Dec. 9: News that isn't

I'm afraid there's  nothing to say about Section A in Monday's paper, not even on the editorial and op ed pages. It's mostly boring and/or irrelevant. Alec Bruce produces his usual argument that fracking is so good and so safe that the very idea of having a moratorium on it boggles the mind. He must have a mind that's easily boggled. (I'll return to this later.)

Craig Babstock has a a column so self-righteous that he really should have his own church. He criticizes protesters who interfered with reporters at an anti-fracking demonstration, saying that papers have a right to speak freely just as protesters do. Well.. yeah...but..

...When reporters (the Irving press springs to mind) abuse their right to report by showing bias, partisanship, propaganda, and outright lying. they are not practicing a right of free speech and free dissemination of information. And at that point, the major difference between reporters and the protesters is that reporters don't have to face a line of police in riot gear backed up by snipers.
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In a world that could be on the edge of global war, Section B has only one story that isn't from North America.  It's about an Ottawa man who has joined ISIL, and who appeared in a video advocating attacks on Canadians. His name is John Macguire, and he's a convert.  Yes, this has a touch of sensation about it. But the only reason it makes the news is that he's a Canadian and his name is Maguire. Beyond that, there's nothing unusual in an Islamic militant calling for attacks on Canadians - unless, of course, you think Canadians are entitled to bomb other countries without getting bombed back.

B1 also has a big, big story that says nothing whatever. "New Brunswickers enjoy falling gas prices". Now, a headline is supposed to tell us the point of a story. Is that the whole point of the story? Do we need to buy a newspaper to find out we enjoy falling gas prices? Do we need it even to tell us that gas prices are falling?
Hey! I have a certificate in grade four math.  I can do perdition and extractions with the best of them. I know $1.11 is less that $1.32. This is like one of those big stories (with pictures) that tell us it snowed yesterday.

There there are opinions from people in the industry making guesses on where this is going. But these are pure guesses.The big question is - why are prices dropping? Who started the price-cutting? Could it possibly be an oil state that wants to put a lid on shale gas competition? Could it be a Saudi Arabia that hopes to cut Russia out of the European market? Usually, prices drop when the product is not selling well. But oil is selling quite well. This looks like a planned event. If so, who planned it? And why?

We don't need news stories about the price. We can see that every time we pass a gas station. We need to know why this is happening.

But the whole Monday paper is pretty much a dead loss.
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For Tuesday, B1 has "Public urged to support turkey drive, food box program". Now - get this opening sentence. 'In typical Moncton fashion, the community is rallying behind an annual Christmas campaign, but so far, it's going at a snail's pace.'   (We shall slip lightly over the comma that should be a semi-colon between campaign and but.  The editor should have caught that.)

Look at that statement. We're rallying behind a campaign----it's going at a snail's pace. Sorry. You can't have it both ways. Either we're rallying behind a campaign (which would mean it is doing well). Or it's not doing well (which would mean we aren't rallying behind it.

Or - you can include the opening phrase so the meaning of he whole sentence is that 'the whole thing is a mess; but that's typical of Moncton.'

A5 has a story about pampering kids by building hockey rinks in the back yard. That's all wrong. In the Montreal that used to be, we played hockey on the street which gave us a chance to hook onto the bumper of a passing car, and slip past the defence. The street in those days also supplied us with lots of free pucks in the form of frozen droppings from horses. Hey, it was good enough for Dickie Moore.
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In editorial and op ed pages, it's pretty much a zero. Patricia Graham, the ombudswoman lays down some rules for letters to the editor. Well, okay. But she's here as the person who fields complaints about the quality of the newspaper. How come we  have yet to see any report of anything the newspaper has done wrong? Have there been complaints? Has the paper ever been found to be wrong? How come we don't know anything about it?

There's a routine letter to the editor about how abortion is wrong because the Bible says so. (Actually, that's not quite what it says. What it says is "Thou shalt not kill.") We kill lots of people. We kill them with weapons. We starve them to death. Our ancestors killed people to settle here. We're killing some now in Iraq. The US kills them by the million. And all with the blessing of the churches. So shouldn't we just revise The Bible?

Thou shalt not kill unless the victim is out of the womb. Kill cripples, elderly, women, children, all foreigners, but nobody who hasn't been born yet. Or maybe they should go to the heart of the problem. Make it illegal to  have, you know, the cause of the problem, like Adam and Eve. Of course, to make sure, we'd also have to ban apples.
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In fairness, section B (NewsToday) had stories I didn't expect it to cover.

B4 has "Soldiers to train Ukrainian military  police". This means Canadian soldiers -  in addition to our sending of ships and a couple of fighter planes to Ukraine for military exercises. But everything in this story is so vague as to be beyond comprehension. Isn't it odd to conduct war exercises in such an uncontrolled situation? Exercises that could lead to a war that nobody in this world can afford to fight?

What agreements do we have with Ukraine for a military role? How come some stories say that our military police are going there not just to train, but to serve in fighting zones with troops from western Ukraine? Are we committed to taking part in a Ukraine war that could very well turn into a Russian war? If not, why are we taking part in war exercises?

A suggestion at the end of the story offers a credible explanation. Harper is making these gestures to win the Ukrainian-Canadian vote. This is his usual style - to talk big and do little. But that carries one hell of a risk for our troops and for all of us if the balloon goes up while we're involved.

Then there's "U.S. embassies prepare for release of torture report". That's a U.S. Senate report which says that the torture did not produce any useful information. The story is a short one - and it's not at all clear on why the report should provoke attacks on U.S. embassies. After all, the report has been heavily trimmed to one-twelfth of its original size. So you can bet none of the really gruesome stuff is there. So why should embassies be in danger?

Because, unlike us, people on other continents know the full scale of brutality involved in what was and still is the biggest torture system in history. No matter what the report says, those people will react to it with anger and hatred. And our news media will tell us how terrible those people are.

Then there's "Syria, Iran condemn Israeli airstrikes near Damascus. Actually, Israel has been attacking Syria for some time, usually by air. Its motive is that, like the U.S., it wants the destruction of the Syrian nation. In Israel's case, the reason it that it wants to be the dominant state in the region. To do that, it wants a Greater Israel to be created by taking over arab countries. That's why the attacks in Syria have been aimed at the elected government, not at the so-called 'rebels' or their good friends in ISIL (which owes much to Israel for its weaponry). As well, Israel has an interest in expelling arabs from Gaza and from Lebanon. It's very confusing because the US and Israel are playing games. The US, Israel and Saudi Arabia all had a hand in creating ISIL - and supplying it and training it. They still do - even as the US (and Canada) attack ISIL. The real target is Syria. Meanwhile, Iran is rightly concerned about a possible attack from Israel.

While all this destruction is  happening, millions of Syrians are refugees with no western power  ( and certainly not Canada) offering any significant help. Turkey carries a huge burden as home to over a million of the refugees. Meanwhile, countries like France, Italy, Britain which have done little to help are already suffering riots against those few refugees who do get in.

In short, the Middle East is suffering unspeakable horrors that will continue beyond the lives of those living there -  perhaps even centuries if the world lasts that long.

Oh, B4 has a story "Afghanistan war mission officially ends". In the manner of our western news media, it begins with a piece of propaganda presented as fact, that the US invaded Afghanistan thirteen years ago because it harboured the terrorists responsible for 9/11. That's a lie. For a start, there is not the slightest evidence that the Taliban government did any such thing. And the FBI has said that publicly many times. In fact, the invasion of Afghanistan was planned several years BEFORE 9/11. It was part of the plan for The New American Century - partly for its minerals, partly its strategic position in relation to Pakistan and Iran.

It has been an utter failure as a war. But Obama can't say that. And he really can't get out without it being obvious it was a failure. That's why the war is officially ending - but American troops will be increased and will be fighting for at least two, more years.
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Some stories weren't important enough for big time papers like the Irving press. The US has been using drones all over the world for years to kill selected targets. They've killed thousands - though no official figures have ever been released. But it is known that a very high proportion of those killed aren't terrorists at all. They're anybody in the area - women, children, bystanders. Estimates are that 28 innocent people are killed for each person on the U.S. enemy list that is killed.

And in all its warmaking, the west has completely ignored the UN. It has completely ignored international law. It has completely ignored all war crimes legislation - and has supported Israel in doing to, too. There's a reason why so much of the world intensely dislikes our governments. And, increasingly, those who dislike our governments are also to be found in the European Union.
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A reader sent me the site for Strategic Culture Foundation. This is a sort of journal of commentary, mostly on Asia and Europe. Its use of adjectives suggests bias; and it clearly dislikes the role the US government is playing in the world. I found that grating but----

....it is, unlike those who write for the Irving press, knowledgeable. So - be on your guard; but take it seriously. It seems very well informed.

The address is    www.strategic-culture.org
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Finally, a thought about Alec Bruce's column on fracking.....

He says that fracking has been proven safe. Actually, it hasn't. But that's not the point. Let's agree you can drink and bathe in the stuff, and you can keep healthy goldfish in the wastewater even before it's treated.

Mr. Bruce, read carefully, digest, think. NONE OF WHAT YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT MATTERS.

When you frack or built pipelines, you are committing yourself to the heavy use of fossil fuels for decades to come. Just building a pipeline takes five or so years. Then you need years to recoup the cost. We're looking at a total of fifty years - at least - of heavy use of fossil fuels.

Now, Mr. Bruce, do you agree there is such a thing as climate change? The evidence is pretty compelling. Many experts in the field  (no, that does not include oil company CEOs, but people almost as smart as them) say that we have already passed the point of no return - or soon will. And you are going to go on encouraging climate change for at least another fifty years?








                                      

Dec.6: Put your rubber boots on - they're piling it up - again....

Dec. 6, page B 3 "New book says province may be sitting on gas-deposit gold mine."

Or you can call it the hard sell is on again, or the propaganda is on again, or the universities are damn fools to lend their names to this, or they may be utterly without principal. Or you could call it  our propaganda news media are back in full form. Or this is one hell of a corrupted society.


There is a new book out "Shale Gas in New Brunswick". It should be subtitled, wow! wow! we're all going to be rich! And it won't cause any problems at all! The book comes from the  grandly-titled Canadian Institute for Research on Public Policy and Public Administration. (And it's right here in Moncton.) The news story says the book is a collection of essays by economists, geologists and other academics. And that's just a little bit of a lie. Well, it's a lot of a lie.


One of the authors, for example, is David Campbell who is head of a local economic consulting firm. That does not fit any meaning of academic I have ever heard of. Nor is there anything wonderful about his academic credentials. Campbell is also a columnist for the Telegraph-Journal  (God bless you, Mr. Irving You always put people first.) His only university experience (at U de Moncton) was dealing as an administrator for human resources for a short time.

I know the Campbell type well. I was approached by one of the breed in my early teaching days. He told me about how all the oil bosses were misunderstood. They were really all sweethearts; and they would pay me well if I would be good enough to write and speak about how nice they really were.

Another prominent member is Richard Saillant, by coincidence the author of Falling of the Cliff? - another book that found favour with the great thinkers of the Irving Press and, one can assume, with the man who throws them doggie biscuits..

The woods are full of these outfits with fancy names and hired propagandists pretending to be "think tanks" of various sorts, but most of them really propaganda outfits backed by big money.

Check their website. You'll find it very light on information. Who are its financial donors? You'll find nothing there.

The institute is based at U de Moncton.  What the hell are our universities thinking of in associating their names with these hack outfits?  Universities have always been willing to kiss rear ends for big donations. But this degree of cooperation with hookers dressed as nuns is really overdoing it.

The reporter, as usual, doesn't seem have had done any research or asked any questions He just wrote what he was told to write. This "news" report could have been written by the institute itself. Maybe it was.
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Norbert offers his usual insights into education and teaching. He thinks our public schools should encourage curiosity and logical thinking. I quite agree.  (And I think our universities SHOULD be doing it, too.) But if they ever did so, many parents and the Norberts of this world would be furious at where curiosity and logic took them. And, they'd never, never get a job with the Irving press.

Excellent column by Alec Bruce on the Harper government's obsession with control, and it's utter contempt for scientists and others who try to warn them about where they are leading us.
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The December 6 edition goes for pure sensationalism as it spends close to three pages on court documents concerning a young man who killed three police in Moncton, and wounded two. Then there's a half-page sob-story report by Brent Mazerolle on how his parents hoped he'd become a teacher.

The editorial page is taken up mostly by Bill Belliveau and Norbert Cunningham kissing every bare rump in the shale gas industry, and just wetting their pants with  excitement about  that new book on shale gas. Well, that was to be expected. This is the start of the big push.
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Section B, NewsToday, tells us the usual nothing. So let's take a look at a few developments the Irving editors didn't notice.

The US House of Representatives passed a bill which gives the president the power to take any steps, including military, to stop Russian "aggression".  Yessirree. American governments hate aggression - unless it's American aggressions.  As I've said, Obama wants a war with Russia. This sort of bill gives him the power to move troops right up to the Russian border, and even to invade without a declaration of war. In fact, the movement of troops is already planned, and will begin just as soon as the Senate adds its approval to the bill.

We are not talking cold war, here. This is a hot one. A very, very hot one. And Canada, bless its innocent, little heart, is right in the middle.  It's insane; but big business in the US wants this war. There's big money in wars. I know that wars kill millions - and that this one could set a new record - but big business has never given a damn how many get killed or starved or crippled.

This is real, so real that countries in the European union are getting very, very worried about it. Of course. They're right in the path of it. But the TandT had no room for the story. It needed the space on B1 for a really big story, the leader of the provincial Conservatives says he doesn't like the provincial Liberal government.

Then there are the refugees in Syria - some 9 million of them who have had to flee their homes. They now live, if at all, in vast tent cities, having lost all their possessions. There is no medical help for them. Nor is their food, or any money for food from anybody. Nine million people are starving to death.

Harper, never big on helping refugees, had agreed to accept 1300 Syrian refugees. Clap, clap, clap. But, so far, only 457 have met his rigid standards for admittance. (Turkey is bursting at the seams with three million.)
Here is a civil war largely created and financed by the US and Saudi Arabia. Without them, it would not have happened. The purpose of the war is to destroy Syria and to kill its elected leader so that American business can fully dominate the region. Onward Christian soldiers.

The US and Saudi Arabia sponsored ISIL when the Syrian "rebels" couldn't do the job. Now, Canadian aircraft have joined the killing and the refugee-making, for now in Iraq but with Syria sure to follow. That means that next Nov. 11, we'll hear talks about how they fought to  protect Canadian democracy - just like those who died fighting all those Afghanis who were going to attack Canada, and make us all smoke with hookahs.

Russia has signed a deal with Turkey to make that country the distribution centre for its natural gas to Europe. Now, Turkey is a member of NATO - and this is a remarkable break for a NATO country to make with the US. It may well be that Turkey, like other European NATO members, is more than a little concerned about the insane US dash to war with Russia, and the catastrophic mess of its foreign policy in the middle east.

Finally, check www.scientificamerican.com/article/california-s-drought-may-be-worst-in-a-millenium.
Scientific studies reveal that the current California drought may be the worst in over a thousand years, and made still worse by rising temperatures. (That refers to the climate change that our oil industry insists isn't happening.)

Why should we care? Well, as climate changes, there will be a move by suffering US states like California, to tap into Canadian fresh water - by force if necessary. It may also lead to US annexation of the sources for Canadian fresh water.

Couldn't happen? It's almost  certain to. The War of 1812 was fought for a very similar reason. So was the expulsion of the Acadians which was NOT carried out by the British. It was carried out by the colonial government of Massachusetts, acting on his own, and using his own colonial militia.  But Americans are our friends? Yes. Individual Americans are our friends. But individual Americans don't make these decisions. Governments do. And there's no such thing as friends between governments.

More subtly, there's a powerful religious belief that goes way back in the US - the believe that it is God's will (Manifest Destiny) for the US to rule the world. It was a major force for the wars against native peoples and the theft of their land, for the invasions of Canada and Mexico and Cuba and Puerto Rico, Haiti, The Phillipines....Every president for well of a century has believed in Manifest Destiny.In 1904, it took us close to another American invasion. Today, it's usually called American Exceptionalism, and both Bush and Obama have publicly professed allegiance to it.  It's really the same, old imperialism of western Europe - but gone even madder.

But you'll never read any of this in the Irving press.

Dec. 4: I am not a great hockey fan....

...but Jean Beliveau was one of only two players who could only hold me spellbound in a game. The other was Maurice Richard who did it with his intensity that charged the whole rink with an electricity that one could feel. Beliveau could not have been more different. He skated with a sense of grace and ease that reminded one of dancer on stage - but with a deceptive speed and a sureness of where the puck was going to be.

Both were indifferent to fame. Richard had a humility that was with him all this life. As for Beliveau, I met him only twice. The first was at a radio station when he was doing an interview, and I was preparing a column. I don't believe I ever met a man who was as easy to talk to and to listen to. The second time we met was at the magnificent Notre Dame church in Montreal. We stood together at the entrance while we waited for the funeral of Rocket Richard to begin - and we picked up our conversation where we had left off. He was more than a gentleman in his talk. He spoke warmly but quietly of charitable causes he was involved in, and he listened with the interest of a man who respects others.

Like his performances on the ice, he talked with a grace so natural that he made it all look easy. I don't remember him as a hockey star, but as a superb human.
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I think I was wrong in my column on the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. I read it as simply another case of out-of-control racism in the US. I have begun to realize that it's more, much more than that.

Last year, the US police killed 409 people - officially. But the reality is nobody knows how many were killed. Major police forces and many state governments refuse to submit annual reports on such killings to the federal government - nor is there any record of the justification - or lack of it - for those killings. The number is certainly higher, probably by hundreds. But nobody knows how high it is or why they were killed.

But before we criticize the police, we should consider other factors.

For example, in 2013, there were over 14,000 people murdered in the US. And this is hailed as good news of a declining crime rate. Over 500  were killed in Chicago, alone. A high proportion of the murders were those committed by the poor and by blacks (two words which mean almost the same thing.)

American citizens are also among the most heavily armed in the world. I shall never forget entering an Arizona gun store that had for sale water-cooled machine guns, sub-machine guns. and an old 20mm anti-tank gun. There was a requirement , though. You had to be over sixteen to buy one.

If I were a policeman in the US, I'd be terrified, and strongly tempted to shoot first.

Poverty and low education were listed as common causes of crime. And the US has a dreadful record for a developed country of dealing with poverty and crime. Everything is operated as a business. Everything is calculated to make more money for the billionaires who own the various levels of government. Even the food stamps for the starving are issued in a way that profits the bank. The poor have to pay a bank fee to cash their food cards. It seems little per person. But when you're that poor, everything is much. And for banks, it means millions.

Obamacare is a racket. The only way the billionaires who own the government would allow Obamacare to pass it was by allowing it to be run by the private insurance industry (at full and exorbitant prices). And even that will probably be destroyed within a few years.

Public schools, especially those in poor (read black) districts are starved of funds so the money can go to corrupt war industries and private contractors. Even at that, the "public" schools have been widely privatized to make money for the rich (which is something we can expect here, too). And that means only the middle class (mostly white folks) can afford them.

Add to that a (deservedly) widespread contempt for government, and you need a police force not to maintain the law but to keep people under control for the benefit of the rich. That's why American police forces have been receiving billions of dollars of machine guns, combat rifles, armoured cars, drones, and even tanks from the defense department. The social state is breaking down, and being replace by the police state.

And we can see it creeping into Canada. Remember the armoured car delivered to Moncton? Remember those police in camouflage suits and with combat rifles at the Rexton demonstration? (That was a dumb move. If they had opened fire on that crowd - and I don't care how good they might be as snipers - dozens of innocent people could have been killed.)

Capitalism is based on greed, control, and indifference to the needs of others. That's why it needs to be controlled by government. But around the world, we have been creating governments controlled by capitalism.

The result is all those men in camouflage suits, all the attacks on social services, the payoffs, the secret police....  No society can survive that. What we are watching is an American society in collapse. The riots in Ferguson were only a very small taste of what that collapse will mean.
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As all the above suggests, there's not a whole lot in the Moncton TandT. The only really notable item is Norbert Cunningham's column - and that only for setting a new standard of disgusting. He heaps praise on Dr. Cleary, our chief medical officer with  "Cleary's message a clarion call to action,...." That well describes a brief message on our health system from Dr. Cleary. But my dot, dot, dot indicate that's not the whole headline. He adds four words to indicate his superiority  to a mere health officer "....but not a detailed blueprint."

Of course, it's not a detailed blueprint. Dr. Cleary has been busy lately, risking her own life to help people who have ebola.  What she wrote was just a few paragraphs on the need for radical change in our health -care, and the TandT told us damn little about it. This is the same TandT and the same Norbert who castigated and ignored Dr. Cleary's very thorough report on shale gas.

As Norbert's column generously admits, it will be difficult to make the improvements Dr. Cleary recommends. Of course it will. Norbert, his wretched newspaper, its owner and the Liberal and Conservative parties all see health as essentially a business. That's why we have business people placed in control of it - that's why it needs change. And that's why there's no way Norbert and his kin would support any useful change. Dr. Cleary starts with human needs. They start with economics so that more money can stay in the pockets of the rich and more can be transferred to them.
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Then there's NewsToday. We live in a world in which we and others have lined up behind the US to bomb ISIL. But there is no mention of how ISIL is being supplied through Turkey (a member of NATO.) That's right. ISIL is being supplied by our side. In fact, ISIL was created largely by the US and Saudi Arabia. So what is this war about?

What it's about is destroying two nations, Iraq and Syria. Iraq is to be destroyed to ensure that American capitalists have full control of the oilfields. Syria is to be destroyed because it insists (through Saddam) on maintaining normal trade relations with Russia. The "rebel" side in Syria was created largely by the US and Saudi Arabia and, from it, came ISIL

Ever notice that the levels of poverty in Africa are high, and the levels of education low? Put that together with the fact that western powers have controlled Africa for over a century. The conclusion is obvious. But I've yet to see it in the news.

Oh, it's become increasingly obvious that the US wants a war with Russia or, rather, US big business wants a war with Russia. And, with a warhawk congress, it's likely to come soon. But why worry? Just sooth yourself by reading Wednesday's big news story on how the outgoing speaker of Canada's senate is in favour of discussing senate reform.

Oh, Israeli's prime minister wants a new election to take more radical steps. Why? There's a strong possibility he intends to use nuclear weapons on Iran. There's no story on this. But not to worry. If he does do it, Harper will say he was right.
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Big story in Thursday's paper. The streets were slippery early Wednesday morning. That would be important news for those people in Moncton who still planned to go out on the day before the Thursday paper arrived.

Alec Bruce's column is a little puzzling because it refers to the Chinese economic system as communism. It isn't. And it never was, not even under Mao. To call a country with the number of billionaires China has communist is bizarre. For that matter, Russia was never communist, either. State ownership is not communism. (I say that not to defend communism. In fact, I think it wildly idealistic and impractical. But I do like to see words used with some meaning.)

There's a good column, as usual, by Beth Lyons. There's also a column as usual by Rod Allen.
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In NewsToday, the rest of the world gets four stories. There's no mention that Ukraine has been fast-tracking   wealthy and connected foreigners for Ukrainian citizenship so they can be put into government positions. The most recent one is a woman who is an international banker, and who was also in a senior White House position. In short, international big business is now the government of Ukraine.

On Dec. 3, the U.S. Congress began debating a bill which would declare the cold war on again. It would also take major steps to isolate Russia and to place major armed forces on the Russian border. In other words, it would set us up for World War Three and soon.

But that story wasn't important enough for the keen-eyed editors of the TandT.

Oh, the last cold war is estimated to have cost US taxpayers some 20 trillion dollars. But if a hot war happens as a result of the current debate in Washington, we won't have to worry about debts any more.
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Oh, one  headline left me puzzled. It referred to the provincial Liberals as "Grits". That term was first used in Canada in what is now Ontario - almost two hundred years ago. But that was back in the days when there actually was a difference between Liberals and Conservatives, and  so the word "Grits" meant something. However, that difference largely disappeared in the 1890s. In my lifetime, the only person I ever knew to use it was a pretentious and not very bright fellow student in grad school, and he used it to signify dislike of Liberals. I have never heard it in the maritimes Is it still in use here? Or does the TandT have an editor who has not yet advanced beyond 1890?

Dec. 2: Bad journalism - a classic example....

"What are N.B.'s protocols for law enforcement gun use?" is on A1 of the Dec. 1 edition of the Moncton TandT. It's also one of the longest stories I have seen in the Irving press and, for all its length, it says nothing whatever. The blame for this does not lie with the reporter. It lies with the assignment editor and the page editor.

For a start, this is obviously piggy-backing on the police shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. What's wrong with that? Well, this isn't Ferguson, Missouri. I don't know of any fear that is terrifying the people of Moncton as they wait for police bullets to cut them down. As well, this is not a city that has anything like the racial tensions of Missouri. (Racism exists in Moncton; but not on nearly the scale it does in Ferguson.

So why raise such an issue for Moncton? I suppose we can next expect a story on whether our local polar bears around town are dying off - just like the ones in the Arctic.

The second bad piece of journalism in this is that the editor just sent the reporter off to interview the people who train the police in the use of weapons.  The story is just one, long series of quotations from these people. And guess what? The people responsible for training the police say everything is just fine. Quelle surprise!

You want to know if I'm attractive? Just ask me. I'll tell you I'm stunning.

The story had no mention of any critic of police training; and it had no evidence of research at all. The result? This long story tells us nothing whatever about its topic.

In fact, the police of Moncton - and of the whole of New Brunswick - have an excellent record. The editor could have discovered that in just 30 seconds of research. According to Wikkipedia,  for a period covering the last fifty years and for the whole of New Brunswick, one person has been killed by police. One. That's the whole story right there. And it could have been told in two sentences.

Instead, we got a whole page that told us nothing whatever.

This is a sign of very incompetent editorial work. It's useless for the readers, bad for the newspaper, and bad for the reporter. Reporters don't come out of journalism school as finished products. They still have a lot to learn on the job - and that learning comes from the editors. Or it should. Obviously it doesn't from the editors of the TandT.

The only real lesson in this story is one for reporters. If you ever want to become a good reporter, get out of the Irving Press.
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Then, on A3, we have over a half page about how the Moncton Wildcats are a major factor in attracting business to Moncton. This is so silly it isn't worth commenting on. Oh,  yeah. There's another piece of journalistic drivel on A2. The Moncton Wildcats got a video from Hulk Hogan. - "O joy, O rapture unconfined..."  (There will be a free chocolate bar for any editor at the TandT who knows the source of that quotation.)
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Nothing much on editorial or op ed pages. Alec Bruce foresees an improving economic future for the US - and so for Canada - as the US gross domestic profit rises. But I'm afraid there's more to it than that. The question, for some years now, is not the gross domestic product; the question is how much of the profit will most of us see? Or will it all end up in absurdly high salaries and benefits for corporation senior officers, in offshore banks, in tax breaks, and in sheer corruption.

Steve Malloy writes about the Ferguson shooting as a sign of police distrust. Well, sort of. But the police distrust is, itself, the result of a nation that is destroying itself with a racism and an abuse of blacks that has little improved since 1865.
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NewsToday has an interesting story from Dr. Cleary, our chief medical officer of health. on what she sees that needs to be done in the way of an extensive reorganization of health care in New Brunswick. It's refreshing to see a public issue debate in the province which begins with the purpose of a department of health - rather than the businessman's approach of talking about money first.

One of the great mistakes of the Alward government was to appoint business executives to oversee the health system. They know nothing about health. But the political gospel of this province  is - business executives are people of organizational skills and budgetary skills. Praise the Lord. Therefore, they should run everything - hospitals, public schools, universities. I'm surprised big business hasn't muscled in on privatizing the military by replacing our military command so we can have a for-profit armed forces.

The US is already leading the way with hiring mercenaries from private contractors - which may account for its dismal military record over the last 50 years or so. But, yes, I can see it all now. The Irvings could become admirals (which would mean another hall of fame for them in Moncton) to bring a solid, business approach to our naval tactics. The McCains' potato connection would made them naturals as generals. For Air Marshals, perhaps some light and fluffy execs - perhaps like Conrad Black.

Dr. Cleary's article sounds like a far more effective approach to health care than we're seeing. It appears in  Journal of New Brunswick Studies. It's a short read, but a good one. You can find it easily - just google Journal of New Brunswick Studies.

There is virtually no news of the rest of the world. But B5 has four, big photos of people holding up giant cheques., with three of them doubling as ads for local business.
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The paper for Dec. 2 was a real snorer. For section A, Alec Bruce's column is worth a read. An op ed column by Dr. Bruce Fawcett is not worth a read. He's listed as president and vice chancellor of Crandall University. This is the university that has been criticized for receiving public funding while discriminating against gay and lesbian employees. He defends the funding on the grounds that the money has not been used for anything faith-based except the chapel.

Look. What's wrong is not having a faith-based institution. What's wrong is having one that discriminates against others - including gays and lesbians. (Incidentally, it's just a little of a stretch to say the chapel at Crandall is for spiritual growth. Growth and indoctrination are not the same thing.)

By the way, and as you know, Dr. Fawcett, - the sons of Adam and Eve had children by their sisters. And,at  that time, there were no preachers to perform weddings - so the children were - you know - I mean, we're adults so we can say it out loud - so the children were - the children of unmarried parents. And, since the concept of marriage was unknown, it is likely that they - you know - frequently got together with someone they did not get together with the first time - or the second or the third. And,well, you know what boys are like at first, so they probably got together with boys. And that would be gay. So I presume this is all part of the spiritual growth you teach in the chapel.

I have no objection to faith-based educational systems (though I would love to know how  your history and political science teachers deal with the damage cause by Christian missionaries.) I have every objection to the very selective use of the scriptures to discriminate against others.
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There are just a few things to notice in a pretty shallow NewsToday section.

On B1, Gallant pressed Harper to help  support New Brunswick's social programmes. Harper slapped his little bum, and told him to take off. But we'll show him. We're tell our Conservative MP, Mr. Goguen, to read the riot act to Harper.  (At the end of which, Harper will say, "Who are  you?")

On B4, there's the story of how Harper's social security panel has made a mess of appeals for help that we are supposedly eligible for. Eleven thousand people, many of them elderly, some dying, some so handicapped they cannot work, have been waiting for years to get the help they need. One man just got approved - after a five year wait in which was a  incapable of working.

According to the government, 58 percent of Canadians who applied for disability payments last year were denied. But some 40 percent of those who appeal win the case - after years.

Then, after a few pages of news that tells us nothing, we get B6. B7.and B8 with, between them, almost page and a half of utterly pointless photos. There is not the slightest attempt to find anything significant in world news. This is decidedly sloppy, cheap, unprofessional, and probably ignorant work by editors.
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Is there any news they missed?   Well....

At the Francophonie Summit, Harper called for an end to child marriages. So what? Well, Harper has made it a point to say on every occasion that Israel is right in everything it does. He has never criticized Israel on anything. So, apparently, he's unaware that it's common for orthodox Jews to marry their daughters young, and to arrange the marriages, secretly, between the two sets of parents years in advance - usually when the girls are about fourteen.

I shall never forget the evening I had dropped in on some orthodox friends whose son, without their telling him, had been promised for marriage several years earlier to an orthodox girl in New York (which was a popular shopping place for potential mates among orthodox Jews). Shortly after I arrived, he got home with a surprise. It was a girlfriend he intended to marry.

She was Christian, French, and a pole-dancer in the clubs. I thought it best to leave early.
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Last year, US police killed 409 people. German police killed 3. British and Japanese police, in total, killed zero. The US also maintains one of the worst prison systems in the world (-and Canada's not much better). But killing and imprisoning doesn't seem to be doing the job. The US still has more people in prison than any other country in the world.
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There's an excellent column by Karl Nerenberg at rabble.ca      It's " who gets the $$ for food in the north - big business vs hungry people". As a part of his privatizing of everything, Harper has put supply food to the north entirely in the hands of big business. It is making huge profits. People in the north are going hungry.
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Mexico is on the edge of civil war. Some weeks ago, mass graves of a busload of university students, about 40 of them, was discovered.  Nearby were the remains of a body in which more students had been shot, then burned to ashes. The local mayor and the police were heavily involved in the crime.  So was the President of Mexico So, almost certainly, was the army. The site of the killings and the bonfire is within a hundred metres of a Mexican army base.

It seems the students belonged to a group critical of the government for it's corruption and violence. Odd. Obama is wild to speak for freedom and justice and good things in Iraq. But not a word about Mexico which is right next door.

The British government has announced that some 13000 people in Britain are slaves. Many are refugees from the hells we have created in Africa and the middle east who are allowed to stay only if they have employment. Employers, many of them households ,take advantage of their necessity to hold a job in order toe keep them as slaves - providing minimal shelter, minimal food, long working hours, no holidays, and virtually no pay. Similarly, some end up in the sex trade as employees.

Actually, it happens in Canada and the US, too. We just never hear about it. And we never, never hear about even worse cases.

In Congo, for example, a country under the Control of western nations and their capitalists for almost a hundred and fifty years, income for lucky workers might be something over $400 a year. And child labour for much less is common. Life expectancy is short. There is virtually  no medical care. Yet for almost a hundred and fifty years, the very wealthy of the western world have freely looted the extensive resources of Congo. This is especially true in the mining sector in which very wealthy Canadians have been leaders.

Guatemala, controlled by American business through American-backed dictators might hit $250 a month. that's with a 48 hour week and a thriving gross domestic product. Canadian investors are very big  in Guatemala, too.

Then there's Haiti, where someone lucky enough to hold a job could get $2 a day. And that's after close to a hundred years of direct US control - either under a dictator or, recently, a puppet president.  In cities, the majority don't have modern plumbing. In the country, it's worse. In both, outhouses are available, but only for a fee which is prohibitive for many people.

When an earthquake destroyed large number of sheds that were the only houses most people had, people had to resort to the hundreds of tent camps that sprang up. The US promised billions in aid: but almost none of it reached the Haitians. Almost all ended up in the pockets of American billionaire contractors So the hundreds of tent camps are still there, without water or toilets, and with the canvas now rotting.

In all of the above countries, there are similarities. All have been under the control of Western capitalists for generations. All have productive economies.  All have stunning wage gaps and high rates of poverty. All suffer from hunger, and from lack of any social services. All are really nations of slaves.

And all make our very rich very, very, very rich.

Nov. 30: Patriotism and the rush to kill...

One of the things you learn in studying history is how many lies there are that we believe are truths. One of them is that going to war is good and patriotic-----but only when it happens on our side. Anybody on the other side who shoots back at us is evil, and quite possibly insane.

For generations, British children (and Canadians) were taught that the building of the British Empire was something to be proud of, to feel patriotic pride about.  Why? Well, it showed that the British were a more highly developed "race" than the peoples they conquered. The soldiers and sailors who did the fighting were "splendid chaps, splendid" while they were killing. When they weren't, they were the scum of the earth -drunken, poverty stricken, and dropped on the streets by our gracious kings and queens once the killing was over.

Hailed as patriots while fighting,  they were abandoned once the very wealthy of Britain no longer needed them to loot a nation of 'racially inferior' peoples. For centuries, country after country fell to British armies who killed, raped, and pillaged whenever they could. Then the "better sort" of British moved in to exploit the conquered people for cheap labour. and to take the resources. Oh, and missionaries moved in to - well - depending on your point of view - to civilize the conquered, or perhaps to make them more submissive.

What children were taught was not history. It was glory, glory, glory, and it was patriotism.

Long ago, I was shocked when an American friend mentioned the War of 1812 as the Second American War of Independence. It's often still taught that way in the US. Let's see. Americans wanted freedom, equality, etc. So they invaded Canada?

Of course. Read any American school history text. The US has been fighting wars against Native Peoples to take their land, against Latin Americans to take chunks of their land (as in the Mexican-American War), and to exploit resources and cheap labour, spread to the Pacific in The Phillipines, and now over most of the world in wars that have been continuous since 1776. They have done it for exactly the same greedy reasons the British did, and with the same murderous style. But you won't often see that in the history books of the movies. Americans, like British, are taught to believe in myths so they'll be patriotic.

Canada has not been different - smaller scale, but not different.

Germans were taught that way, too. That's why Hitler found them such a willing audience. Patriotism encourages us to see ourselves as superior to others - and therefore makes it quite acceptable for us to murder inferior peoples or to enslave them or, even better, to work them to death at a dollar or two a day to make our own billionaires even richer. Patriotism in Germany justified the murders of millions of Jews, Romas, gays...in World War Two.  It was used to justify the Canadian killing and displacing of native peoples. It  has also been used in Canada to justify our dreadful treatment of Japanese, Ukrainians, Jews, blacks.... And we're watching that same kind of patriotism rapidly growing in Europe today, as western nations react against the refugees they created.

"Patriotism" sounds like a "good thing".  Sometimes it is. There are people who do want to make Canada a better country - not just for billionaires, not just for white folks, for all of us.

But even those can fall into the trap of thinking that what's good for Canada - or for their part of it - is to preserve the Canadian culture. And this is even sillier than racism. There may be such a thing as a Canadian culture -  but I have never even heard of anyone saying exactly what that culture is. Do you eat when you're hungry? Well, so do people of every culture all over the world. Do you like soccer? So do North Koreans and Chileans.

Even if culture could be defined, it wouldn't help - because culture is the way we react to the world around us. And the world around us is constantly changing. So our culture changes to match it. We do not have the same culture as our grandparents - or even our parents.

Patriotism and culture sound good. But nobody really knows what they mean - except that they sound like good things to be. In reality, they come close the the ugly word, 'racism'. And they can be used - and are used - by our news media and their bosses to give a nice meaning to the fears and hatreds nurtured by the racism that we have more of than we like to admit.  Then they can aim our fears and hatreds at something that will make our wealthy even wealthier.

That's why Americans could inflict horrors on Vietnamese and Iraqis, and not see any contradiction with their supposed religious values.

And why did we send soldiers to die in Afghanistan? How did that show patriotism? How does it show patriotism to bomb ISIL in Iraq?

No. Patriotism is nothing more than a propaganda tool to turn off our brains, to see goodness where the purpose is really evil, and to give us a nice word for the evil so that we don't see how it is against our own basic values.
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Nov. 29:We'll deal with the Friday edition quickly...

...because there's, as usual, nothing much in it.

Section A, page 1 headlines the news there was a snowstorm Thursday. Gee. Who would have guessed?  But they proved it. They had a picture of somebody standing in the snow (presumably for all those who missed seeing a person standing in the snow on Thursday. Page 2 has a big news story (advertisement) about Riverview having big sales. And so it goes.

The good news is on the editorial and op ed pages. The editorial (on abortion) is well done. Alec Bruce does a solid job on the need for child care programmes. David Suzuki has a horrifying story about the condition of drinking water on some First Nations reserves. He might want to extend that with a look at the spread of industrial pollution to our lakes and streams.

Dale Hobson had nothing to say, so he tells us that Moncton always clears the roads with snowplows.
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NewsToday tells us our Governor-General is visiting Columbia and Chile, mostly because Canadian mining companies are very active there, and he wants to remind them that they have to maintain a high standard of corporate responsibility - what the GG calls the "Canada brand". He adds that Canadian companies are leaders in corporate social responsibility. They pretty well set the world standard for behaviour - especially in mining.

At this point, a reporter of normal intelligence might ask, "If we're world leaders in corporate social responsibility, and we set the world standard for behaviour, why is the governor-general making a special trip to Latin America?"  I mean, if we lead the world (and we are a huge player in mining all over the world), I should think the mining people would already know that. In any case, the big decisions on issues like social responsibility are made made in Canada. So why is the GG going to Chile?

Damned if I know.

What I do know is the the idea that Canadian mining companies have a high standard (or even a low one) for social responsibility is pure bunk. Like most large corporations,they have no sense of social responsibility whatever. Especially in poorer countries, they pay the lowest salaries possible, offer no benefits and are highly destructive of the environment. They are also ruthless in dealing with any locals who criticize their appalling levels of pollution.  That's what led to the massacres of civilians in Guatemala. That's why they like operating in places like Latin America and Africa where sweetheart free trade deals, backed up by the military, make stockholders rich while the locals die of malnutrition and lack of medical care.

On the same page, the Canadian government is patting itself on the back for deciding to send some 40 medical workers to help out with Ebola. Alert readers will notice this is coming a year late; but government spokesmen countered that with the story that we could not send any until we were sure we had a quick way to get them out.

Du-u-u-h, yeah. I can see where that  would be something it would take a year to figure out. But at least someone asked. Alas! Nobody asked another obvious question.

How come big, rich Canada which doesn't suffer any trade sanctions imposed by the US is acting so late AND sending so few. Tiny, poor Cuba, which does suffer trade sanctions. sent almost 200 health workers from the start.

And that sums up the news. As always, the news section gives us little sense of what is important or what is trivial. It doesn't  As both the mining and the Ebola story show us, they don't give us much context for the story - so we really can't tell what is significant or what it's really all about.
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Saturday's paper (on A 1) tells us the City of Moncton will be cutting 19 positions because it just doesn't have enough money - due to the decrease in the rate of property tax growth. But don't panic. I'm sure they'll still find enough to build a 100 plus million dollar hockey rink. And, you know, first things first.

It did not occur to reporter Brent Mazerolle to ask any questions about this. Nor, I guess, did it occur to his assignment editor that the cutting of 19 positions is not the big story, here.

Whenever this paper reports on any government action, it almost invariably sees it as simply a financial issue. But it's only partly financial.

The first function of any government is to create a list of things that are needed for the society. Then it sets priorities. Then it looks at the money, and makes the decisions. But before we make decisions, we need to know exactly what is needed and what the priorities are. I have yet to see that in the Irving press. Or in city hall.

Why are we continuing to encourage urban sprawl when that age is obviously coming to an end? What stage are we at in planing public transit in a world in which the automobile seems to have a limited future? How is climate change likely to affect Moncton, and what plans do we have to deal with the change? There has been some discussion of this in Bill Belliveau's weekly column - but no evidence anybody in government is reading it.

There is also a troubling story on p. 1 about school cafeterias violating health codes. This does not seem to be a problem caused by the schools. It seems to be caused by lax inspectors. We need a much fuller story on this one.

This Saturday's editorial and op ed pages are the best I  have ever seen in this paper.There isn't a weak column in the bunch.

Gwynne Dyer's stands out in terms of its importance. He points out that the so-called "war on terrorism" has been a stunningly expensive one - and a losing one. Our interventions don't stop terrorism; they encourage it.
I'll come back to this at the end.

But everything on these two pages is worth a read.
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NewsToday is a stinker. We now have a second story on the firing of the CEO of the francophone health sector. And, like the first one, it doesn't tell us anything.

The biggest story in the paper is on B5, "Concerns raised about U.S. torture record". The U.S. tortures people, foreigners and Americans, on a scale that Hitler could only have envied. A UN panel put it gently when it said the U.S. was "falling short of full compliance" with an international anti-torture treaty.

If this were a story critical of Russians or Muslims, it would have taken up a full page, at least. But it's about the U.S. as not only a torturer all over the world, but in U.S. prisons, in the jailing of illegal migrants   )including children), in the heavy use of solitary confinement, in the tidal wave of police brutality in the U.S., especially against blacks and Latinos. (Canada, by the way, also imprisons large numbers of immigrants.)

In fact, the U.S has become as brutal, as hysterical, and as hating as any nation in history. But, what the hell, it's directed at people inferior to us by reason of religion or skin colour. So who cares?

That's why this important story is so small, it would easily fit onto a Christmas card. The reality is we don't care so long as we are white, and Christian or Jewish. Let's not kid ourselves. We are racists. And in the U.S. and Europe, at least, it's going to get worse.

Why are we fighting ISIL? Because it's murderous?  ISIL has a long way to go before it can come close to the west for mass murder. Western countries are fighting ISIL for the same reason some of them have fought China, India, native peoples of the Americas, Africans in the past - because it gives big business the power to make money out of those countries.

But their bought politicians can't say that. Instead, they whip us into a frenzy based largely on that racism that lurks in us. And the job of the private news media is to spread that hatred and fear to us.
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There are always good columns on the student-columnist pages. Today, it was Isabelle Agnew's column that hit me between the eyes.

On C14, she talks about how she's doing well in university - but how she was on a downhill slide starting in grade 10. It was caused by a profound depression. But she eventually overcame it to do well in university.

As I read, I realized I was reading about myself. In elementary school, I was a hotshot. But, oh, starting with grade nine, I was a walking disaster. By grade ten, I was skipping a lot of school, and flunked the year. I passed grade 10 the second time, but was soon hopelessly failing grade 11. That's when the principal called me down, "Let's face it, Decarie, you have no brains at all. It's time to go find a job."

I plugged through a BA, mostly at night, but with horrible grades. But then I recovered to get straight As in an additional BA year and an MA - and on from there. But until I read ms. Agnew's column, I had no idea the problem might have been depression. (In the world I grew up in, there was no money. So we weren't allowed to be sick. And so we weren't sick. And a mental sickness? No way were we allowed to have that. So we didn't. I thought.)

Until I read this column, I never realized this. I had put it down to being a working class kid, never expecting to go to a university, and never expecting to be anything but unskilled labour. And that was part of it - and perhaps also part of the depression.

Thank you, Isabelle.


Then, annus mirabilis, I found a sermonette, one worth reading, on the Faith Page, C6. And it was doubly nice to see a sermonette that wasn't just a string of platitudes. (It's on much the same topic as Isabelle Agnew's column.) This is really good stuff and good writing.

Sadly, the church announcements are for yard sales, silent auctions. breakfasts.....leave your brains at home.
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I was going to write on two more topics - the greedy and insanely dangerous road to World War Three that the U.S. is following, with Harper tagging on, and some hard words for people who think it's good to be patriotic.  But this is already too long. So I'll do those two tomorrow.

Nov. 27: The news and other bunk....

We'll start with the news.

A big story on A1 for Wednesday tells you all you need to know about the TandT. "Pup has dramatic recovery after being found abandoned".  And, sure enough, there's a huge photo of  a recovered puppy, with another photo inside. I can imagine the scene in the newsroom now. An editor calls for ace reporter Brent Mazerolle.

"Mazerolle, get on on your horse. We have a fast-breaking story. It's about a puppy. Front page stuff. Bring a photographer. Get all the facts."

An excited Brent Mazerolle rushes home, and opens his secret closet. What to wear? The  Superman suit? Too casual. The Batman suit? Too fussy. Ah! He sees a flash of pink. Perfect. He'll cover this one as -
Miley Cyrus Man.

And that pretty well sets the tone for Wednesday's Section A.

The editorial looks at the problems of daycare, and of emergency shelters for women and children. It's solution? Private business of course. And, in the case of children, a parents could just leave them with a trustworthy parent. And how would the parents know the neighbour is trustworthy? Well, they'd just know. And would the parent have any training is operating day care? Well, no. But, you know, they'd just know.

According to the editorial this is a low cost solution. Yeah, like private medical care in the US is a low cost solution. Private business solutions are almost never low cost.

The editorial also uses the word bureaucrat to scare us. Irving press editors always use it as a dirty word meaning inefficiency and lack of caring. That's partly because they don't understand what "bureaucrat" means - and they don't know that government bureaucracy was so effective in developing Canadian prosperity in the 1940s and 50s, that private business sent its senior executives to Ottawa to observe their methods - and to learn.

Alec Bruce has an odd column. He admits at length that fracking can be disastrous - using North Dakota as a horrible example. Then, toward the end, he says that this couldn't happen here because we have a strong, involved central government.  No. (Sorry. Change the period after "No" to !!!!!!!!!!)

In fact, we have a tradition in New Brunswick that governments are under the thumb of big business. Alec should know that. He writes under the thumb of big business. What's more,  he says, New Brunswick has a record of strong regulation of shale gas. Like hell, it has! We've had government that set up phony committees, often of unqualified and lying people, and a newspaper that has consistently lied to us. And so far, I've seen no reason to believe that Gallant is different.
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NewsToday is - as usual. You can get more news, free, every day just be looking at google news. One story, though, raises lots of questions.

The federal auditor's report which has, so far, been highly critical of government spending and record-keeping, has come down hard on the bailouts we have given over the years to the auto industry. There is no clear record of what was spent, how it was spent,what it was for, what it was used for, or even of whether we got any return on that money at all. He could go further.

We are not told how much our governments give to big business, how much the very rich are hiding away in this age of the wage gap, how much they pay to political parties.... No wonder the very rich have such contempt for us suckers.

(The auditor story is on B1).

However, as a sign of alertness, (B5), "First nations told to follow financial rules." Damn right. Who do those native peoples think they are? Entrepreneurs?

By the way, the word entrepreneur means someone who invests money - and risks losing it. Big companies don't do that very much. They suck money, through government, out of us. And if they lose it, they expect us to give them more.

Small business people are entrepreneurs. If your small store goes broke, tough luck. Big business people usually are not entrepreneurs. They're more like bloodsuckers. So why does the Irving press use the word 'entrepreneur' for both groups? It's mug's game - to convince small business that it's in the same boat with big business.


World news is pretty much a blank.
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Thursday's front page has a story that actually is a story. Premier Gallant intends to make it easier for women to get abortions in New Brunswick. This is closest I've seen to any real action by him. However, watch for a difficult ride in the legislature. Watch, too, for all the self-righteous anti-abortionists with signs. You know, the ones who have no objection whatever to the mass murder of men, women, and children all over the world. (The call it patriotism. So it's different.)

The only other item of interest is the return of a full-page ad from Transcanada pipeline for Energy East. It's the usual, heavy on blue, an attractive and young, blonde woman, who just happens to be a pipefitter. (She seems to be wearing a rather fancy dress for the job.)

Actually, we'll be seeing fewer of these. Check out B7 for the story "Transcanada cuts ties with U.S. public relations firm......" It was actually revealed a few days ago when the PR firm's advertising campaign strategy was leaked to Greenpeace. It planned to set up bogus groups to attack the statements of environmentalists. The idea was to make it seem as these were just , you know, folks, who were putting new ideas on the table for open discussion. The reality was it would be a strategy "with strong heritage in the more aggressive policy and political fights of  the U.S."---in order to secretly use bogus groups to add "layers of difficulty" for those opposed to the pipeline.

Transcanada, once the story broke, oh, it really, really just wanted to have open and honest discussion, and could not possibly support such a scheme. Sure. They signed a huge deal with the biggest PR firm in the world; but they never even saw what the plan was. I also believe that a baby is born whenever a fairy burps.

Edelman, the PR firm, said the tactic was ethical. Come off it. The word 'ethics' does not exist in the PR world.

There's an important story on B8. Gun sales in the US are expected to go wild on Black Friday - and the system that's supposed to be checking buyers to see if they are allowed to have guns isn't working. As a result there are nine guns for every ten people in the US  (counting children and babies). A person is shot and killed every 16 minutes. Mass murders happen every three weeks or so. This is the country which thinks that God wants it to govern the world.
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There were, believe it or not, some major stories that didn't make the Irving press. Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, with his cabinet, has prepared a bill to make Israel a Jewish state with laws based on Jewish law. So, non-Jewish Israelis would not have rights. (Gee. Just like ISIL).

The president of Israel is much opposed because the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948 said it would be based on social and political equality for all its citizens regardless of race and gender. Now, it will be a theocratic state based on a racist concept of religious principals which excludes any possible equality.

Also missing was the story that the US is planning war games it will carry out in the near future - in Ukraine.
What a wonderful move to bring peace. Can you imagine the reaction if Russia planned war games to be held in Cuba?

Get used to it. Obama wants a war with Russia. Greed, stupidity, and maybe insanity rule.

Oh, and a Conservative MP advises all MPs to wear body cameras to guard against allegations of assault from .....well, usually from women (though he doesn't say so.) Let's see, now, in a house of commons ablaze in sexual harassment charges from women against men, an MP thinks the most important thing to do is to protect the men.....
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The bunk I mentioned in my intro is not in the Irving press. It's a book review that appears in the December issue of Literary Review of Canada. The book is called "Canada in the Great War Game, 1914-2014". It's by Gwynne Dyer - the one who writes a column every weeks or so for the Times and Transcript. (I haven't read the book yet because Moncton  is not the hub city for new books.) However, I get a general idea of it from the review - and it sounds to me as though Dyer is dead on.

In all the wars of this century - and despite the fine speeches on Nov. 11 - Canada lost over a hundred thousand killed in wars that had nothing to do with Canada, and nothing to do with democracy or freedom or protecting the homeland. An invasion of Canada was neither threatened nor possible in any of those wars. We have been used by Britain and, now, by the US to fight wars that have nothing to do with us. And we're about to do it again.

We do those who died no favour when we perpetuate the lies, and urge others to give their lives, too, in favour of the current lies.

The reviewer doesn't like Dyer's book. Well, that's fair ball. Reviewers don't have to like the books they review. But, if it's about Canadian history, they do need to know something about Canadian history. The reviewer, Michael Cotey Morgan of the U of North Carolina  (for pete's sake)  seems to have only a shaky grasp of Canadian history - and his teaching field is not Canadian history at all).

For example, he says that our sixty thousand dead of World War 1 is what won Canada the right to go to war based on its own decision. Cotey, it's not that simple. In fact, it wasn't even like that.

In the first place, Canada never said in World War 1 that it was going to war for any such reason. In the second place, Canada had to demand the right to declare war on its own in order to keep Canada united after the conscription crisis of 1917. It had nothing to do with Canada's "proud march to independence". In the third place, Britain had to accept the demand because the war had (forever as it turned out) , destroyed Britain's ability to enforce such demands. In the fourth place, Canada was NEVER required to take part in any war in the first place unless Canada was attacked itself. Colonies in the British Empire were, technically, at war when Britain was. But they were not required to participate in any way. The only war that Canada ever fought because it was required to do so by imperial practice, was the War of 1812 - and it was required only because the United States attacked Canada itself. In the Boer War and World War 1, we were not required to send troops. Parliament could well have said no - just as the independent US did for several years in WW1 and WW2. A person who poses as an authority on Canada at war should know that.

The change that came between wars, the right for Canada to declare war entirely on its own made no practical difference at all. And it was certainly not, as the reviewer claims, worth 60,000 killed.

The review is full of errors like that and full of bias. Why on earth would an obscure historian with thin credentials in Canadian history be asked to write a review on this subject? Canada has plenty of military historians of far better credentials. It's true that many of them spend too much time in bed with our military. But it is surely possible to find an unbiased one.

The reality is that Gwynne Dyer is quite right. We have been used to fight British wars and, now, American ones - and usually in the interest of big business in those countries -and usually in the interest of  Canadian big business, too.

That reminds me of a few paragraphs I should write about the idea of patriotism, and what it really means. But that's another day.