The most terrifying book.....

(This was written a week ago. It appears dated for Sunday only because I shall be out of touch with my computer that day.)

Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons. , Walker Publishing, New York, 2007.

 Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark are well established and extraordinarily connected world-class investigative reporters. Much of their work has been done for  The Guardian, a newspaper infinitely more distinguished than any in North America - and even ahead of the Irving press. Their research is phenomenal in scope, their information highly detailed and, with their reputations, they had access to the highest levels of government in the western world, in Pakistan, in other parts of Asia - and with the shadowy people who are often the real movers and shakers, and who really know what's going on..

Their message is that all the nuclear secrets are out, and available to anybody with enough money. The major source of this disaster is our good friend and ally, Pakistan. It is also a good friend and ally to the Taliban in Afghanistan and, until his death, to Osama bin Laden.

The story begins with a Pakistan impoverished, and under the rule of a powerful military that had and has an almost paranoid hatred of India, and with close connections to the Taliban and to the most extreme Moslem jihadists (those who wished to impose the strictest religious rule on the whole of the Moslem world.)

In 1975, a young engineer named A.Q. Khan returned home to Pakistan with three suitcases of documents stolen in The Netherlands. They contained the secrets to constructing a nuclear bomb. The generals immediately set him up with research facilities and a huge budget. Where did a poor country get the money for a huge budget?

 It got it from the US.

The US was using Pakistan as a conduit for weapons and supplies to help the Taliban fight off a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It also rewarded Pakistan for its cooperation by giving it hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to build hospitals and schools.

The generals stole from both packages to pay for nuclear research and supplies. With this, Khan was able to set up not only the research and manufacuting facilities he needed, but also to set up a remarkable world network of illegal suppliers of technology, components and uranium. (One of his suppliers - of uranium - was Canada.) He soon had a network that connected most of Europe, Asia, and North America.

And every president from Ronald Reagan to George Bush knew what he was doing. And every one of them covered it up. And every one of them lied even to congressional committees. (which is illegal under the constitution.)  And every one of them continued to give hundreds of millions of "aid" money to Pakistan even though they knew what it was being spent on.

(The list stops before President Obama only because the book was published in 2007. In fact, he has continued the aid; and Pakistan has continued its sales.)

Intelligence analysts who knew what was going on were horrified. But when one of them, being officially interviewed by a congressional committee, felt he had to obey the constitution and tell it the truth, his career and, effectively, his life were destroyed. The others got the message.

One reason for the behaviour of succeeding governments was that they needed Pakistan for the proxy war in Afghanistan against the Soviets. Then they needed Pakistan for their own war with Afghanistan - though the Pakistan rulers consistently betrayed the US.

(The one exception to such betrayal was Benazir Bhutto. But she never had any real power, and rarely knew even what was happening.)

Once he had developed the bomb, and had a stockpile, Khan began exporting the technology, selling it to Libya and Iran, though neither ever got to the point of building one. He also seems to have had some contact in advising Al Quaeda in how to build a more portable bomb for use in terrorism.

George Bush's axis of evil was a crock. North Korea, Iran and Iraq were not the problem. Iran and Libya were still some distance from a bomb. Saddam Hussein of Iraq, who detested the religous views of the Pakistan generals and the Taliban, never even considered building a bomb.

The problem was Pakistan. It was the supplier, and was far the biggest nuclear threat to the world. So why did the Bush White House invade Iraq and Afghanistan, and plan to invade Iran while largely ignoring Pakistan?

Bush did put some heat on Pakistan to stop the sales. But the Pakistan government simply made a show of putting all the blame on Khan (forcing him to apologize on TV as his punishment), then putting him under house arrest. And the sales went on.

No problem, Bush pretended the issue was settled, and promptly released some 350 million dollars in aid to Pakistan's generals. Since then, nothing seems to have changed - which means we have every reason to expect a terrorist, nuclear device to explode in a western city. And it will come courtesy of  the most dangerous country in the world, Pakistan.

The book does not provide a convincing reason why the US government has consistently lied about this, and has taken no serious action. Yes, it is true that Pakistan is strategically important to the US. But surely not that important.

It's true that both democrats and republicans would be terribly embarassed if the truth got out. Well, yeah. But not nearly so embarssed as they'll be if a nuclear device goes off in New York.

The authors explain George Bush's behaviour by saying the people around him were obsessed with Iraq and Iran. Well, okay. But why? Neither of them was in a position to be the threat to the world that Pakistan is. If we knocked off all the Iraqs and Irans in the world, we would still have Pakistan as the greatest threat. 

So, let me try a guess.

The wars in Iraq and Libya, and the threats to Iran, arose out of business interests. Oil companies wanted those wars to get control of the oil fields in Iraq, Iran and Libya. There is some evidence that American corporations were also interested in the mineral wealth of Afghanistan. There was money to be made out of wars in those countries.(Can you think of any other reason for the long and costly war in Afghanistan that makes any sense?) There was no big money in invading Pakistan.

Big business has always been a major force in American policy. As I look at the increasing takeover of government in New Brunswick by big business, that would seem to be a situation duplicated on a huge scale in the US.

And, as we are seeing happening with business inteference with our schools and hospitals, greed and short-sightedness make the leaders of big business hopeless asses when they try to take over government functions.

And that may explain why American foreign policy has been such a slow-motion train wreck for the last fifty years and more. In the Moslem world, for example, the west, led by the US for the last half-century, has created sectarian wars of the sort that has blown Syria apart, and seems well on the way blowing Africa and much of Asia apart.

Indeed, the existence of what some people call "extreme" Islam owes almost everything to the century-old abuse of Moslem countries by western business, then really set aflame by a hatred campaign against all Moslems encouraged by the George Bushes of this world,  and by western news media to justfy the indiscriminate killing of. Moslems to open the way to profit for big business.  That's why we now have civil wars between the "extreme" Moslems that we have created, and the more moderate Moslems.

This book, packed with details and unfamiliar names and acronyms is a slow read. But it's essential for an understanding of the terrible danger we are all in.

Read it. And be scared. Be very scared.
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How come this story never made the Irving Press? Don't their editors ever read books?  Wull. probl'y not -            'lessen they got pitchers 'n them, er pages t' colour 'n stick things.



 

July 6: church and state

I write this dated for Saturday, but I'm writing it late on a sweltering, Friday late afternoon. I shall be posting it on Saturday morning, along with another post for Sunday because I shall be, in that time, soaking up some cold (I hope) salt water.

In the July 5 TandT, Michael B. Sullivan wrote an outstanding opinion column on the separation of church and state. I think he was quite right. (I also think there should be a similar separation of business and state, because when they are not separate, what you have is fascism - and fascism is what we now have in New Brunswick. And I am not using fascist as as sort of name-calling. I am using it in the correct sense of the word.)  However, Mr. Sullivan might disagree with me on that - so let's just speak of church and state.)

One thing I particularly like about his column is that he was careful to state a precise meaning for separation of state and church. It does not mean they have nothing to do with each other. It doesn't mean that at all. It simply means that the state should not be funding the church. To that, I would add that the church should have no special powers in dealing with government. Its members have the right to influence government. Of course, they do - as individual voters. No more. But certainly no less.

I shall write this especially for Christians because most New Brunswickers are (nominally) Christians. I would say the same for any major religion I can think of because all religions that I know of have more in common than in opposition to each other. (The hatred they often show for each other really has nothing to do with religion.  It's stirred up by people who have something to gain by creating hatreds.)

I expect that on this Saturday's Faith Page we shall see lists of churches doing the Lord's work. Apparently, the Lord is very keen on lawn sales, pancake breakfasts and lobster suppers. And the sermonette will be on how we Christians are all going to heaven while everybody else goes to  hell. (In extreme cases, it may be only Mormons or Baptists who go to heaven. Anglicans, in particular, are doomed. If there is any serious discussion, it is likely to be on some crucial point like whether the streets of the New Jerusalem will be paved with gold.)

Even casual reading of the scriptures of almost any faith should reveal that is not what religious teachings are all about. Particularly - in relating to our daily lives they are most concerned about outlining a moral code. And it's always a moral code essential to the survival of our societies.

No church has the right to tell any government what to do - (nor, for that matter, does any billionaire.) What a church does have is a right and a responsibility to encourage its followers to employ the moral code of their faith in making political judgements.

Some years ago, I asked the clergyman of my church if we could form a current events group. (This was before I learned that New Brunswickers are terrified of discussing current events out loud.) He looked doubtful, then asked if I could put it in a Christian context.

My first reaction was anger. This was the church interfering with free thought. Then, the most important thing I have ever learned dawned on me. I had always, even in my most atheist years, made my political judgements in the context of the moral codes I had learned in Sunday school.

If there is no morality, then you have nothing to base any judgement on except greed and self-interest - and we won't last long if we continue that. Indeed, my objection to government, the newspapers, and big business in this province is that they operate on no moral code whatever. Certainly, I cannot find any moral code, not even when I accept the invitation to sit in the reverent hush of the Irving Chapel - and contemplate.

I DO NOT suggest the clergy should preach on politics. I should be very much opposed to any such thing. But they should be encouraging their congregations to think about - and discuss -  the politics and business around them in the context of the moral codes of  their faith.

If the streets of Moncton were filled with prostitutes, the clergy would certainly encourage discussion of it in the context of faith. Why don't they do the same with presstitutes?

I am not suggesting that the church should tell people what to think. Not at all. The church is quite unqualified to do that. But it is qualified to encourage its members to place worldly decision into a religous context. Indeed, it's a responsibility for it to do so.

There are moral dimensions to the shale gas debate, to the ethical standards of big business, to taxation, to the destruction of social programmes, to the use of our military to fight oil wars. to the treatment of native peoples by our governments, even to the priority and cost devoted to a hockey rink.

Churches should not spend their time being exclusively boring and respectable. Jesus was neither of those.

July 5: Letter to the Editor: Tears and Laughter.

Today's letter from from a Jim Cougle of Fredericton is a gem. "Savoie columns showed courage"

Damn right. Savoie's column showed enormous courage in the face of the Irvings ' well known opposition to shale gas. And for the Irving Press to have the courage to print it despite the boss' well-known opinions.

And Professor Savoie? There should be a Victoria Cross for those people who show the courage to stand up to bullying of people who blatantly hold up anti-shale gas signs.

And would you believe it? The politicians aren't listening to Prof. Savoie. No. Why, Mr Alward has publicly appeared stark naked except for an anti-shale gas sign covering front and rear.

Prof. Savoie is, as Mr. Cougle says, a brave man, indeed, to speak out. Of course, it would have been nicer if he had spoken out on a subject he is qualified to speak on. He is not qualified to speak as an authority on health or on the environmment. To do so is not called brave. It's called unethical.

What are you smoking, Mr. Cougle?

Then a Jean-Guy Richard ("Protesters are being egotistical") writes an egotistical letter on how us common people who are anti-shale gas have never heard of a painter named Bosch.

In fact, I and a great many other millions of  common folk have not only heard of Bosch but have seen his paintings in various galleries. They are also a staple in art books for many millions more at places like Chapters where us ignorant, common people shop.

Then he graciously concedes that we may have heard of Michelangelo and da Vinci who,  he suggests, would have been in favour of shale gas. The tenuous connection is that their work suggests opitimism for the future. Well, yeah. So did the pointings of artists in Nazi Germany and in Stalin's Soviet Union.

In any case, the customers for  Michelangelo and da Vinci were the Catholic church and its wealthier parishioners. So what would you expect to see on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel: hundreds of naked and drunken Protestants having group sex on the golden streets of the New Jerusalem?

Of course, Michelangelo did have statues of men who - you know - let it all hang out. So he might have been anti-shale gas.

Alwas a pleasure to read letters from the better sort of people. One gets so fed up with letters from low-class bums. So it's nice to see letters from a higher class of bum.
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As usual, there is no news worth speaking of in the news section. The big story is that pan-handlers are being hustled out of sight. Good. That solves the problem of the growing number of very poor.

Stunningly, there is no mention - for the second day - of the demonstration at Elpislogtog. There is no mention even though the police have arrested a news photographer for taking pictures. (That would never happen to an Irving press photographer, of course. In any case, the Irving Press appears to have nobody there as the whole staff is tied up looking for panhandlers.)

Also arrested, for no given reason, was a native chief who had been a leader in ensuring the demonstration would be peaceful. But there was no room for even that story. They needed front page space for a breakgrough on "You can prepare perfect bruschetta". (Boy, I bet da Vinci would have loved that.)
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The lead story in NewsToday is "Actuaries point to health-care hot spots".  Interesting. It seems that the illnesses of obese people are "gobbling up" our provincial health budget. (Can you imagine them writing that J. Irving is "gobbling up" our forests?)

Health Minister Flemming is "outspoken". Yes, he is. He's not blustering, loud-mouthed, bullying, or ignorant or loutish, none of that. He's just outspoken.

The actuarial report was given to the government free of charge. Wow! Wasn't that generous of them?

The story is coy about naming who or what is behind that actuarial report. There's somebody in Ontario named Fievoli - and somebody named John Have. Why people based in Ontario should be preparing free reports for the government is New Brunswick is a question not considered important enough to raise. They apparently represent some insitute - but the insitute is not named.

Can you say "presstitute?"

In fact, Mr. Fievoli is  president of the Canadian Insitute of Actuaries, I have not been able to find an adequate description of what it does. But,  so far, it's clear that it's prime purpose is to create jobs for actuaries in private practice. It is also, possibly, a front like Atlantic Insistute for Market Studies? Is it possible that the purpose of this report is to continue Mr. Flemming's assault on the medical community and on medicare? I can only guess - but will try to find out. Obviously, the TandT is not going to tell us.

In any case, if obesity is a worsening health problem, it is not clear to me how cutting the health budget will solve the problem. It's like the pretence that chasing off panhandlers will somehow solve the problems of poverty and unemployment.

In any case, it seems to me that Mr. Flemming should be the last person to place all the blame on the obese.
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The good part consists of three opinion columns on the editorial and op ed pages.

Alec Bruce is superb. I can't even to pretend to understand his last, two sentences. But they're going to have me thinking for a long time.

Michael Sullivan makes a clear and well-argued point against government funding of religious institutions. His particular reference is to the Cathedral on St. George St. He shows every sympathy with preserving it - but says that cannot be done while it is still a church property. This column is a model of logic and clarity.

David Suzuki has a column of solutions rather than of warnings. It's certainly a protest about where we're going - but it has doable things that we should be doing to lessen the impact of climate change.

Alas, there is no chance of attracting any attention in the government of this province or in the city council of Moncton. Alas! None of the solutions has anything to do with developing shale gas, buying polluted land to build a hockey rink, or building a multi-million dollar school in Royal Oaks.
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July 4: disappointment (partly) eased...

I won't waste much time talking about most of today's Times and Transcript because most of is the usual trivia and propaganda.  Note the headliner for section A. "Health officials eye sustainable future". Doesn't that give you a warm and cuddly feeling?

That's what it's supposed to do. The real story is that the government is cutting health services so that nice people like the Irvings won'ts have to pay taxes, and so they and their friends can start privatizing health and get even richer. As a result, some of you will just have to endure ill health and some of you will die. That's no exaggeration. There are lots of statistics all over the world to prove that.

In countries like the US, people die younger than they should. And the leading cause of bankruptcy for seniors is health care. By the time you get to the coffin, there's no money left to pay for it. But it's no sweat for the rich who can afford the costly insurance. And, of they can make big money out of squeezing us.

But the headline doesn't say any of that. It has nice buzz words like "sustainable" and "future". A good newspaper would never set a headline like that. But there are few good newspapers in North America. That's why, even in the trade, some journalists call themselves "presstitutes".

And Irving press is down there with the worst of them, even worse than the Toronto Sun.

The front page also has a big article on strawberries - just in case you missed the big, front page article on strawberries that appeared just yesterday or the day before.

And the big confrontation between anti-shale gas protesters and SWN at Elsipogtog? There's not a word about it. But there is room for a big story that the Calgary zoo is laying off some workers.

The op ed page has its usual obnoxious photo of Rod Allen looking shrewd and insightful. Too bad his column never is either of those.

Excellent and thoughtful column by Beth Lyons on the colonialism we never talk about.

Then I, fearfully, turned to Alec Bruce.

 It was good. Damn good. He explains the economic and environmental problems we face very well, indeed. Things are not "picking up" as we're led to believe. Read it. I'll just add a bit to it.

For a start, let's forget this garbage about how the rich create wealth for all of us. Anyone with eyes should be able to see how ridiculous that is. For the past forty years, the rich of this world have been getting astonisingly richer while most of the rest of us have been getting poorer. Much of the US has sunk into poverty and homelessness, with most Americans actually earning less than they were thirty years ago. But American big business has never made bigger profits. Esactly the same thing is happening in New Brunswick.

One reason it's happening is free trade. Why should big business pay decent wages here when it can hire starving people in poor countries to work in dangerous conditions for long hours at two dollars a day? And, quite commonly, they get off paying taxes either here or in the other country. Then, as a side benefit, they can smash unions to pay really low wages even here - and buy governments so they don't have to pay taxes here. It happened in the US. It's happening here. it's happening all over western Europe.

The system is so corrupt that American bankers were able to break the law, send the world economies into a crash- then get paid for it in taxpayers's money,run up a national debt that can never be paid, and give each other obscene bonusses.

Wealth is not created by big business. It is created by our resources in minerals and people and skills. Big business does not create wealth. What it does is to increase its share of our wealth, then invest it where people are cheap -while making us poorer so we becine cheap, too. That's not a theory. Just look around at the US, at Britain, at Greece, at Italy, at Spain. Look around you in New Brunswick.

But there's a catch. By hogging all the wealth to themselves, the very rich have been destroying their own markets and potential markets. When you create so much poverty, who do you have left to sell to?

The people who call themselves capitalists and free enterprisers are nothing of the sort.  Their perversion of capitalism has created one hell of a bubble. But, then, only someone in a stupor could believe that big business is characterized by either intelligence or foresight.

Where does this take us? Well, first it takes us to thought control and propaganda as we see in the Irving press. Then it takes us to massive domestic spying and a police state - which is already obvious in the US - and less obvious but present in Canada.

We are very likely (certain) to see severe social disorder which is likely to re-open the door to the racism, fascism and naziism of the 1930s. (We can already see the fascism in Mr. Irving's declaration that he is in a coalition with the government. And you can see the racism in the Harper government's campaign to stigmatize native peoples, and the western world's campaign to fan fear and hatred of Moslems.)

Meanwhile, the energy business (always a leader in ruthlessness and corruption)  knows damn well that another bubble that is going to break is the fossil fuel bubble. That's why the rush is on to sell the stuff while it can - with no thought for sickness, deaths, and environmental damage it will cause within a generation. (Of all big business, energy has probably been the biggest murderer over the years - within mining close behind.)

That's why Harper has destroyed almost all environmental protection in Canada. That's why he has fired thousands of scientists working on sustainable energy. That's why the presstitutes of the Irving press have been feeding us lies, propaganda and trivia as though they were news.

Big business, just like car drivers, has to have rules and has to be policed to make sure it is not a threat to society. But two things have happened to destroy any control that would be in the interest of all of us. One is free trade. The other is the rise of fascism and the police state - both pretending to help us but in reality helping only those who are the greatest threat to us and even to themselves.

To survive, a society has to control drunk drivers. We have become a society run by the drunks - and the police exist primarily to ensure that their glasses are always full.

(I have no idea whether Alec Bruce would agree with the above. I simply took up where he left off.)

July 3: a crashing disappointment...

.. but first the small stuff.
Our newspaper does not have the latest news about an item it has been shoving down our throats almost daily for the last several  years - the "events" centre. CBC had the story yesterday. City Council knows all about it. It is impossible to believe that the editors of the TandT did not.

This is not just bad journalism. This is outright lying by omission.

A report commissioned by council says that the existing hockey rink could be renovated and enlarged to an "events" centre for 27 milliion. That's a good hundred million less than the Highfield Square one would cost - the Highfield Square site that this newspaper has been promoting from the start, day after day.

Today's editorial demands we cut spending on luxuries like - oh - hospitals, the hungry, schools. This comes from the same writers who say that we absolutely must borrow well over a hundred million to build a new hockey rink. And council now has a special committee (unelected) chaired by the owner of the hockey team to advise it.

We must build the new events centre. But not for the reasons that are given. If we don't buy Highfield Square, then the owners of a huge hunk of contaminated land will never find another sucker to buy it. And not a word of the truth will ever appear in this wretched newspaper - a newspaper which is not entirely unconnected with the owner of the hockey team.

But don't worry. Harper is set to destroy the independence of the CBC. So, very soon, we could well have yet another radio version of the Irving Press. Oh, joy!
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There is one piece of important news in Section A; so that's almost a record. "Citizens challenge city over new high school". This concerns the very expensive abandonment of Moncton High in favour of a new and very expensive school which is a long way from the downtown we claim to want to revive - but puts the new school in a location which will greatly benefit a land developer.
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What's the general news? You won't findmust of it in the Irving Press. Some general news is touched on in the editorial. "No more taxes without cuts". Damn right. Cut health. Cut education. Cut decent housing. And don't raise taxes on that poor Mr. Irving who doesn't know where his next billion is coming from. And we just gotta have a new 8 million or so high school. And we just gotta have a 150 million plus hockey rink.

And attack the provincial goverment for overspending. Right - as if those servile wimps in the Liberal and Conservative parties actually had any control over spending. We know who has always been in charge of spending and taxing in this province. And it was made abundantly clear two years ago when Mr. Irving publicly told us he was a member of the government - and wimps Alward and the Irving press did not say a word.

Mr. Irving's statement was unconstitutional. Nobody in Canadian history has ever been a member of a government without a) being elected or b)being a senator. - or c)without being invited. But the government, the opposition Liberals and the Irving Press didn't say a word.

Then Mr. Irving appointed his own flunkies to be official advisors to the Minister of Finance.The budget had nothing to do with Alward. You don't like the budget Mr. editorial writer? Then you should have the guts to attack the person who set it.

There are at least two parts to this game we are watching.
1. Concentrate even more of our wealth into the hands of a few. And make the poor bear all the costs and suffer all the cuts.
2. Destroy and privatize as many public services as possible. Leading the hits are health and education. And what will that do? We don't even have to guess. We've been watching it happen in the US.
a) equal opportunity for education will be destroyed as government cuts funding for private schools, and as most people can't afford the additional costs of privatization.
b) educational standards will drop like a rock. (Read the UN reports on the desperate quality of US education.) We now have public schools that are ranked with the best in the world. With privatization, American schools have dropped below 100the place.
c)Most people will not be able to afford regular medical care - nor the insurance for it. Again, we don't have to guess. The leading cause of bankruptcy among US seniors is medical care.
In addition, the cost of private medical means most people cannot get the regular attention they need. And the result of that is people die a lot sooner than they should. The official figures are very easily available.
Privatization of health care kills people. And there are bastards in this province who don't care if it does so long as they get to keep more of their money - to tuck away in offshore banks.

Be very careful. The US, some thirty years ago and more, went the route of letting big business take over government. It now has a ruined economy with a stunning spread of poverty and desparation. And forget the crap you read in most of our press. The US economy is not recovering. There are some new jobs - but almost all are at very, very low pay. In real terms, the incomes of most people have not risen in the last forty years. The US economy has not come back, and it's not going to come back. Free trade has made sure of that. (But don't worry. The rich are doing very, very well.)
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Good news. Norbert has admitted that climate change is happening. He hasn't yet connected the dots to see where shale gas and oil fit into the pattern. But it's a start.
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And now the crashing disappointment. Alec Bruce is a columnist of outstanding ability, one of the best I have seen. But  - his column today is heavily biased - to please the boss. I don't use the word 'biased' lightly or as a sort of swear word. I've spent many years as a writer and a columnist. I know a biased choice of words when I see it.

The purpose of his column is to denigrate and belittle shale gas protesters while praising  (kissing the ass) of energy minister Craig Leonard for some pretty vacant statements he made.

This is a column so deliberately slanted, illogical and distateful to rank among the worst I h ave ever seen, even  in the Irving Press. I really wish I could believe in Mr. Bruce's honesty even while disagreeing with him. But, no. Alec Bruce is intelligent and well-informed. Regretfully, very regretfully, I don't believe he can possibly have been honest in writing this.

He paints a picture of the protesters has being highly organized. Maybe they are. Is it a sin to be highly organized? Aren't political parties highly organized? Aren't billionaires highly organized?

Protesters are plotting to defeat the government plan to allow shale gas drilling? Oh? Is it a crime to plot to defeat a government plan?  And here I thought it was sort of a part of democracy to do exactly that.

But, no. The protesters are "marvelously orchestrated". Wow! That sounds evil. It's meant to sound that way. And, apparently, all our professional politicians of high education and experience and with the backing of very, very big money and the full support of a lying press just can't deal with these highly organized protesters, Mr. Bruce, that is bullshit, and you know it.

Then he quotes Craig Leonard saying, "We can't afford to do nothing...We will ensure we can enjoy the economic benefits...while proceeding in a safe, responsible and sustainable manner." Bruce calls this a strong argument, and wonders why no-one has made it before.

Are you for real, Bruce? The government has been making that vague and almost meaningless argument thousands of times.

That is a statement as vague as they get. It is as close as one can get to saying nothing at all. But Mr. Bruce heaps high praise on Craig Leonard for his "useful contributions to what should be an informed, public debate."

And  a columnist who writes for the Irving Press can have the nerve to say we should have an informed debate? - a man who writes for the paper that garbled Dr. Cleary's report on shale gas, then completely ignored it? a newspaper that routinely quotes a professor as an "expert" in a field he knows nothing about?

But there it is. Our poor, helpless billionaires who own and control most of our news media and our politicians are helpless in the face of these evil people who dare to think they have a right to protest in this democracy.

They're evil, that's what they are, using fracking "like some dark incantation..." o-o-o-ooh.

Oh, while we're on fracking, young Alec, maybe you can tell us Craig Leonard's wise thoughts on how we can dispose of millions of gallons of toxic water that's produced by fracking. (He hasn't explained that yet.) And what have we done with all the toxic waste we already have from fracking?

The protesters are also doing something else that is evil. They have looked through the internet to get information. Wow!

But where else are they going to look to get the truth, Alec? At the Irving press? (Oh, I suppose they could look at David Suzuki once a week. But he's only a scientist. So is a chief medical officer. But  What do they know compared to a regular columnist for the Irving press?)

I could go on for a very long time pointing out all the dishonestys in this column. I wish I  had less respect for your intelligence. If I had, I could write this off as ignorance. But I can't.

No. This isn't ignorance. This is the worst sort of gutter journalism.








 

July 2: Just a short blog today....

...as I get to see two of my daughters and my granddaughters as they return to the shore for a couple of weeks. - and then I race back in time for the current events group in the library at 7 this evening.

The whole first section of the TandT is scrap paper. We are assured that 911 calls bring many people into action. Duh...I would never have guessed. It must be embarassing for a reporter to get all that education, then spend a life writing such idiot stories.

The lead, page one story is "Internet piracy can pose big problems". Wow! I'll bet a lot of internet users didn't know about that. And that's the lead story. There is no mention that far the biggest  and most illegal internet priracy in the world, and that touches every one of us, and that our security systems are ineffective against is the illegal tapping into all of our communications, bank records - everything. It's THE big news story around the world. And it's not being done by those pirates who write to you "Dear Blessed in the Lord, I am a dying man with a hundred million dollars I wish to give to you....."

No, the big piracy story never appeared in the TandT. It's the story of how the American spy system which spies on everybody, has billions of pages of information stored away on each of us.  (Yes, Canadians too. Since it also includes leaders of our closest allies, we can assume it also includes Harper.)

The rest of section is trivia with lots of pictures of people standing around for Canada Day.

NewsToday features another Canada Day picture and, for those who can't find Section A, another big story that yesterday was Canada Day. "Canadians celebrate" The news you need to know.

"Afghan bloodshed continues". Who would have guessed? That war has been going for years. It's the longest war in American history. And we still don't know why it's being fought. But now we know that in war people get killed.. Well, that clears up a lot of mystery.
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Alec Bruce has a superb column on the Alberta flooding. Yes, there might very well be such a thing as climate change. It is even possible that over 90% of the world's scientists are right in saying it is caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels - like oil and shale gas. And, yes, governments really should have plans in place to deal with dramatic weather changes like floods, tornados,droughts, heat waves - and on and on. And I'm sure Moncton City council will get busy on that just as soon as it finishes its new hockey rink. And I'm sure the provincial government will make it a top priority just as soon as it gets some more pollutants pumped into the atmosphere.
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Norbert tackles the same problem - but without saying a word about climate change as the major factor in these recent disasters. The sea is rising? Well, let's just build a big sea wall all around New Brunswick. Houses are flooding? Make it a law they have to be built on mountain tops. He does not mention once even a possibility that climate change might be a factor.

That's nice, Norbert. Mr. Irving will pat you on the head, and toss a biscuit in the air for you to catch in your mouth.
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Alan Cochrane breathlessly tells us that car accidents are bad; and we should be more careful. Well, that's why they pay him the big bucks.
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Gwynne Dyer has a very interesting column on China's proposal to build a canal near the American Panama Canal. That would be powerful competition to the Panama Canal, and would also greatly increase a Chinese presence in Latin America which, until now,has been virtually American property.

Dyer writes a calming opinion about it all. Alas, it will go over the heads of all those who rely on the TandT for news - because the TandT has never reported in the first place that China has signed a deal to build the canal.

Some excellent letters to the editor. The most important is the last one - "Studies should be peer reviewed". This refers to the fact that serious scholars and scientists DO NOT accept just any report at all, as being the truth - not even if it's a report by an 'expert'. ( Are you reading this, Norbert?.)

Such reports are first studied closely by other experts in the field to ensure that they meet high standards. Even then, the report does not become gospel. It is still open to discussion and debate. This process is called peer review.

Professor's Savoie's report ono shale gas was never subject to peer review. The TandT which, itself, knows nothing about the subject said it was a good report because Prof. Savoie is an "expert". In fact, Prof. Savoie is not an expert on shale gas. And Prof. Savoie knows that. Any peer review would give him one hell of a rough ride on his report.

The last one of the letters to the editor explains that. And that letter is a better report than anything on that subject that I have seen in the TandT.
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Ah, well, Off to the shore. See you this evening at the current events group at the library at 7.
 

Juuly 1: awful, awful, awful....

A sample of awfulness is the big international news, "Syrian fighting has cost billions". Gee! I thought it was being paid for by trading baseball cards.

The big, front-page story, so important is was written by Craig Babstock himself, is "RCMP vehicle fleet evolves". Yessir. Occasionally, the RCMP cars, like other cars, have to be traded in. I needed to know that.

The biggest New Brunswick story  ( and it is the biggest no matter which side you're on) is about the anti-shale gas demonstration. But it's hidden in a corner of page 2. Worse, it's a story the TandT got from The Canadian Press.

Why is that worse? The fact that the only story on the demonstration comes from The Canadian Press means that the whole of our own Irving press could not spare a single reporter to cover it. There were people to spare to cover the RCMP trading in its cars, enough  for "Young and old celebrate in Alma". "Metro couple devotes their lives to prayer". and "Metro offers Canada Day fun".

There was even a hotshot reporter to cover "Ice cream contest a success". But for a demo concerning what may well be the crucial issue to decide our futures? Yawn... They gave almost as much space to an ad for a smirking Robert Goguen (our member of parliament whose office by the way, faces a  patch of weeds called Harper Street.) New Brunswick also boasts a Harper Settlement out toward Peticodiac, and a Harper Heights near Port Elgin. But Harper never mentions his NB roots - probably because he's shy.
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The biggest news story all over the world is about the rage at the discovery that the US has been tapping the phones, the computers, the credit cards. everything about everybody including the U.S.' closest allies. So has Britain. It includes not only ordinary citizens, but even diplomats who are supposed to be immune to that sort of thing. It also, of course, has billions of pages of files on its own citizens.

Some of the files, of course, concern suspected terrorists. But most concern quite ordinary citizens that the American government considers dangerous because - well - they are pro-environment, they belong to unions, they have been known to criticize the government, - and they're just there.

Even governments that are the closest allies of the US (as, for example, just about all of western Europe) are on the list. United Nations offices all over the world are on the list. NATO members are on the list. And when Mr. Harper assures us that Canada is not on the list, Mr. Harper is almost certainly lying. For that matter, Mr. Harper also has his own list which has CSIS and the RCMP looking at you.

Why is this happening? If you live in New Brunswick, you should know why by instinct.

The most striking thinga about New Brunswick is the fear of ever, ever in public expressing an opinion on anything that might annoy the corporations that run this province. Do that, and you can find yourself out of a job. Everybody knows that; and I have seen the impact of it right down to home and school.

Oh, you can criticize the conservatives - but only if you make it clear you favour the liberals (or the other way around).. Both parties are really the same, and both are tame dogs for the corporation world. But that's it. Ya gotta be either a liberal or a conservative.  Moncton is the only city I have known in which a city councillor spoke of resigning our of fear that taking an honest stand on council would mean he would never get a job in this city.

The importance of the massive US spying operation is that knowledge is power. You don't have to be guilty of anything - just as you don't have to guilty of anything in New Brunswick to run afoul of the big people. Information means control.

That's why collection of such information is illegal in a  truly democratic society. That's why it is illegal under international law. That's why it is forbidden in the American constitution.

But, after Bush and Obama, the American constitution lies in tatters. The same is true in Britain. And only a damn fool could believe Harper's denials that it is happening here. And the rage in Europe has the makings of creating a crisis in an already shaky environment.

But, in the Irving Press, it's just another doh-dee-doh day. Almost uniquely in the whole world, the TandT does not have a word about it. In faitness, though, it did cover the biggest story of the day - "Red Sox have gone from last to first in American League East."
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The editorial is a zero which, admittedly, is better than usual.

Good column by Alec Bruce.

Norbert tackles yet another topic he knows nothing about. He attacks nationalism (and a case can be made for that) But he doesn't know there's a difference between nationalism and patriotism. Nor is he clear on the meaning of either.

Then he drags out nationalism as a cause of wars and hatreds which, he says, makes nationalism even worse that religion in this respect. He says history proves it. In fact, history proves no such thing. Both nationalism and religion have been TWISTED to cause hatreds and wars - in much the same way that the TandT twists the truth to sell shale gas and a new hockey rink. But the truth, itself, does not cause wars any more than religion and nationalism do.

Then he quotes a professor (undoubtedly an expert) for "proving" that we live in the most peaceful world in history - and he proves it is all due to democracy, capitalism, and technology. The professor, Stephen Pinker, is a type of professor who is all too common - one whose createst concern is becoming famous by saying spectacular things.

Norbert, not everything said by professors is fact. Not everything they say is logical. Trust me on that. I'm a professor.

In the case of Pinker, this world is on the edge of two crises that could kill everybody - climate change and nuclear war. Either of them would have to happen only once. How's that for peace?

Democracy has caused peace?
a) Democratic countries like Britain, France, and the US have been the great aggressors all over the world for the last 400 years.
b) Democracy is in crashing decline. American domestic spying is a sign of that. The political atmosphere in New Brunwick is a sign of that. The lying and misrepresentation of the Irving press is a sign of that. The appointment of Mr. Irvings unelected puppets to be advisors to the minister of Finance is a sign of that. The interference of the Irvings in public education, civil service structure, health care and Moncton city government is a sign of that. American "democracy" like New Brunswick "democracy" consists essentially of two, almost identical parties, both supported and controlled by very big money - backed up by a prostitute press.

b) Capitalism brings peace? So how come capitalism is what led Britain to conquer and exploit the biggest empire in history? How come capitalism led the US over the years to invade or threaten every country in Latin America, to steal a third of Mexico, to establish dictatorships and destroy democracy.
Norbert, what do you think the invasion of Iraq was all about? What do you think the destruction of native peoples in the America's was all about? What the hell do you think world wars one and two were about?
c) Yeah, technology has been a great force for peace. You know, like the bombers that killed half a million helpless civilians in Cambodia, the napalm and herbicides and machine guns and bombs that killed well over two million in Viettnam. Like the nuclear weapons which are now out of control  (though that's subject for another blog).

d) capitalism and technology have worked together to create the biggest war industry in history - the US military-industrial complex - to which we can now attach the Canadian military-industrial complex.

Nationalism and patriotism can work to hold people together in cooperation and mutual help. To introduce health care was a product sentiments of nationalism and patriotism, to work for the common good. The same can be said of public education.

Not by coincidence, big business has been launching attacks to get control of public education, health care, and the civil service. Nationalism and patriotism are now a nuisance that corporations can ignore now that they have free trade.

Oh, yeah - Norbert says that nations that trade seldom make war with each other. In 1914, Belgium was a major banking centre with a heavy trade with Germany. It was also Germany's first target. Almost all trade from Guatemala is with the US. But the US sponsored a gang of mercenaries to invade Guatemala in the 1950s, and overthrow the government to replace it with a dictatorship. It later intervened again to murder a quarter million Guatemala natives.

Before and after World War Two, Iran traded heavily, mostly oil, with Britain, Franch and the US. That did not prevent Britain, France and the US from overthrowing democracy in Iran, and installing a dictator.

The American colonies, incidentally, had Britain as their biggest trading partner. They still fought a revolution against Britain. Then, in 1812, with Britain still their largest trading partner, they declared war on Britain. (Remember that Norbert? We'll been "celebrating" it for a  year.)

Africa is climbing out of Third World status? Take a pill, Norbert, and lie down. Africa is in a chaos that can only get worse, much worse. This is an appallingly ignorant and illogical column.

Finally, Norbert does not mention the cases of Asange, Private Manning, or Edward Snowden. All released information showing that the US was was acting in ways that were unconstitutional, internaionally illegal, and anti-democratic. None of them got money or did it for that reason. Assange will spend his life in hiding. Private Manning suffered  three years of solitary and torture. He is not being tried by a rigged court, and will get at least life in prison, probably in solitary. Snowden, like Assange, faces a life in hiding. Both are likely to be assassinated.

Their crime? They revealed that the American government behaved illegally, unconstitutionaly, and murderously on a huge scale. Those three are  defenders of democracy. That's why they have to be tortured and killed.  Funny that Norbert did not mention them - and that the TandT has studiously avoided their cases which have been prominent in real newspapers all over the world for years.
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Craig Babstock writes yet another triva column which, if it has a point, hides it well.

Steve Malloy's is on the light side, too. I can forgive him because it's an enjoyble read, and it reminded me of my childhood fascination with pro wrestling. Ah, the days when we would do drop-kicks on littler kids...

My uncle, a small man who was very big in Canadian boxing circles and coached a couple of Canadian Olympic teams, one refereed a pro wrestling match between two, enormous hulks. At one point, he stepped between them to push them apart. The two hulks wrapped arms around each other, and squeezed Uncle Al between them. It was great.
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Tomorrow, Tuesday at 7 p.m., we meet for current events at the Moncton Library. Still not quite sure of a topic. It might, partly, be about the most terrifying book I have ever read.