It's usually a system that does nothing for most of the folks back at home. But it's a gold mine for the wealthy. And that is pretty much the history of the world.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/27/ocasio-cortez-says-putting-pence-charge-coronavirus-effort-irresponsible-because-he
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/27/outrage-hhs-chief-azar-refuses-vow-coronavirus-vaccine-will-be-affordable-all-not

Hey! Be reasonable. The whole purpose of having drugs is to make big profits for the rich.  After all, poor people are going to  die anyway.
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For those who want to know about ALL of the Julian Assange trial in London, I enclose a site with reporting on ALL of the trial so far.

https://consortiumnews.com/
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Bolsonaro, Brazil's president, friend of the U.S., and so, of course, a love buddy of Canada's Liberals and Conservatives.

https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/defend-democracy-lula-calls-on-citizens
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/a-difficult-peace
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/toxic-agriculture-and-the-gates-foundation

Beware of billionaires bearing gifts.
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/hindutva-myths-and-reality

There is no denying the preversity of the thinking of most people on religion.
Most religions are supposed to represent responsibilities to other people, and respect for them.

But they never have.

North American evangelical Christians support the outlawing of abortion as an unChristian process. But killing children by the millions by bombing them and starving them - well, that's okay. Killing is wrong - but the world has been at war non-stop for almost a century of killing uncountable millions - with Christians leading the way.

Many Christians hate Muslims - because of - well, because they aren't Christians.
That's why we've been killing so many of them for the last century or so. Western leaders like Britain and the U.S. knew of Hitler's mass murders of Jews and Gypsies. But they really didn't give a damn - and they refused to help even those Jews who escaped. So they were sent back to die - and we knew it.

Indeed, Evangelical Christians believe that only they will get to heaven. All others, including Catholics, Protestants and Jews and certainly Muslims will go to hell.

It could be worse. I'd hate to be stuck in a heaven populated by evangelicals.
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/27/bloombergs-game/
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-mexican-parents-can-t-sue-border-patrol-n1142486
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53042.htm
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Hitler was not an unusual ruler of our time. Britain, the U.S., France, Belgium had long been murderous before Hitler came along. Our news media just never saw our brutalities.  They still don't.

My local paper, the Ottawa something-or-other, probably can't even spell Assange.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53040.htm
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/24/features/when-climate-change-drove-all-men-away

Yes. Climate change is happening.And it's happening all over the world.
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https://truthout.org/articles/how-can-the-us-confront-coronavirus-with-28-million-people-uninsured/

The world's largest economy has lots and lots of billion dollar gifts for it's wealhiest people. But it has nothing for all those who need help. This is the world we have all created since 1945 when promises were made "We've won the war. Now, we've got to win the peace."

But our wealthy never gave a damn about the peace - or about all the rest of us.
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https://theintercept.com/2020/02/25/trump-praises-modis-india-muslims-beaten-street-mosque-defiled/

Let's not kid ourselves. We are the Nazis of our time. Hitler, incidentally, went to war so the the German wealthy could plunder and enrich themselves. I used to wonder why the western powers, at the end of the war, did not prosecute wealthy Germans who had supported Hitler. I think now that I understand why they didn't.
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 For more than 2,000 years of recorded history, we have allowed ourselves to be plundered, impoverished, sometimes enslaved by small groups of people who define themselves as superior to us. That's what all the empires have been about -   plundering and abusing all who are not of the ruling class.

And we just take it. And we vote for the flunkies of Conservative, Liberal, Republican and Democrat parties.

Almost all of the major wars of centuries right up to today have been wars to statisfy the rich. That's really what World War 1, World War 2, Korea, Afghanistan and the uncounted American wars (officially 50 or so American ones just since 1945) have all been about.

It's not just climate change that threatens our survival. It's our wimpiness in electing the leaders we do.

How much time to we have?

Thirty years --- maybe. And maybe none. Hitler lost his war. But his Naziism is still with us. In fact, it has been with us for some thousands of years.

Really, though, the problem isn't caused by the billionaires. It's caused by our toleration of them.



















Tuesday, February 25, 2020

feb. 25: Not a good day for the world

In Britain and the U.S., it can be a crime for a journalist to tell the truth.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/25/julian-assange-handcuffed-stripped-naked-claim-lawyers

Think about it. How is this different from Nazi Germany?
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/25/trump-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-ruth-bader-ginsburg
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/25/rush-limbaugh-coronavirus-trump

There have always been people dumb enough to clap hands for Rush Limbaugh.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/24/oil-gas-industry-us-lawmakers-campaign-donations-analysis
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/blockades-continue-hamilton-bc-1.5474916

After centuries of abuse and neglect, Canada has said nice things about it's indigenous population. But it hasn't improved anything. And don't look for Trudeau to do anything useful.
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Andrew Scheer, premier of Alberta, has a simple policy. It is to blame Ottawa for everything. Meanwhile, he has done nothing to face reality. With or without its oil, Alberta faces a bleak future. It's oil is very expensive. It needs a plan to get off it's dependence on oil. It also needs to face up to a reality. As the oil industry declines, there needs to be a drastic clean-up of the oil fields. That will employ huge numbers - but Alberta cannot afford that on it's own.  And the oil barons won't be paying for it.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-trudeau-weakness-fear-1.5473875
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/02/are-federal-conservatives-national-government-waiting-or
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2020/02/doug-fords-attacks-labour-are-attack-public-health

Doug Ford is a servant of the very rich. It's not entirely his fault because he is not very intelligent, either.
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Canadians have a long record of electing real bozos to their governments.

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/02/state-art-conservative-victimhood-alberta
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https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/msnbc-sanders-freak-out/
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https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/coronavirus-habitat-loss/
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And this is a multi dose of Gwynne Dyer, a Canadian who is probably the best columnist in the English-speaking world.

https://www.hilltimes.com/author/gwynne-dyer
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/25/string-intentional-outright-lies-bloomberg-campaign-deletes-tweets-containing-fake
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/25/assange-extradition-your-man-in-the-public-gallery-day-no-1/
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https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=373697047018228084#allposts
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/23/assange-a-tale-of-three-extraditions/
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/delhi-ncr-region-remains-to-be-the-most-polluted-region-in-the-world
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/big-techs-inevitable-reckoning
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https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/02/24/Jason-Kenney-Blames-Ottawa-But-Teck-Mine-Killer-Was-Market/
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We've had very little information on what it is that concerns Canada's indigenous people. So here's a quick summary of what it's really all about.

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/02/25/Robert-Jango-Is-Canadas-Most-Dangerous-Blogger/

It's us colonizers of Canada who have created this situation. But we don't get much news about that.
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https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/02/24/Painful-Hypocrisy-Jason-Kenney/

Kenney could turn out to be the most destructive premier this country has ever seen. What he represents is the oil barons. Nobody else. And if they want Alberta to join the U.S., he'll oblige them.
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-u-s-flushing-forests-away/5704679
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53037.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53034.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53030.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53035.htm

To say that Sanders is a socialist is a bit of a stretch. But Americans have been trained to believe there are communists tapping their phones, that medicare in the U.S. is being pushed  by communist agitators, that finding shelter for homeless people is anti-Christian.

Almost all news media in Canada and the U.S. are propaganda outlets for the very wealthy.

Unless Americans catch on to these realities very soon, Donald Trump will win a second term - and that one is guaranteed to be a disaster.
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Israel was created so anti-semitic countries could get rid of their Jews - anti-semitic countries like Britain, most of Europe and Canada.
Jews already living in Palestine at the time were on friendly terms with their arab neighbours. But that soon ended as Jews from Europe flooded into the country and, from the start, forcing the arabs in Palestine to live in ghettos and treating them as aliens. Arabs were, for example, denied all services, denied the right to ride in busses with Jews, and kept in poverty. (That made Jews into anti-semites since arabs were semites, too.)

From the start, Israel stole Palestinian land, often kicking arabs out of their farms and homes to put Jewish families in.

When Israel was created, I was caught up in the enthusiasm of my Jewish friends. But as the years passed, their enthusiasm for Israel weakened. And so did mine. Jews had a long tradition of respect and tolerance for others. And, when I spoke to Jewish audiences - as I did many times a year - I saw their growing unease at what Israel had become.

Alas! I am now learning that the current generation has lost that respect and toleration. They have become so racist and thieving that they remind me of - well - of the Nazis.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53031.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53029.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53027.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53028.htm
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https://twitter.com/sahouraxo/status/1231232110519701504
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/25/news/32-million-canadians-living-poverty-including-566000-children

But who gives a damn? Right? When oil barons  in Alberta needed 15 billion dollars. our federal government gave it to them. Not a loan. No. A gift to billionaires.When I live in New Brunswick, this was routine behaviour. When Irving want a gift to build more ships, governments wet their pants in the rush to make him happy. When the provincial medical officer warned that Irving forest spraying was very dangerous to all New Brunswickers, the government fired her.
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https://theantimedia.com/turkey-kills-over-50-syrian-troops-russian-warplanes-halt-offensive/

Oh, I know it's terrible when Russia bombs people. But Americans are popular killers. So millions of innocent people have been made happy by the U.S. in killing them.
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https://theintercept.com/2020/02/25/africom-airstrikes-somalia/
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https://theintercept.com/2020/02/25/trump-praises-modis-india-muslims-beaten-street-mosque-defiled/
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I had intended write a long essay at this point. But today's blog has taken a long time, and this little boy is getting quite tired.

I'll try the essay on another day.
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Saturday, February 22, 2020

Feb. 22: Not a good day.

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2020/02/protests-indigenous-peoples-culmination-centuries-political
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Happy shopping!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-counterfeits-fakes-online-shopping-1.5470639
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For 120 years, the U.S. has created poverty, exploitation all over Latin America. And it has murdered uncounted numbers. Now, it blames the migrants for all these problems - and forces them back into horror. The same thing is happening in Europe for those who flee the poverty and killing sponsored by European capitalists and their American brethern.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/21/how-the-american-dream-died-on-the-worlds-busiest-border
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/21/jp-morgan-economists-warn-climate-crisis-threat-human-race

Of course, he ain't real smart like Doug Ford of Ontario and all the rest of the Conservative party, not to mention Donald Trump. People like this deny climate change is happening; but they give no evidence for that opinion. Nor is any of them intelligent enough and scholarly enough to understand any of it.

And if we were intelligent, all these wretches would be in a dumpster.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/22/flood-anger-climate-crisis-fossil-fuel

Most of our news media haven't paid much attention to the devastating rains and winds, high winds that have been flooding Britain for weeks now. On the web, youtube has been publishing frightening pictures of damage. But it hasn't attempted any explanation of it. The Guardian is the first site I've seen to attempt to explain it. And if it is right, the future of Britain and Northern Europe is pretty bleak.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/21/nobel-prize-winners-justin-trudeau-teck-frontier-mine
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-covid-19-iran-bc-south-korea-1.5472316
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https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thehouse/the-terror-was-brought-to-us-memories-of-oka-resurface-as-rail-blockade-crisis-continues-1.5454787
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-teachers-provincewide-strike-1.5470980

There's a side of  this that hasn't had much attention. Historically, teachers in Canada have been poorly paid. That began to improve in the 1950s. But now, and for some years, there has been a new factor at work. That happened when we quietly decided not to impose income tax on our hard-working billionaires. And that has brought huge changes to us.

Without those billions of dollars in taxes.we can't properly educate our children. And medicare, too, is feeling the pinch. And we can't even think about housing and feeding all those families who live on the streets.

As well, millions of Canadians and Americans can't get decent wages from their billionaire bosses. (The latter point has been true for just about all of Canadian and American history. We are not citizens in our countries. We are the low servants of the very rich.

And don't worry about the children of the very rich. They go to private schools. And those private schools even get some of our tax money from friendly governments.

Why did Canadian and American governments do all this to us? That's because Republicans, Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives have always been paid servants of the very rich.

Tough luck for millions of children.
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/02/ucp-launches-blitzkrieg-physicians-health-care-alberta-returns
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To  'read' this one, click on the box with two vertical stripes that is just below the picture.

https://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/radiolabour/2020/02/teacher-uprising-ontario
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https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-turkeys-final-warnings-could-mean-war-with-russia-in-syria
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This Gwynne Dyer column is over a week old. But but it takes a wider view of the China crisis than I have seen in our news media.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1857334/is-the-wuhan-devil-virus-a-black-swan-
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/21/42-nobel-laureates-urge-trudeau-act-moral-clarity-and-stop-climate-wrecking-teck
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/22/travesty-and-disgrace-trump-quietly-issues-memo-could-abolish-union-rights-750000

We gotta keep our super-rich happy.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/21/drop-charges-and-extradition-pursuit-assange-says-amnesty-international-denouncing
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/21/apparent-us-intel-meddling-in-us-election-with-report-russia-is-aiding-sanders/
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/20/bloombergs-rising-polls-show-power-of-billionaire-narrative-control/

Democracy?  Get real.
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/winter-2019-20-was-so-far-the-warmest-on-record-in-the-contiguous-u-s

Not to worry. Trump and most of the Democrat candidates and Canada's Conservatives tell us there is no climate change. Canada's Liberals hint there might be climate change. But they have no desire to do anything about it.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53019.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53014.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53020.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53018.htm
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/22/news/nobel-prize-winner-alice-munro-urges-trudeau-stop-teck-resources-oilsands-project

Does Trudeau have the courage to deny the very wealthy who want that mine?

Not likely.
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https://theantimedia.com/turkey-kills-over-50-syrian-troops-russian-warplanes-halt-offensive/
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https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-budget-would-slash-support-for-low-income-students/
To the wealthy who run America and who own most of it's politicians, the poor of the U.S. - like the poor of Latin America - are simply to be trashed into the rubbish heap.
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The following publication is not nearly as true as it was just a month ago. The Chinese economy then was the fastest growing economy in the world. But it's now severly crippled.

Alas, we now live in a world in which all national economies are in danger.

https://thesaker.is/no-weapon-left-behind-the-american-hybrid-war-on-china/
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Writing this blog has always been a depressing experience. We tolerate and even applaud the greed of our wealthy. We even allow them to plunder and increasingly impoverish the rest of us. And the rest of us? We seem to act as though we deserve the crashing abuse of the super wealthy.

Americans now are drifting into a federal election in a nation that really has no democracy but is simply ruled, as it always has been, by the greediest people in the nation. In that, it is following the pattern earlier established by the British Empire in beggarring most of the  British people and enslaving and plundering the rest of the world.

In Canada, both Conservatives and Liberals are the servants of the super wealthy amd Canada itself is the bum kisser for the American empire.

Thus the running wild of billionaires who want power to control  dangerous resources like oil fields and poisonous mines, billionaires who don't give a damn about our children because their children go to private schools subidized by our money.

The U.S. impoverishes the whole population of Latin America as it plunders that region   (with Canadian help). It has fought non-stop wars ever since World War 2, wars always greeted with cheers for 'our brave soldiers' who, in fact, are not particularly brave but who happily slaughter civilians and children, even starving babies.

Canada now has a major crisis caused by oil billionaires who want us to build them pipelines, poisoning the land and the people over the whole route. And there will soon be a bigger bill to pay as the oil diminishes. This is because the oil barons will pull out as their market weakens, and leaves the rest of us suckers to pay many, many billions of dollars for a clean-up that could take a century.

If Alberta's premier had his way, it would be much, much worse with serious bloodshed - which might happen.

Can Trudeau deal with this? I doubt it. He, like the premier of Alberta. is a servant of the billionaires. It's very hard to see anything good coming out of this.
Indeed, it is at least possible that this will destroy Canada to please the oil barons.

Meanwhile, and with Canadian help and with British hangers-on, the U.S. is impoverishing Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to please our super wealthy.

Nor will we help those peoples for the suffering we have inflicted on them. Instead, leaders like Trump built their popularity by exploiting hatreds against
 the people we have so terribly abused.

(It is convenient to use racism for this - as Hitler did. As well,  Hitler fought his wars to please the major capitalists of Germany. And we fight ours for exactly the same reason. That's why the U.S. has wanted a war with China. That is what the Korean war was really all about. That's why it fought wars against Vietnam, much of the middle east, and Afghanistan.

In the minds of our super-wealthy, most of us are as disposable  as are the people of Vietnam and Afghanistan.... As a part of the greed that governs us. we are just as disposable as  the civilians of Vietnam and Afghanistan and Iraq...

And there is only one way this can end.

The original idea of democracy was to produce governments that would govern for the benefit of the people. We have never done that. Instead, we have more commonly killed those people who want to govern for the benefit of the people.
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Thursday, February 20, 2020

February 20: Where are we going?

I haven't proofread this day's blog because I started a bit late, and it's now time for this child to go to bed.
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https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwGDNWQqqmsdDjxTkKBjbZkTTDx
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/19/oil-gas-industry-far-worse-climate-impact-than-thought-fossil-fuels-methane
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https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/20/julian-assange-case-is-the-dreyfus-of-our-age-says-john-mcdonnell

We didn't defeat Hitler. We copied him.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/20/hindu-supremacists-nationalism-tearing-india-apart-modi-bjp-rss-jnu-attacks

India has fallen a long way since the days of Ghandi. A good site for coverage of this is   countercurrents.agitate      (Do not confuse it with countercurrents which is an American white racist site.)
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/20/fates-humans-insects-intertwined-scientists-population-collapse
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When I was teaching in The Netherlands,  I once decided to take a walk along a neighbouring street. To my suprise, many of the houses featured women in bras and panty-hose standing in windows.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/19/amsterdam-is-considering-moving-red-light-district-indoors#img-1
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-withdraw-bc-1.5469669

There's still a long way to go.  There's a question the government is not answering and that our news media are pretty silent about on the greater issue of native peoples across Canada, the theft of their land by murder.

Canadians live on stolen land. Yes, the native peoples who lived here were actually real people who died of our neglect to help them survive the diseases we brought them. We killed their children, taking them from their parents to suffer in "residential" schools were large numbers died. And yes, we murdered them in wars our history books seldom mention. We destroyed societies that in many ways were superior to ours. Women, for example, were much more important in native societies than women are even in the Canada of today.

Not long ago, we made a big noise about our need to help them recover from the damage we have done.  It sounded good. But we did virtually nothing.
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https://rabble.ca/news/2020/02/politics-wetsuweten-crisis-are-thorny-and-dangerous
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/judy-rebicks-blog/2020/02/somethings-happening-here

I  hate to say it, but rabble.ca is often a better source of news than CBC. That's because CBC has to deal with interference from people who don't want the truth to be told. I had experience of that in my days at CBC.
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https://rabble.ca/news/2020/02/isnt-just-union-fight-its-working-class-fight-ontario-federation-labour
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/02/canadas-conservative-movement-threatens-country-more-non

Ontario? Alberta? It's the Canadian people who voted their leaders. The biggest problem Canada faces is not railway blockades. The biggest problem is the corrupt and thieving Liberals and Conservative candidates the Canadian people have always voted for.
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david-suzuki/2020/02/beyond-climate-ventures-heart-rapidly-heating-bc
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2020/02/billions-earmarked-fighter-jets-another-strike-against
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/journalism-doctor/2020/02/legacy-medias-shameful-whitesplaining-wetsuweten-land
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https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/michael-bloomberg-debate-democrats/
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https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/canada-pharmacare-single-payer/

In the eyes of the very wealthy, the purpose of health care is to make themselves wealthier. Canada is not as bad as the U.S. in this. But the pressure is on to make it as bad as the U.S.
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https://www.thenation.com/article/society/los-angeles-olympics-trump/
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https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-japan-germanys-anti-nuke-pro-coal-power-policies-defy-reason
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/20/sanders-hits-bloomberg-grotesque-statistic-billionaire-owns-more-wealth-bottom-125
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/20/bloombergs-rising-polls-show-power-of-billionaire-narrative-control/
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/river-in-flood-ravaged-uk-town-reaches-highest-level-in-200-years-following-storm-dennis

Three devastating storms, and with signs of more to come. I wonder what this means. So far, nobody has addressed that question.
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/20/shut-down-canada-until-it-solves-its-war-oil-and-genocide-problem/
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/20/canada-trapped-by-its-own-folly/

To Canadians - betcha you won't see this story in your local newspapers.
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Or this one.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/19/canada-get-out-of-the-lima-group-core-group-and-oas/
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https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/02/18/Hiding-Behind-One-Rule-Of-Law-Myth-Wetsuweten/
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/netanyahu-dock-set-march-17/5704139

 Netanyahoo's corruption and thievery has long ago been made known by the excellent Israeli paper, Haaretz. Too bad so few of our western journalists read Haaretz.
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/trumps-budget-more-warfare-slightly-less-welfare/5703985
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53003.htm
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53005.htm
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/20/news/tensions-mount-pipeline-protests-continue-across-canada
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https://off-guardian.org/2020/02/20/michael-bloomberg-the-democrats-billionaire-strawman/
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https://truthout.org/articles/mick-mulvaney-says-gop-wont-act-on-climate-because-they-dont-want-higher-taxes/
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https://truthout.org/articles/six-key-questions-we-should-be-asking-about-the-uss-never-ending-wars/
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As I wrote this, I thought of the British Empire. Just as Hitler did, it plundered huge areas and not only used the conquered people as something close to slave labour and deliberately starved millions to death. It also used the bulk of the British people as soldiers to be sent to war for almost no pay at all. And, when they were no longer useful, they were dumped in the streets.

Nor did any profits of the Empire reach the pockets of the British people. They starved and died in the streets of British cities that were notorious for having some of the worst slums in Europe.

And the children? Well, the children of the rich, like Winston Churchill, could grow up in palaces with servants. (Churchill's wealthy parents paid no sttention to him, of course. Both were two busy with sexual adventures.) But the children of the poor were sent into factories as early as age 5 to work as much as fifteen hours a day, six days a week.. And their salaries were in pennies. All the benefit of the Empire went to the very wealthy.

And we resemble that more than one might think.

The U.S. Empire, like the British one, plunders it's victims, reduces them to poverty - and treats the poor of its own nation much, really, as the British aristocracy treated theirs. it treated very large numbers of people into low, low paid jobs, often dangerous jobs. This improved slightly in the early twentieth century as unions entered the picture. But by the 1950s, as unions weakened,   the poor were simply dumped in the streets. That's why, now, most Americans have no access to medical care, many live in the streets, children go hungry - all to make a handful of the very rich even richer. Higher education (much like Canada) has become impossible for the poor who are thus condemned to stay poor.

And, as in the days of the British Empire, monstrous profits go into the pockets of the super rich. So it is that a not very intelligent man like Donald Trump can rise to billions. Alas! Things are not much different in Canada.

Oh, and a rising American candidate for president is Bloomberg, a Democrat just as vicious as any Republican. And he is campaigning on a platform to make the poor poorer and the rich richer. (Bloomberg has more money than all of the 150,000,000 Americans on the low scale put together.)

We are seeing a world which is not what we fought for in 1939. Hitler, too, ruled to serve the interests of the German wealthy. And we, immediately after the war, started to plunder the world's and our own poor.

If anything, the U.S. has been even worse with it's mass murder of innocent people, especially civilians and children, all over the world.

The U.S. has been constantly at war starting in 1950. Officially, it has fought some 70 wars in that time. In reality, the undeclared  number of wars is even higher.  Ever since it's early Pilgrim days, the U.S. saw itself as doing God's will in the mass murder of native peoples. That concept became even worse when the U.S. invaded Cuba in 1900, the beginning of the mass murder and starvation of millions of Latin Americans.  Theodore Roosevelt was quite clear about the American mission. They were (as the British had been) destined to conquer and rule.

So it is that American agents can murder people all over the world - like an Iranian general - without bothering to declare war. So it is that the U.S. is allowed, again without declaring war,  to starve children to death in Venezuela. (And Trudeau obediently claps hands.)

We allow our wealthy to get wealthier by using our tax money to fight wars for the profit of the very wealthy. That's what we did in Afghanistan.

We've acted that way for over 2,000 years. But it's now on a much bigger scale than the world has ever seen and with far, far more powerful weapons. And that can only end in total destruction - probably soon.

But Canadians blindly follow the Liberals and Conservatives - the two of them really the same party.  And Americans blindly follow the Republicans and Democrats - both of whom are pretty much the same party.

The U.S. never really had a revolution. It simply replaced British plunderers with American ones. And Canada has never really had a democracy.

We have very little time to catch up. Meanwhile, our national leaders are plundering us to match the American plundering of both Canada and the U.S.

It's going to crash. (Unless we wake up.)
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Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Feb. 18: Our final insanities.


A note to the Canadian Legion....Is this the world that Canadians fought and died for in World War Two? A world of non stop wars in which the U.S. has killed over twenty million people to serve the greed of American (and western in general) billionaires? Is this why Canadians died in Korea and Afghanistan?

How can the Legion be silent on this?
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A  reminder for Canadians about their mass murder of indigenous peoples.

We were nice to indigenous peoples? Well, no. We stole this country from them. We killed those who were in the way. Contrary to popular belief, our indigenous peoples had well functioning societies. Women,  unlike ours, were considered important. We destroyed their economies, overroad their laws, destroyed their agriculture, then stuffed the survivors into tiny reserves where we made promises that were never honoured.

https://www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-peoples-canada-and-indian-residential-schools/historical-background/dispossession-destruction-and-reserves

And it hasn't ended. They're blocking our railways? Okay. We'll have to kill some of them to please our oil billionaires who only do good things. And we love our oil billionaires who ignore the damage they are doing - and for which we are giving them 15 billion dollars of our taxes.

What else can indigenous people do but block our railways? I mean, they don't have an RCMP like we have - or an army.

What the hell are we doing filling the pockets of oil billionaires so they can run their dangerous pipepline over indigenous land? What if indigenous people were overrunning the oil fields? Would we be sending RCMP, with guns, to protect oil billionaires?  (You can bet we would.)

Justin Trudeau is a child of the very rich who sees the world only from the point of view of the very rich.
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Two British storms have devastated Britain - and part of Europe. But most  Canadian and American news media seem uninterested. So far, there have been at least three of these storms just recently. No-one has offered any explanation of why such fierce storms are happening.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/15/anger-and-fear-across-uk-as-second-storm-breaks-ciara-dennis

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/uk-storm-dennis-1.5465377

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/gallery/pictures-horrendous-flooding-caused-storm-17757436
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/18/mexico-kidnappers-migrants-trump-immigration

The western world has created these masses of migrants by plundering their countries, overthrowing governments, reducing the conquered people to poverty, and by destroying environments with wars aimed largely at the civilian population, and climate destruction.

And we don't lift a finger to compensate for what has been done.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/18/world-leaders-urged-to-step-back-from-precipice-of-ecological-ruin-aoe

Our history, at least in the western world, has been a history of greed followed by disaster for over 2000 years. And we got even worse as we Christianized.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/13/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-pope-francis-amazon

Bolsonaro is a happy killer of indigenous people in Brazil, and an environmental disaster for the Amazon rain forest - which means a disaster for all of us.

But both Trump and Trudeau think he's a great guy.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-pipeline-protests-house-1.5466878

The oil billionaires wanted a gift from us of 15 billion dollars. And Trudeau promised that with a big smile. Indigenous people  complained about an oil pipline going through the land. Wouldn't you if it was your land? But they're not allowed to complain.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-netanyahu-trial-date-1.5466913________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2020/02/rail-blockades-are-proving-be-effective-non-violent-response
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2020/02/are-teachers-overpaid-defense-teacher-salaries
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https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/coronavirus-habitat-loss/
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https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-immigration-sanctuary-cities/
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In thirty years, we have done.....nothing....

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/18/extreme-weather-could-spark-economic-recession-likes-which-weve-never-seen-research

In fact, Canadian tax money is funding our capitalists to do even less than they have been doing.
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/the-lancet-publishes-letter-from-doctors-end-torture-and-medical-neglect-of-julian-assange

https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/julian-assange-must-be-freed-not-betrayed
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/methane-leakage-makes-australia-a-world-leading-per-capita-greenhouse-gas-polluter
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/billionaire-bloomberg-aims-buy-us-presidency/5703927
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/afghan-troops-say-taliban-brothers-war-not-really-our-fight/5703879

The U.S. has been fighting wars almost nonstop since the landing of the pilgrim fathers. The biggest flop has been the war in Afghanistan in which the U.S. (like it's predecessor, Russia) with all it's billions of dollars and huge army and air force has not been able to gain an inch against a small and primitive army in almost twenty years.

It's really how one of the biggest and richest and most powerful countries (and most addicted to war) in world history has long since lost in Afghanistan, just as it also lost to relatively poor and small  Vietnam, and to North Korea and Cuba.
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And even Bernie Sanders has the American disease....

https://www.globalresearch.ca/sanders-tells-new-york-times-he-would-consider-preemptive-strike-against-iran-north-korea/5703849
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Well, I don't know what to think of this one.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53001.htm

And, if possible, I'd like to not think about it.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52998.htm
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/13/opinion/powerful-example-wetsuweten-resistance

The oil companies have the nerve to ask the federal government to pay for their oil pipeline - with our tax  money - for at least fifteen billion dollars. Why are we offering charity, our tax money, to the super rich?  Fifteen billion dollars. We could use that to house and feed our homeless - perhaps even enforce a useful minimum wage.  Perhaps to get serious about the damage politicians are doing to our public schools.

Why on earth are we handing over our billions to people who already have billions? And why are we letting our billionaires off from paying taxes like the rest of us?
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https://off-guardian.org/2020/02/18/buying-elections-the-bloomberg-meme-campaign/
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https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-acquittal-has-ushered-in-a-new-era-of-mccarthyist-purges/
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We Canadians are lucky. We get excellent health care available to all of us because, in Canada, we have a national health care system designed to meet the needs of all of us.  (And it didn't come from the Liberals or Conservatives. It was forced on them by the old CCF.)

In the U.S. the purpose of health care is not to serve human need. It's to make huge profits for the wealthy. That way, most Americans can't afford to get sick. And it's also horribly expensive to operate.

https://truthout.org/articles/medicare-for-all-would-save-450-billion-and-prevent-68000-deaths-every-year/
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https://truthout.org/articles/wildfires-threaten-north-american-water-supplies/

Yes, it can and almost certainly will happen in Canada and the U.S.
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These are times far more dangerous than most of our news media are telling us.
Thanks to our insistence on fighting eternal wars to please our non taxpaying billionaires; thanks to the unlimited greed of our billionaires, we are heading for one hell of a crash.

We have all become Hitler's  children. Hitler, too, fought wars to please German billionaires just as we fight them to please our billionaires.

(The American constitution says that all people are created equal. That's nonsense. It wasn't true when it was written back in 1776, American poor, for example, were often denied the right to vote from the start. Women are still struggling to be equal. And native peoples certainly weren't treated equally. Nor are Blacks. Nor have Canadians ever been treated equally.)

Americans and Canadians have always been governed by those political puppets who are owned by the wealthy. And to please the wealthy, we now ignore everything else to devote our time to killing foreigners even as the world is crashing in now - on us.

Our super rich are not just murderous and thieving and. They are and have been from the start drowned in a stupidity created by their own greed.




















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Saturday, February 15, 2020

Feb. 15: the walls are closing in on us.


https://nationalpost.com/opinion/stephen-ledrew-canada-should-enforce-the-law-with-wetsuweten-anti-pipeline-protests

https://business.financialpost.com/diane-francis/diane-francis-rail-blockades-could-turn-into-a-full-blown-secession-crisis-and-trudeaus-government-is-to--first-nations-pipeline-protests-that-are-shutting-down-the-railways

The National Post and the Financial Post are both sections of an Ottawa daily newspaper. Both were profoundly influenced by Conrad Black, a man I shared radio studio space each week at CBC in Montreal. He was arrogant, pig-headed, contemptuous of anybody who wasn't rich. He went to prison in the U.S. for illegal newspaper methods. (But he wrote a book about what a great guy Donald Trump is - and so got a pardon for his crime.)

Black always favoured the rich - and his newspapers have always reflected that. That's why we get raving newspaper items like the ones above.

Reading this, the impression is that the indigenous leaders are evil and corrupt. And, of course, oil is good for us. Yes. The oil barons will lead us all to joy and prosperity.

Diane Francis and Stephen Ledrew completely ignore the thousands of scientists
who have warned us about the dangers of oil. No. The important thing is that oil makes money for rich people - and rich people are all that count in the Conrad Black world.

And while they attack those indigenous leaders in B.C. for blocking the building of an oil pipeline, they ignore that fact and Indigenous people across Canada oppose the pipeline.  So do a great many other Canadians who are not indigenous. A pipeline will encourage the deadly effects of oil, including spillage. It will encourage the use of a product that could well destroy us all - and soon.

And why are Canadians footing the 15 or so billion dollar price of this pipeline?
Why do we have to build a pipeline for the billionaires who own the oil industry - and who don't pay income tax to anybody.

And this will bring prosperity to Canada? Like hell it will. For a start, it is stealing 15 billion dollars from the rest us.

The Financial Post and the National Post are and always have been kiss-ups for the very rich. These are not newspapers in any real sense. They, like most of our commercial news media, are servants of their wealthy owners.

For a saner view......

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/14/wetsuweten-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-allies
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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/11/trump-puts-cuban-doctors-in-firing-line-as-heat-turned-up-on-island-economy

God bless America. Or whatever.

If Americans are so keen on democracy, shouldn't they try it out on their own country?
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/15/worst-case-scenario-2050-climate-crisis-future-we-choose-christiana-figueres-tom-rivett-carnac

I did not find this story (or any story) in our Ottawa newspapers. And you, almost certainly, won't find it in yours.
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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/15/venezuela-schools-collapse-amid-economic-crisis

Public education began 200 years ago. For the first time in history, all children got a chance for education. It was slow to develop, though, and the rich still sent their precious ones to expensive private schools.  (These private schools are not necessarily better, but they do give students a greater sense of arrogance that poses as superiority.)

Starting about 50 years ago, public schools began a dramatic improvement in the benefits of education for their children. But the wealthy wouldn't stand for that.
So the U.S. led the way in increasing privately owned education, often destroying public schools in the process. Governments in both Canada and the U.S. are encouraging this development of education for all. So if the poor are kept poor by inferior education.....tough.

This is very evident in the province of Ontario where I live. Why are they doing this?  To reduce taxes for the very rich - most of whom pay no taxes at all.

Our public schools must have the resources to give all children a chance for advancement.  But as it is, our politicians are impoverishing the schools to keep the poor poor.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-indigenous-first-nations-pipeline-rail-protests-1.5463827

ALL Canadians should be demonstrating in support of indigenous peoples. We, all of us, are paying some 15 billion dollars of our taxes to lay a pipeline as a gift to billionaires. As well, we are insisting it be laid over land that is not ours. Would you support a dangerous pipeline to run through your back yard?

Anyway, it's not just indigenous people who are complaining. A great many Canadians who are not indigenous are equally angry. at this giving away of our taxes to billionaires (who don't pay taxes) so they can perpetuate an industry that is likely to destroy all of us.

We have, maybe, thirty years to make serious progress on this danger. And we're being told that we have to pay billions of our money - which money now cannot be used for schools or medical services or housing for the poor -to people who will happily destroy us for their own profits.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/coronavirus-china-canada-meng-wanzhou-1.5465011
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/teck-frontier-cost-benefit-leach-olszynski-1.5460151

Compare this to the half-wit lying and hysteria of Ottawa's National Post that this blog issue began with.
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For all of this blog's American readers.

https://rabble.ca/news/2020/02/us-commentators-should-learn-about-canadian-health-care-dissing-it
____________________________________________________________
https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2020/02/rail-blockades-are-proving-be-effective-non-violent-response
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https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/02/justin-trudeau-lectures-others-about-human-rights-while-forgetting-issues-home
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/amazon-onslaught

And Bolsonaro has the full support of American and Canadian governments.
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/traditional-indigenous-and-white-mans-conflicting-rules-of-law-a-coming-to-terms-that-hasnt-been-resolved-since-first-contact
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/14/u-s-lies-and-deaths-in-afghanistan/

Almost all wars are NOT fought for the reasons given to us. World War One was not caused by evil Germans. It was fought to satisfy the greed of capitalists on both sides who wanted to dominate markets. And that was true of France, Britain, Germany, just about all of them.

World War Two was NOT fought because Hitler was evil (though he was evil - but so were most of the others.) Western capitalists liked Hitler (and hated Jews, just as he did.  Yes, we were all guilty of anti-semitism.) They liked Hitler because he was going to hold back communism in Europe. Henry Ford thought Hitler an admirable man. The American oil baron Rockefeller supplied all of the oil that German forces used in all of world war two. Britain and France turned against Hitler only because it became clear he was going to attack them - and because he was becoming a powerful force in the competition of German capitalism.

The U.S. joined world war two only because it hoped to capture control of the British Empire so American capitalists could plunder it as the British capitalists had. They particularly wanted China and they wanted middle east oil.

Forget the sloganeering about 'fighting for the  King' or 'serving one's country'.
Soon after 1945, the U.S. began it's attempt, still going, to conquer the world so it could be plundered by American capitalists. (That's what 'Make America Great' really means.
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https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2020/02/14/Desmond-Cole-Skin-Were-In-Book-Black-Canadians/

Yes. Canada is and always has been racist. Just check it's treatment of Blacks, indigenous people, Chinese, Muslims. Japanese - and, in Quebec, of English-speaking people.
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Another story that will not appear in Ottawa's National Post.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/02/14/RCMP-Accused-Crisis-Press-Freedom/

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https://www.globalresearch.ca/un-special-rapporteur-torture-demolishes-fake-claims-targeting-julian-assange/5703710
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52983.ht
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52979.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52981.htm
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I was into my teens before I knew more than a couple of Jews in Montreal. I soon became impressed by the Jewish community, it's commitment to it's children, it's passion for learning, it's devotion to causes for the betterment of society. It was quite different from the gentile world that I had known. I soon realized that Jews were far more serious and active in 'causes', and for many years they were my favourite audiences in the 60 or so talks I gave every year. I admired there caring for their children, their devotion to needed causes....

Like them, I celebrated the development of Israel - for a time. But I soon realized that Israeli Jews were nothing like the ones I knew in Montreal.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/trump-peace-plan-redraw-borders-exclude-arab-citizens-of-israel/264812/
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/14/news/scheer-blasted-racist-and-absurd-telling-wetsuweten-supporters-check-their-privilege
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/12/opinion/elizabeth-may-asks-what-cost-canada
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https://theantimedia.com/iraq-and-russia-prepare-to-boost-military-ties-as-us-threatens-sanctions/
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We don't have much time to take back control of our own countries and our own lives. In Canada, the Conservatives and the Liberals are a dead loss. The NDP and the Greens are both better. But both of those parties have yet to realize the depth of the crisis we face.

And the U.S.? The Democrats and the Republicans are largely the same. Even the rise of Bernie Sanders has changed enough of that. If Sanders wins the leadership of the Democrats, he will be bogged down with many Democrats who are interchangeable with Republicans.































o


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Thursday, February 13, 2020

Feb. 13: Not a good day.

BP (British Petroleum) will lead the way in dealing with climate change? Duh, not likely.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2020/feb/12/bp-statement-on-reaching-net-zero-carbon-emissions-by-2050-what-it-says-and-what-it-means
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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/12/venezuela-crisis-babies-die-malnutrition-depression-deprivation-infant-mortality

As this story shows, much of the blame for this horror rests on the government of Venezuela. But that's not the whole story. Much of it also comes from the government of the United States with it's severe sanctions on Venezuela (and those sanctions come with kisses from the Canadian government.)

Babies are dying. Yes, the Venezuelan government is much to blame for this. But so are we. Canada and the U.S. could ease the suffering. But they won't.
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Insects are essential to human survival. Oil wells are not.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-splatometer-tests-reveal-huge-decline-number-insects
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/13/antarctic-temperature-rises-above-20c-first-time-record

Not to worry. Donald Trump and Canada's Conservatives say it's not happening. (The Liberals say it is happening - but they aren't going to do anything.)
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The U.S. has made itself hated in much of the middle east. But our press doesn't see it that way. No. It sees the problem as Muslim "terrorism".

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/13/syria-us-troops-mission-qamishli-quagmire

Our dreadful treatment of the middle east and of Africa in general goes back well over a century to the horrors comitted by Britain, Belgium, France,  the U.S. - with occasional help from Canada. Indeed, counting the slave trade in Africa, it goes back several centuries. And the U.S., with British help, has murdered millions of men, women, and children.

So which side is made up of 'terrorists'?
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/teck-frontier-cost-benefit-leach-olszynski-1.5460151
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Yes, Canadians can be and often are just as racist as Americans. Nova Scotia probably has the worst record for anti-black racism - but the rest of Canada is not far behind. My uncle was a boxing coach who had to travel with his boxing teams. But finding a hotel or a restaurant that would accept blacks was always a problem.

https://rabble.ca/news/2020/02/mothering-black-lives-matter-movement
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/02/alberta-sheds-jobs-while-rest-country-creates-them
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https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/02/jason-kenney-treated-kid-gloves-indigenous-protesters-assault-rifles
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david-suzuki/2020/02/albertas-war-room-attack-democracy
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/12/surprised-no-disgusted-yes-study-shows-deepwater-horizon-oil-spread-much-further
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And here is a story that is not likely to appear in our Ottawa newspapers.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/12/saddest-thing-wont-be-breaking-news-concentration-co2-hits-record-high-416-ppm
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/12/mass-murder-new-report-says-air-pollution-fossil-fuel-combustion-causing-45-million
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In all wars, most news media define the actions of an enemy 'evil' or 'terrorist'. The same actions by our side  are 'splendid courage'. That's why so much of our news is and always has been propaganda.

When Britain invaded South Africa to steal its gold for British businessmen, it was glorious. When Canada sent it's army to help the British kill Boers (the Dutch), it was splendid - just like when we sent Canadians to kill Afghanis.

(This is not a criticism of Canadian soldiers. It's a criticism of the rest of us Canadians who have sent them to wars they should not have been sent to. From it's origins, the Canadian Legion has automatically praised wars we should not have fought - like the Boer War, Korea, and Afghanistan. We have sent Canadians to die for British and American billionaires.  Oh, and the "peacekeepers" we sent to Haiti to please our American masters. The Legion should be protecting our military from this abuse, not glorifying war.  Yes. We had to fight Hitler and Japan. But that does not justify sending Canadians to kill and die in all the wars of our British and American masters.)
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https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/02/13/no-1-sponsor-terrorism-us-media-name-iran-overlook-candidate-closer-home
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/12/lynching-preachers-how-black-pastors-resisted-jim-crow-white-pastors-incited-racial-violence/

Times change. White Americans now demand that Latin American children should be separated from their parents, and put into wire cages and/or prisons.
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/concentration-of-co2-hits-record-high-of-416-ppm
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I'm not sure I agree with the following item. I think we need to learn a lot more before jumping to conclusions.

https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/western-anti-chinese-propaganda-exaggerates-coronavirus-danger-creates-panic
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This one seems more reasonable.

https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/america-united-the-politics-of-the-coronavirus
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Has Australia learned that it has to deal with climate change? No. And a major reason for the stupor is Australian news media- rather like Canadian and American news media in that respect.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/13/coded-messages-about-australias-big-burn/
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/13/timber-industry-wants-to-rape-and-run-on-our-national-forests/

This is happening in Canada, too - notably in New Brunswick, a province owned by  the Irving Oil family.
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/12/wall-street-invading-wetsuweten-territory/
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https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/02/11/Canada-Arbitrarily-Detains-Migrants/

Many Canadians will, of course, get tough on migrants in order to maintain Canadian culture. In fact, there never has been a Canadian culture. No, not even in French Quebec. We have always been subject to waves of immigration - French, English, Irish, Germans, Greeks, Chinese, Japanese and many, many others. Each of these have sent us into panic for the "loss of our culture" - though few even know what that means. Indeed, no society has just one culture. Even without migrants, we all have the "cultures" of the poor and the "cultures of the rich".

I attended schools with rich, poor, Japanese, Jews, Brits, Syrians, Italians, Blacks, Chinese ......And we all seemed pretty much the same.

I lived most of my life in Quebec where French separatists are convinced they must segregate all the non-French to accomodate the French as the original settlers. 1. The French culture of my childhood, a culture of Catholicism, has almost disappeared. So shouldn't they be passing laws to force people to be Catholics?  2. French were not the original settlers of Quebec. Those were and are the indigenous peoples of the region. So shouldn't the French of Quebec go back to France, and let indiginous peoples have their land and cultures back?
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52973.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52975.htm
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/13/news/story-wetsuweten-protest-line
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60 percent of Canada's indigenous people died of European diseases from 1700 on. In Newfoundland into the 1800s, all of them died. Some were killed by the French and English settlers, though not by the mass murder that was inflicted on American aboriginals. In more recent times, at least 4,000 aboriginal women have disappeared, most of them probably murdered.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/first-nations-canada-european-settlers-diseases-killed-almost-60-genetic-study-british-columbia-a7418441.html
Sieg heil.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/09/features/how-oil-industry-pumped-americans-full-fake-news
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/12/opinion/elizabeth-may-asks-what-cost-canada
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/10/opinion/jason-kenney-blackmailing-canada-wont-solve-climate-crisis
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https://theantimedia.com/iraq-and-russia-prepare-to-boost-military-ties-as-us-threatens-sanctions/

75 years ago, we had a chance to end wars. Instead, the U.S. set out to conquer the world - all for the benefit of American billionaires. The U.S. isn't going to conquer the world. However, there is every possibility it is going to destroy it.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.mintpressnews.com/abby-martin-lawsuit-state-georgia-over-bds-law/264798/
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I have no cheering words. The greed and irresponsibility - no - the stupidity and arrogance of our leading capitalists is what is in control.  A world war is very possible, even likely. And no-one can even imagine the horror of that. Added to that is the determination of the very wealthy to go on producing oil. (Nor, I suspect, is it even possible at this late date to stop our destruction of humanity.)
In the face of any future war after 1945, the whole world had to restructure it's values and priorities. But we didn't do it. Instead, we allowed the world to destroy itself, and this time for a final destruction.

In particular, forget any possibility that Canada or the U.S. or Britain or Russia or China will make any attempt to deal with the threat of climate change. They have done nothing for thirty years. And there is not the slightest sign  they intend to do anything now.

And the Canadian and American people? They simply stand around with their faces hanging out. We could, maybe, be saved by an intelligent and informed public. But that's exactly what we don't have.
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happening.