July 8: A_A_A_A_no Quebec beer?

Today's front page of the Irving press is gripping. A bold headline drops the bombshell of the day.

The provinces are close to an initerprovincial trade deal. But it WON'T include beer. Badly shaken, I turned to the next story. "Toddler meets national defence minister." But even that takes a back seat to a big photo of a little litle girl sitting in a car and holding the steering wheel just as if she were driving. And there's a big story about that below it.

And who says Moncton doesn't have a city plan? Yesterday, two granite blocks were taken from Main St. so panhandlers wouldn't sit on them, and so snow removal would be easier.

The editorial, as always, is piercing and challenging. You know our emergency waiting times in our hospitals are too long? Well, the editorial writer really thinks about that - and comes up with a challenge for all of us.   Something must be done!

Nobert tells us that, while we discuss electoral reform, the greater problem is that our politicians ignore public needs. Quite so, Norbert.  Now, close your eyes and guess why they ignore our needs. Whose needs to they serve? You know damn well whose needs they serve. And it's the same who that you and your newspaper serve.

I always like Justin Ryan's commentaries. But they really aren't commentaries. They are plugs for the muliculturalism that is making New Brunswick a much more interesting place. This should be on its own page with similar items. The Faith page could be changed to Faith and Culture, a sampling of the variety of faiths and cultures in this city. As it is, it doesn't even reflect the varieties of Christian faith.

The guest commentary is, as usual,from Troy Media. It must be really cheap. This one is by a man who knows all about climate change and the goodness of natural gas. We can be sure of that because he's been a director of five global corporations. So there. And and next week? How about one by an irving on how glyphosate is good for you?

Or how about one on why a government in a democracy can dispose of a chief medical officer without telling us why.  And why a newspaper chain doesn't have the integrity to try to find out why. As usual, the Liberals, the Conservatives, the irving press, and an unnamed fourth party all wallowed in the slime on this one.
The people of New Brunswick should be raising hell about this. But they and their newspapers and their politicians are too busy on the more crucial issue of importing beer from Quebec.

Alec Bruce writes on the importance of attracting immigrants to Atlantic Canada; and I certainly agree with that. But I don't see how that's going to help our deficit unless we  take the trouble to finding out which people and how many are not paying how much in taxes. Any thoughts on that, Norbert?
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The big news, the really big news in Canada&World is that two "prominent" locals will help select New Brunswick's next senators.

Who could possibly care who picks people who have been proven incompetent, expensive puppets since 1867? One of the chosen is a nursing professional. The other is a ta-da - public policy expert, Donald Savoie. In a democracy, why are are representatives being chosen by two people? Why should a nursing professional be one? And based on his previous performance for a provincial government, why Donald Savoie?

This is a farce.

But it's the biggest news of the day is Canada and the world.

Most of the section is, as usual, piddling and trivial.  However, B3 has a story worth a close reading - and some thinking, "Trudeau heads to NATO summit with commitments, faces questions." The story doesn't tell all. But on a close reading, it hints a good deal.

 Consider these points.
1. NATO is not a defence organization. It is a label for the American empire in Canada and Europe.  And, just as Rome used its Barbarian subjects to  help fight its wars, the U.S. uses us.

2. The current movements in eastern Europe are not to defend it against a Russian attack. The very idea of 4,000 NATO troops stopping a Russian attack is absurd. Nor does it make any sense that Russia would want to attack. The one looking for a war is the U.S.

3. We should follow the American model, and spend more on weapons, and build larger armed forces, we are told. Take a look at the U.S. model. It has driven the U.S.  into an international debt it can never pay. The only way it can escape that debt is to defeat the countries it owes the money to - and then refuse to pay.
Meanwhile, American living statndards are in steep decline - except for the wealthy - who don't pay taxes, anyway.

And in 70 almost unbroken years of war,  the U.S. with its world's largest and most expensive armed forces, has had only one, clear victory - the tiny island of Barbados. (Korea was a draw.) And, no, Iraq was not victory. Iraq is a disaster that is going to get worse. It was also the cause of the disasters we are now facing all over the middle east.

Are you really sure we should be accepting American leadership?

Read the comment by Bezan, the Conservative defence critic. It's stunningly ignorant and even loutish. The NDP comment is just wimpy.

And, speaking of NATO, bear in mind Canada has two obligations that are not mutually compatible. One is NATO. And that one involves subjection to American military  plans which have taken us to the disaster we're now in.
The other, and surely more important one, is to the United Nations. The UN, not NATO, is the one that was intended to maintain peace. So why did the U.S. push to create NATO? Because its business leaders didn't want peace. They wanted war to make themselves richer. So they effectively destroyed the UN role in maintaining peace. The crudeness of that thinking is reflected in what was said by Conservative defence critic Bezan.

Using NATO, the U.S. is also committing us to war with ISIL - a military disaster that was created in the first place by the greed of American big business. And we will send a hundred million dollars a year to support the losers that the U.S. calls the government of Afghanistan - A hundred million of our tax money is going to disappear each year into the world's most corrupt government.
And now we are sending 1,000 Canadians to a situation in which, if the Americans succeed in provoking a war, will turn all thousand of them into ducks in a  shooting gallery. I have a better idea.

Lets send all the Koch sons, the Rockefellers, the Fords, the Irvings, the Bushes to eastern Europe. And I'll be happy to be at the airport, handing out doughnuts as they board.
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Here are two stories about how the U.S. is funding government assassins in Honduras. They kill people who do terrible things like trying to protect the environment from American and Canada investors. Very often, the U.S. is even more directly involved with the assassins it likes to call 'special ops'. This has been going on for a century -  and adding the murders ofpresidents and other politicians who are so foolish as to want to help their people.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/08/honduras-military-hitlist-activists-us-investigation

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/07/honduras-environment-killing-human-rights-berta-caceres-flores-murder

And remember - all of this would have been approved by that nice Mr. Obama, and by the philanthropists who are major stockholders in Honduras resources.
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This next isn't a cheerful one. But it's worth thinking about. However, it does leave out the failure of what had been an important factor in our society - the collapse of the churches into irrelevance in a world that has little room for  any religion I have ever heard of. Every Saturday's Faith page is a reminder of that irrelevance.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45061.htm
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And here's a piece of good news.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/07/families-of-soldiers-killed-in-iraq-vow-to-sue-tony-blair-for-ev/
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We get news reports about the horrors of terrorism. But we rarely hear about how we cause these horrors. It's always somebody else's fault.  (Along this same theme, I've been hearing about the new, Quebec history for high schools. It seems that the French settlers who came here lived in peace with the native peoples. Amazing how the lies change from generation to generation. When I was in grade school, the big lie was that the French settlers valiantly fought the Iroquois to stop an attack on Montreal, with all the French being killed in the defence.  In fact, the French were attacking a small native convoy of iroquois canoes to loot its furs. What it didn't know what that behind the small convoy of Iroquois was a big convoy of Iroquois. My first Decarie ancestor was in Montreal at the time. But he had to stay home to water the ducks.)

https://theintercept.com/2016/07/07/chilcot-report-and-77-london-bombing-anniversary-converge-to-highlight-terrorism
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Police have now killed 566 people in the U.S. But reports suggest that number is already outdated. There's also a report of a black American hanged by the KKK. Yep. That's just the country to lead the free and Christian world.
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Here's a very useful item on how urban areas can deal with climate change. This is something for Moncton city council to think about.  ....if it ever thinks.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/08/30-ways-cities-can-prepare-for-global-warming/

June, by the way was the warmest June on record for the U.S. City council hasn't told us about Moncton. It  won't, of course, until some very wealthy developer comes up with an idea that we can pay for, and that he can get all the profit from.
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In Israel, Netanyahu is in more than a litle financial  and possibly criminal  trouble. I can send only the headline because Haaretz will not usually allow the transfer of a full story to a non-subscriber. This is only one of several stories about his connection with influence-buyers.

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.729198?utm_content=%24sections%2F1.729198&utm_medium=email&utm_source=smartfocus&utm_campaign=newsletter-daily&utm_term=20160706-04%3A07
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If you want to learn much about the cruel treatment of Palestinians by Israelis, you have to read the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz.  Its coverage is narrow. But it's remarkably honest and courageous. In this case, the victims are Palestinians who are Israeli citizens.

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.729404?utm_content=%24sections%2F1.729404&utm_medium=email&utm
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There's so much more. But it's getting late.

We're looking at a world system that is in collapse. I think the cause of the collapse is largely greed and disregard of human needs. And much of that can be connected to the utter failure of Christianity to represent the morality it is supposed to stand for.

We badly need to rethink what our values are, what our priorities are, of what we owe to everyone on this earth...we need to develop the courage to talk openly about this and to assert, openly, that this is our society, and not the sole property of the grreediest among us.

And don't waste your time expecting any leadership in this from the irving chapel.

July 7: The Newspaper That Should Pay Us to Read It.

Last night, I tried to listen to a Donald Trump speech. I really did. There was no mention of what the national issues are. It was about how he loved his children, how he gets (unnamed) things done. And the audience was wild with applause. Obviously, this was an audience which didn't know what the issues were, either. That's because they all get news from news media just like the irving press.

Clinton was no better.

There is rising poverty in the U.S., rising homelessness. There is a public education system in a death spiral. There's a gun mentality which kills far more Americans than 'terrorists' do. There's an out-of-control private health system that is hugely expensive for the working class and middle class. So they die earlier. There's the Chilcot Inquiry that shows that Bush created a war that was unjustified , unnecessary, that murdered a million people, that is destroying the middle east, and has created a spiral of wars and chaos that  daily gets worse. There's a growing chaos within the U.S. of violence and crime, of destruction of human rights. And Obama has been no different from Bush.

The U.S. that was is dying. The U.S. that is is probably dying, too, dying of the greed of its wealthy, dying of the confusion and ignorance of its population, dying of the hatreds and propaganda spewed by its private news media.
And Justin will be the puppet of whoever wins the presidency next time
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Here are a couple of items a reader sent me.

Obama is a much over-estimated president. His policies have not been significantly different from those of Bush. (The first item has a Yiddish word, 'Schmuck', which I prefer not to translate. But 'communications professional' Brian Cormier could have used it in his column yesterday about the man who, you know, unzipped his fly in public and.......you know.)

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/07/if-you-like-obama-youll-love-trump/

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/13/the-great-leap-backward-americas-illegal-wars-on-the-world/
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The big, front  page news story in yesterday's irving press was that hospital waiting times are too long. The big news for today is that authorities are thinking about it.

The big, big photo of the day is that Shediac is making the world's longest lobster roll. And guess what. Masses of people are lining up to watch people making the longest lobster roll.

It's a full life.

On page 3, we learn that the modestly named Irving chapel will have a service this Sunday, but with just an ordinary Rev. leading it. However, there will be a Rev. Dr. for Special Music. (This province must be full of preachers looking for part-time jobs.)

As I was driving yesterday through a part of Moncton's urban sprawl - street after street of really boring bungalows with lots of lawn - I thought of something that could use a some journalist coverage.

It is not possible to service that sprawl with public transport. This was all designed to be served by the automobile. See any problem coming up there?
It is also extremely expensive for a city to sprawl like that. The extra distances mean very expensive water pipes, sewage, hook-ups of all sorts, longer and more expensive roads and sidewalks... Has city council ever discussed this? Has it looked at how other cities deal with these problems? Does it have a city plan at all - I mean a plan that goes beyond giving rebates to developers, and building new high schools for them?
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The editorial writer is very, very upset about the way we are making free drinking water available to people who are thirsty. Making it available on walking trails is okay, says the editorial. But we must never forget it comes from a system we all pay for.

Damn right. We should put up signs on those "free" water places. This is, without question, a burning issue of the day. (And could we also put signs for all those people who get tax rebates that we have to pay for? And the ones who avoid taxes that we have to pay for?)

Who the hell to those thirsty people think they are? Corporation presidents?
Norbert has a good column on electoral reform.

Then we have a "commentary" on tuition bursaries that isn't a commentary at all. It's at best a news story on what the government is doing. And it's a free ad for the provincial government.

Under it is a "commentary" that is really just propaganda put out by the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies, an organization set up by our social superiors to tell us what to think. It, like the 'commentary' on bursaries, is probably free for the irving press. It's not good journalism. But it's cheap.

Alec Bruce writes about clean energy - but really doesn't say much. It claims we are making great strides toward clean energy. If so, it's a well kept secret.
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And what is the top news in Canada&the Whole World? A New Brunswick Senator has been chosen leader of the Liberal Caucus in the Senate. Be still, my heart.

Then, there is a whole page on Jason Kenney, with two stories on what a great guy the former Harperite is (tells jokes, etc.), and how he might run for the Conservative leadership.

B6 at last gets to some world news - but destroys it with bad journalism.

One is essentially propaganda from The Associated Press. It criticizes Trump for saying Saddam killed terrorists 'so good'. But the sub-headline says "Trump's praises for brutal strongman seemingly knows no bounds."

Now, think. Who has been the biggest and most brutal strongman of the last  50 years or so? Who has been the biggest, most brutal, and indiscriminate killer of people all over the world? Just about every president of the United States in that period. That's who.

Ever seen a headline that refers to U.S. presidents as brutal strongmen?
In fact, this story is not about what Trump said at all. It's a story arguing that Trump is all wrong - and it uses some very questionable sources to do it. Nor does it pay much attention to the fact that the U.S. was a major supplier and supporter for Saddam, and that it paid Saddam for his mass murder of Iranians. Then, when the U.S. turned against him, it murdered a million people, mostly civilians, and effectively destroyed Iraq as a nation.

The paper does, on the last page, have a report on the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war. Again, it's the associated press. It   actually tells very little about the report, and half of the story is devoted to Bush and Blair saying they did nothing wrong.

As well, it never says why the U.S. invaded Iraq.

John Chilcot and his committee are outanding examples of the traditional British establishment. As a result, this report is not nearly so harsh as it should be. But, apparently, it was too harsh for the associated press and the irving press.
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Here's a story of what's really happening in the U.S. - but isn't being mentioned in the leadership campaigns except in the vaguest terms. Nor have I seen or heard much about the Canadian situation.

//www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/07/middle-class-squeeze-money-household

The reality is the revolution that nobody talks about.  Democracy has been largely overthrown, and power handed to the greediest and wealthiest among us. This is a return, in many ways, to the centuries of rule by an aristocracy.
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The next one is a story about inequality and the privileges of the white and celebrated in South Africa. It's about a world-famous athlete who murdered a woman, and is now getting an absurdly low sentence for it - because he's white and celebrated.

Canadians woud never allow such a thing? I wouldn't be at all sure of that.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/07/oscar-pistorius-sentence-an-homage-to-celebrity-and-white-privilege
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And here's one that's worth thinking about...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/07/unjust-war-soldiers-iraq-afghanistan-vietnam
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As you read this, remember.  It is much the same people   (or their successors) that drove the U.S. and Britain into war in Syria who are now taking Canadian troops to Eastern Europe and Syria. Justin Trudeau has bought their line.
In both cases, we  have put Canadians into dangerous situations simply to please the wealthy and powerful who want wars. And, in being silent, we have betrayed our troops just as we betrayed them in Afghanistan.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/i-read-the-chilcot-report-as-i-travelled-across-syria-this-week-and-saw-for-myself-what-blairs-a7123311.html
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And this next one is very true. Canadians should, before it's too late, have their own inquiry into our sending of troops to Syria and eastern Europe.

//www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/06/us-george-bush-needs-chilcot-report-iraq-war
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Chelsea Manning attempted suicide in her cell. She got 35 years for giving information to wikkileaks. Hillary Clinton leaked more, but got a kiss on forehead.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/07/chelsea-manning-attempts-sucicide/

Will this make the Irving press tomorrow? Probably not.
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And here's a peek at the caring lady we know as Hillary Clinton.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/07/clinton-backs-monsantos-case-that-to-be-anti-monsanto-is-to-be-pro-global-warming/

Get used to it. The U.S. has become thoroughly corrupted. It's a threat to the whole world. And Justin and Barrack are great buddies.
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And here's another story you'll never see in the irving press.

http://www.alternet.org/food/monsanto-indoctrinates-children-through-educational-propaganda
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Here is a story which the irving press (amazingly, even for the irving press) did not have - though the news was out in lots of time for today's edition. It's a major story all over North America - except in the irving press.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/06/us/baton-rouge-shooting-alton-sterling/

The editing of this paper is so bad, I can never decide whether it's done deliberately to keep readers ignorant, whether the editors are simply incompetent, or whether it's just cheaper to be brainless.

And on the editorial and comment page, what's called editorial and comment is usually trivial, irrelevant, or propaganda. And there is no comment whatever on the rest of this world that we all  have to live in.

As well, this appears to be a newspaper that is really, really cheaply run.

July 7: Some days are worse than others.

The U.S. is, we are told, the land of the free and the home of the brave. One has to be brave there. U.S. police have killed 538 people so far this year. As I write, there is rioting in Louisiana where the most recent killing took place. The victim was, of course, African-American. You'll find the story on CBC news.

CBC also has the story of the Chilcot inquiry - an inquiry into the Iraq war, an inquiry the irving press hasn't paid much attention to. What it reveals is the making of one of the biggest blunders in history, a  blunder that created horror for millions, that made ISIS a major force, that has made all of the Middle East a chaos, and one that draws the whole world closer to a nuclear war. And it was fought for only one reason, to satisfy the insatiable greed of oil billionaires, mostly American.

We are nowhere even close to beginning to climb out of that horror. Instead, we built on it with the destruction of Syria, with threats to Iran.

Will this make tomorrow's irving press? Maybe - in short form. Will it produce a column of commentary? Not likely.

Will it produce criticism of the oil industry? Not bloody likely.
Nor is the irving press likely to publish this, next  part of the story.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iraq-invasion-called-illegal-at-u-k-inquiry-1.971428

George Bush, Tony Blair, Barrack Obama have been mass murders as vile as Hitler and, as torturers, even worse than Hitler.  And we have been complicit in allowing them to do it. And now Justin has added us to members of the gang.
If we cannot get angry at them for their vile behaviour, we should at least be annoyed that they have all proven such incompetent asses and such servile agents of the very wealthy. The object is world conquest, with a world to be ruled by America's wealthy for America's wealthy. The plan is all laid out in "Project for the New American Century". It's been publicly available for almost twenty years, but never made the Irving press.
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Today's headline is that emergency wait times in NB hospitals have become impossibly long.

OOOOO - I have an idea for a useful story on this. Is it possible this is happening because some of New Brunswick's wealthy don't pay taxes?

It's good to see that New Brunswick can produce groups like the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. How come it doesn't produce adult groups like that?
Opinion and commentary is, as always, painfully local and, as always, never critical of anyone whose name is spelled i-r-v-i-n-g.

Hump Cormier is, we are told, a writer and communications professional. What is a communications professional? Does he fix computers? Cell phones? Does it mean he writes those ads that annoy us on TV? Where does one takes courses to be a communications professional? Is there a degree in it? A certificate?
And, while I can share his distaste of a man who would urinate in public, it does not seem to be a plague that is sweeping Moncton. Why on earth waste a column on this topic?

Then there's a 'commentary' by Bruce Fitch  which is really the regular free ad for the Conservative party. Apparently, it's criticizing Liberal decisions. Who woulda thunk it?

Then, Alec Bruce is excited that our political leaders have come up with the idea of encouraging immigration to boost our economy. The 'think tank' that produced this flash was made up of giants like Brian Gallant and Dominic Leblanc.

Actually, I don't see why it required a meeting of such eminents to come up with the idea.

Canada was built by immigrants from day one. It has worked well.  And it didn't require any meetings in barns to come up with that idea.
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Canada&World is pretty bland stuff. As usual, it seems to be made up of stories chosen at random - and quite without thought. There's nothing to explain how a 4,000 member NATO force would stop a Russian invasion of Latvia. Nor is their any evidence that Russia is planning such an invasion.

South America, in very serious turmoil, does not get a mention. Nor does Syria. Nor does Yemen where millions are dying of starvation in a blockade imposed by the freedom-loving governments of Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Not a word about the many wars in Africa. Asia doesn't exist, either. There's nothing about the brutal and environmentally destructive  methods used by our mining industry all over the world. Nor has there been a word, in any section, about the spraying of our forests (and our wildlife and us) with  poisons.

It's not hard  to put together a Canada&World section. All it takes is an editor of broad knowledge of foreign affairs (not all that daunting a requirement), and an hour or two to sort through the wire services. Bingo. Job's done.

I can only assume the appallingly low quality of this section is deliberate. This is a section designed for trivia and ignorance.

Oh - a thought on the lead story about the Canada Pension Plan. Somebody named Joel Richardson, VP of the NB division of Canadian Manufacuturers and Exporters - and  also a big deal in the Coalition of New Brunswick Employers - is in a tizzy-fit because of the "absolute failure" of the government to consult with him and his business buddies on this.

Joel baby, in a democracy no government has an obligation to consult business on anything. We are all equal. If a government chooses to consult, it had better consult all of us. And if it chooses not to, well.we elected it to govern, not to ask us what to do - It has the right take the risk for what that means on election day when all of us, not just business organizations, get to vote.

Joel, baby, a system in which business has a right to be consulted by government is not called democracy.  It's one of the characeristics of a system called  fascism - the system Canadians died fighting against.

And, incidentally, if you really don't think this government consulted the big boys in business on this, you're a very naive little boy.
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The Guardian has a very full account of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war. It was a collosal act of cruelty and murder for no reason but greed. Worse, it may have been the most devastating blunder in history, one that we have not begun to see the end of.

And it was brought to you by much the same people who are now bringing the story that Russia is planning to invade eastern Europe.

https://www.theguardian.com/international
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This next one is more important than it might look. Forget what Obama says in this. The reality is that he is admitting that one of the most expensive wars in history has ended in American failure. All it has done is to kill the democracy that was developing in Afghanistan, to kill more people than we shall ever be told,  to torture thousands,  to create one of the most corrupt governments in the world, and to establish the world's largest opium production.

It's a repeat of the blunders of greed for the last 70 years.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/06/obama-delays-us-troop-withdrawal-afghanistan-al-qaida
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Much as I admire Pope Francis for the positions he has taken on world affairs, I despair of a church run by asexual bachelors and spinsters who make the rules for married couples. Has it never occured to them that, without sexuality in this world, we'd run out of babies and, within a generation, become very short of priests and nuns?

We can't all expect women to wait for an angel to do the job.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/philadelphia-catholic-church-rules-divorce-gay-sex
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Gee! Tump has a real problem with climate change (which he denies is happening.) Luckily,  the oil industry in New Brunswick has been leading us in our struggle to deal with the effects of climate change. I mean, just look at, you know, all the things it's done....

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/06/donald-trump-climate-change-florida-resort
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Here's the video of a policeman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, killing a man.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/graphic-video-shows-moment-police-fatally-shoot-alton-sterling-on-the-ground-a7122111.html

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave.....
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Information Clearing House for today has a lot of stories worth reading today - too many to list.
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Here's some of the African news that never makes it into the Irving press. And it's even worse in Congo and several other countries.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/africainvestigates/2011/11/2011111682030843189.html
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And here's a story about China that didn't make the irving press. The Chinese have warships in the South China Sea. What a nerve! Everybody knows that only the U.S. is allowed to have warships there.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-china-idUSKCN0ZL030

Maybe we, in Canada, can send one of our new, irving-built warships - if we can find one that works - another story missed by the irving press.
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Here's a less polite summary of the  Chilcot Inquiry. I think it should be even less polite. I think Blair and Bush should be tried and hanged,  just as we did to Naziis at Nuremburg.

http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/iraqis-say-long-delayed-damning-british-inquiry-invasion-far-cry-justice
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This is another one that didn't make it into the irving press Canada&World section.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/06/28/the-age-of-disintegration-neoliberalism-interventionism-the-resource-curse-and-a-fragmenting-world/
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And how, on earth, was it possible NOT to have an editorial or commentary on the FBI's trivialization of Hillary Clinton's 'careless' computer use?

No. Our big commentary was about a man urinating outdoors.

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July 5: the coming world disorder.

Canada is sending a thousand troops to Latvia. There was no debate in parliament.  There was no vote. Now, with Syria, we have two recent occasions in which we have committed ourselves to what could be wars. Justin did it because Obama told him to. (Certainly, I heard no clamouring in the streets that we should do this.)

Nor have I heard a whisper from The Canadian Legion, despite the fact that our history books tell us that one reason we fought World War One was to win the right to declare war through our elected parliament.

Why did we to it? Because Obama said so. His reason is that the Russians are threatening to invade Eastern Europe. The Russians are threatening? Do they have missile sites along the Canadian, American, and their own borders? Is the Russian navy patrolling our coasts?

Even the Ukrainian 'revolution' against its elected government was sponsored, organized and financed by the U.S. government. That much is on public record from the U.S. government official who was behind it.  NATO navies routinely patrol the Russian coasts. Since 1974, the U.S. has invaded some 70 countries (at least), and has killed millions.

But, oooh-oooh, those Russians are threatening.

However, even if they were, the NATO force we are sending makes no sense. At 4,000 the total force is far too small to to hold back a Russian assault. For openers, the Russians would easily overrun the American nuclear missile sites on their border. Can you seriously believe the U.S. would not fire those missiles immediately? And can you imagine the number of nuclear missiles that would send off around the world? (I can't. But it would be in the thousands.)
A conventional military force in Eastern Europe makes no sense whatever. So why  has Justin agreed to it?

Well, first of all, it's because Justin recognizes to a degree most prime ministers have not that Canada is a U.S. colony. Justin is an American puppet. That's a reality you better get used to.

And why is the U.S. taking such a risk?

Remember " Project for the new American Century". Remember "American Exceptionalism". American business leaders, who own the Bushes and Obamas and Justins of this world are determined to conquer to world in order to control its trade. But time is short.

The U.S. has run into blockages all over the world. It's national debt is the biggest, by far, in history. Its internal problems - rising poverty, confusion, hatreds, loss of faith in democracy, racism have led to an internal chaos that could well destroy the country.

It's now or never. And the super-wealthy and super-greedy are willing to risk killing tens of millions, maybe everybody, to get what they want. Remember, many of these are the oil barons who have denied and still deny climate change, and who have put the brakes on any attempt to deal with it.

Their brain capacity is not impressive (in most cases their wealth is inherited), and they never heard of morality - except when there's an award for it. They are pure greed and self-interest that we have allowed to run loose.

And, so far, I have seen no sign that Justin has any sense of social goals or vision that  extends beyond getting re-elected.
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Today's headline is that the federal government is going to admit 2,000 skilled immigrants to Canada - and place then in the maritimes. Well, I'm  happy to see immigrants. I grew up with them. But why can't the maritimes train 2,000 of the young people who live here? This sounds like a scheme for employers more than for the rest of us.

There's nothing else worth even a look in Section A news. One story is on the death of motorcyclist killed by a police car. (The notorcyclist had fallen to the road after hitting a moose.) It's the same story they ran yesterday.) People in Richibucto are going to eat a lot of scallops.

Where's the real news? Any idea who the New Brunswickers are who have money in tax havens? Any idea how much that costs us?

Norbert and the editorial will be a gripping pair of reads for anyone who is really, really interested in trash collection.

One of the commentaries is good. But it's really a news story, not a commentary. It's on testing fresh water. There's an excellent, a real commentary and one with a punch, on stopping private blood clinics.

There's almost a whole page on how Americans celebrated July 4 by eating hot dogs and having parades. Who woulda guessed?

The story on our NATO effort  highlights the fact that the U.S. approved of what we had done. (I'm so proud.) Then it goes into propaganda about how we aren't spending as much on defence as other NATO countries are. As is typical of such stories, it never mentions how much of NATO spending in all countries, especially the U.S., is pure graft and corruption. Keep an eye on this story. I wouldn't be surprised if Justin were to buy the most expensive fighter aircraft in history - the one that doesn't work.
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Section C4 has an excellent column by high school student/journalist Jana Giles. She notes that the new Moncton High, unlike the old one,  has dreadful accomodation for the performance arts like plays, but superb ones for sports. There's an explanation for that.

The old, British aristocracy and other levels of the higher class which ruled Britain for centuries had gradually developed mental weaknesses as a result of inbreeding. This is still a serious problem for the British Royal family - and for much of the British aristocracy.

So the question became how to justify government by kings and earls and dukes and others who had very limited intellectual ability. It was a major school for the upper classes, Rugby that that is credited with finding the answer about 1850. (Credit is usually given to a headmaster, Thomas Arnold - but this is unfair to Arnold who was more intelligent than that.)

The theory that developed was that a member of the upper classes developed character, judgement, honesty, gentlemanliness by playing sports - but only sports that had rules, and were accepted by the upper classes.

Cricket was accepted. Fox-hunting, of course. Golf. Tennis. And at Rugby, it was the old, school game -  Rugby which became football.

Women were not permitted to play most of these sports.  After all women didn't need character and judgement. Similarly, the  poor and the middle class males were excluded, too. That's why the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup were intended for amateurs. That effectivly excluded the poor and most of the middle class because they couldn't affored to play for free. Olympics were amateur for the same reason.

Certain sports were chosen because  they, supposedly, were the ones that developed leadership and character. Brains were not important. Leadership came from character, and character learned from certain sports. This thinking was immediately scooped up by the universities - and then by the high schools.
Thus the lavish spending on high school sports facilities, and the neglect of fine arts.
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I was disappointed to read the following on the possibility of Bush and Blair being tried for war crimes. Funny how the U.S. and Britain had no  trouble finding Saddam Hussein of Iraq guilty of  war crimes (which he hadn't committed, and which, it seems, weren't against the law in the first place.)
 And the logic of this, if  true, is that the U.S. is not guilty of murdering uncounted millions over the past seventy years.

And if it's true that UN sanctions can't be applied to nations, how come national governments have not lifted a finger to fix that? And how come Canada has sent troops and/or aircraft to kill people on at least five occasions, four of them without UN approval?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/05/tony-blair-in-the-dock-fantasy-wars-aggression
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And here is the result of a war that was fought for one reason, and only for one reason - to make American oil billionaires richer.

Tell me again about how God blesses America. Tell me again how it's the leader of the Christian world. Tell me again about those moronic, lying clergy who open the meetings of Congress with prayer.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/05/the-view-of-chilcot-from-iraq-only-those-with-the-wounds-feel-the-pain
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This next one struck a chord for me. I grew up in a Montreal in which boys played ball hockey in the streets. There were no adults. No authorities. It was all pure kid. That's how Dickie Moore started out just a few streets from me.
But i haven't seen it for years - and never in Moncton.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jul/05/decline-street-hockey-canada-cities-game-children

In fairness, I should add that on icy days we would hitch rides, holding on to the rear bumpers of devlivery trucks to see how far we could slide.  Neat.
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Here's a counter-view that Tony Blair should go on trial for war crimes and mass murder. And that war is really still going on, and threatening more each day to become a world, nuclear war.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45033.htm

I have just two corrections to it. Britain is not planning to send troops to Libya. It has already sent them - as part of a French intrusion.

And it is not true that being a public figure and rich still leaves you open to punishment for disobeying the law. Being a public figure and rich means you have a free hand to murder, to destroy whole societies, and to endanger all humanity.
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"Rebel" groups in Syria, financed and supplied by the U.S. and its friends, are carrying out terrorist attacks, kidnapping, torturing as a matter of routine. Only a reader of the irving press could be surprised to hear that.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syrian-rebel-groups-accused-abductions-torture-and-summary-killings-535345364
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Julian Assange released documents showing the U.S. government was  lying about what it was doing in the world. Now, he points to 1,200 leaks of Iraq war documents by Hillary Clinton. And those are just the tip of the iceberg.
If the U.S. get its hands on him, Assange will spend the rest of his life in prison ( or  hanging from the end of a rope). And what does the Attorney-General think of Hillary Clinton's leaks of documents?
No big deal.

https://www.rt.com/usa/349492-wikileaks-iraq-clinton-emails/
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This is a pretty good source, and it takes a  hard look at what laws Hillary Clinton has broken.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/07/05/hillary-clintons-email-operation-violated-at-least-six-u-s-criminal-laws/
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Oh, yes, according to the CBC and NATO the Canadian commitment in eastern Europe is open-ended. That means we've signed up for the whole game - no matter what it turns out to be. We will learn the hard way  that the Liberals and the Conservatives are the same party.

(Actually, we won't. We haven't learned it in almost a hundred a fifty years. So I guess we won't now.)
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Here's an item about the Trans-Pacific Partnership our government and, certainly, the irving press have been notably silent about.

https://theintercept.com/2016/07/05/despite-what-media-says-tpp-isnt-about-free-trade-its-about-helping-corporations/
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I am not a Roman Catholic. I intensely dislike ritual.   But I find Pope Francis one of the few religious leaders worth reading. In this one, note the final paragraph - and compare it to the dreadful stuff we get on the Faith page.

JUBILEE AUDIENCE: On Works of Mercy

Posted by ZENIT Staff on 30 June, 2016

Pope at Jubilee Audience
Below is a ZENIT translation of Pope Francis’ address during his eighth Jubilee Audience that was held at 10 o’clock this morning in Saint Peter’s Square, a meeting that Francis decided to hold for pilgrims and faithful coming to Rome for the Jubilee of Mercy.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!

How many times, during these first months of the Jubilee, we have heard talk of the works of mercy! Today the Lord invites us to make a serious examination of conscience. In fact, it is good never to forget that mercy is not an abstract word, but a style of life: a person can be merciful or not merciful; it’s a style of life. I choose to be merciful or I choose not to be merciful. It is one thing to speak of mercy and another to live mercy. Paraphrasing the words of Saint James the Apostle, (cf. 2:14-17), we can say: mercy without works is dead in itself. It is in fact like this! What renders mercy alive is its constant dynamism in going to meet the needs and necessities of all those in spiritual and material hardship. Mercy has eyes to see, ears to listen, hands to resolve …

Daily life enables us to touch with our hand so many needs regarding the poorest and most tested persons. Requested of us is that particular attention that leads us to be aware of the state of suffering and need in which so many brothers and sisters are. Sometimes we pass before dramatic situations of poverty and it seems that they do not touch us; everything continues as if there were nothing, in an indifference that in the end renders us hypocrites and, without realizing it, it results in a form of spiritual lethargy, which renders our mind insensitive and our life sterile. People that pass by, who go forward in life without being aware of the needs of others, without seeing the many spiritual and material needs, are people that pass by without living, people that do not serve others. Remember well: he who does not live to serve, does not serve to live.

How many aspects there are of God’s mercy to us! In the same way, how many faces turn to us to obtain mercy. One who has experienced the Father’s mercy in his own life cannot remain insensitive in face of the needs of brothers. The teaching of Jesus, which we just heard, does not allow ways out: I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; I was naked, a refugee, sick, in prison and you assisted me (cf. Matthew 25:35-36). One cannot beat about the bush in face of a person who is hungry: he must be given to eat. Jesus says this to us! The works of mercy are not theoretical subjects, but concrete testimonies. They oblige one to rollup one’s sleeves to alleviate suffering.

Because of the changes of our globalized world, some material and spiritual poverties have multiplied: hence let us make room for the imagination of charity to identify new operative ways. Thus the way of mercy will become ever more concrete. Requested of us, therefore, is to remain vigilant as watchmen, so that it will not happen that, in face of the poverties produced by the culture of wellbeing, the eyes of Christians are weakened and become incapable of looking at the essential. What does it mean to look at the essential? To look at Jesus, to look at Jesus in the hungry, the imprisoned, the sick, the naked, in the one who has no work and must lead his family forward. To look at Jesus in these brothers and sisters of ours; to look at Jesus in one who is alone, sasd, in one who errs and is in need of counsel, in one who needs to walk with Him in silence, to feel he is in company. These are the works that Jesus asks of us! To look at Jesus in them, in these people. Why? Because that is how Jesus looks at me, looks at all of us.
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Above all, watch the American election. What we are watching is the social collapse of the United States. Americans are angry and frustrated. But there is nothing in the permitted beliefs that allows them to understand why they are angry and frustrated. Thus there is no solution to what is going on.

It's like the province of New Brunswick, but on a bigger scale.

That kind of social collapse is happening all over the world. And it's happening with no sense of any alternative. The prime cause is the stampeding power of people we call capitalists who are not, in fact, capitalists at all. These are simply the greedy, amoral, and not very bright aristocrats of a couple of centuries ago.

July 4: Off to the shore.

Today's format is different because I'm writing it Sunday evening and adding the irving press part early Monday morning. With luck, that will get me to a sunny day at the beach.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/06/18/canada-willingly-makes-tax-deals-with-tax-havens.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-offshore-treaties-barbados-tax-avoidance-1.3641278

Tax havens must be the cause of the biggest robbery in history. And we are the victims. This is our money. If I broke into a convenience story to steal all the candy, I'd face jail time. There are Canadians who have been robbing us blind through tax havens. Our policians, both Liberal and Conservative, made that possible. Has it not occured to anyone to ask why they did that? Is it possible, do you think, they were paid with big money to make the rest of us poorer?
Where are the statements from Trudeau and Gallant about the measures they are taking to deal with this? Where are the names that we know they must have? Where are the demands of our news media for an investigation? Where are the investigations by the news media?

How many billions of dollars  have been stolen from us? We're all poorer for what has happened. Our hospitals are poorer. Our schools are poorer. Our children will be poorer. Those photo pages of smiling people holding up be cheques for charity are not a sign of community effort. In a community effort, we all get together to make sure the services we need are available for everyone. Those volunteers who give time and money are to be commended. But the fact that they have to exist is a sign that as a community we don't give a damn.
The irving press has paid virtually no attention to this story of the century. We are all poorer than we should be. And we are all going to be getting a lot poorer as greed has been  given a free pass.

Who are the people in Canada who are doing this to us and our families? Who are the people in New Brunswick who are doing this to us and our families?  Does nobody care? Or are we all the sheep we seem to be?

Name a single Liberal or Conservative who has made a statement about this. Remember how Harper wanted to jail even small criminals, and throw away the key? But he did nothing about this massive theft by the wealthy. Nor will Trudeau. Nor will Gallant. Nor, you can bet, will the Chambers of Commerce across Canada.

Capitalism has never, from its start, been real capitalism except for the small players. What the weatlhy have done is to make capitalism into a ruthless game of cheating and theft - and to  name the resulting corruption and suffering as capitalism.

I remember the irving press carried many a story and comment about a book by a UdeMoncton professor who said the provincial budget woes were the fault of all of us. No. They weren't. They were the result of massive theft by the wealthy. And if the professor didn't know that, how did he get a job in a university?
Can't the irving press at least find out how much our wealthy, the ones we create halls of philanthropic halls of fame for, hold back from us? How much they cost us in tax rebates and exemptions and interest-free loans, and gifts? When you think of it, shouldn't  the ones in philanthropic halls of fame be us?

This is  the province where some people, many people, have to work for ten dollars an hour, while others make more, much more, in a second.

If we can't muster the courage and integrity to make demands for ourselves, then we might think of this. An economic system in which the wealthy just take and take for a greed that will never be satisfied while the rest of us get poorer is a system that will not survive. That should not be hard to understand.

We are allowing our society to be run by people who have only greed where they should have brains.

Meanwhile, our fearless political leaders are cracking down on the Unitarian church for some  thousands of dollars it claims were spent on charity. Boy. That means no thank you supper, speeches and kisses and places in  chamber of commerce philanthropic halls of fame for those sneaky Unitarians.
This is YOUR province. This is YOUR ountry. Act like it.
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Some days ago, it was revealed that the shootings in Orlando did not begin until AFTER the police arrived. The irving press has yet to mention that. But this is rather important.

As a  person who once used guns a great deal, I wondered how one shooter, even with a semi-automatic combat rifle could have killed 49 people, and wounded a large number, too. Even a good shot has to be very calm and steady in rapid fire - and that takes a little bit of time. It's especially difficult to score a kill every shot - thus the large number of wounded. And, even for a faily calm and steady shooter, there must have been some shots that hit nobody.

Considering these limitations, he must  have been shooting for close to fifteen minutes - pluse time to change the magazine 2 or 3 times (presuming he had 2 or 3 magazines). If he didn't have spare mags, it would have taken much longer.
And this all happened AFTER the police had moved into the club.

I'm not suggesting the police were at fault. I have no reason to think they were. But there seems to be a lot  we aren't getting told about this tragedy. And that may explain why we read so much about it that is calculated to stir up hatred and fear. I thought of that today in the supermarket when I  went to the check-out counter. There, I saw the standard copy of Globe, a scandal mag, The headline story was "ISIS IS IN YOUR CITY".

That's not really much worse than the stories in most of our news media. But there's no evidence that ISIS had anything to do with this. And you can bet that if ISIS had set this up, it would be shouting it from  the rooftops.

No. It's more likely the killer was created by American hysteria and bigotry.
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The next item is one I would normally treat with caution. But I've seen the same story in news media that can be trusted. Indeed, this story quotes from a pretty respectable  source in the western news media.

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/european-union-was-always-american-led-project-and-now-washington-panic-mode/ri15362
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And, from Israel, some very sad news.

Renowned Holocaust survivor, author, human rights activist and Nobel laureate made perpetuating the memory of the Shoah his life's work.

Haaretz Breaking News
 Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and renowned Holocaust survivor, dies at 87
Renowned Holocaust survivor, author, human rights activist and Nobel laureate made perpetuating the memory of the Shoah his life's work.
Ronen Shnidman | 02.07.2016
As a child, Elie Wiesel was a prisoner/slave in a Nazi death camp. His book on the horrors of life in the camp and, even worse, the horrors that came with their release is one of the most compelling I  have ever read. The book is titled "Night". I strongly recommend it.
I knew some surivors over the years. Many became (understandably) hating and brutal in their turn. But Wiesel never lost his sense of humanity. He, rather than the generals or politicians, was one of the giants of the twentieth century.
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Front page headline in the irving press..."Feds expected to announce influx of immigrants as part of new Atlantic strategy".

Look. When something happens, then it's a headline story. When it's expected to happen, this is small note somewhere. Then we get the Magnetic Hill Winery expanding, and medical marijuana sales to start  in about a year and a half. The pace picks up on p. 3. A new pizzeria will open. On A5, Dieppe city councillors are competing to see who can make the best omelette for the mayor.

A farm in Sackville helps people with mental, social and developmental problems. Okay. That's worth reporting. But over half of it is picutres of chickens and goats, etc. for those who forget was chickens and goats look like. This is all mindless crap.

Against the advice of the medical profession, Steve Malloy thinks we should collect blood plasma via a commercial company. I think he's wrong. He says it will stop the flow of money out of the province, and a private company would keep the money here.

Steve, the whole history  (and present) of this province is private business taking money OUT of this province.  Plasma has to be sent overseas for treatment. That's money out. The business has to make a profit. That's money out as it goes to a tax haven to avoid taxes, and is then invested wherever returns are likely to be best - and that's unually not New Brunswick.

The guest editorial is the usual propaganda from the Fraser Institute.  And Alec Bruce seems to have run out of topics.
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Canada&World? Forget it. Despite the American destruction going on in South America, there's not a word in the paper. There's nothing about a thousand Canadian troops being sent to East Europe to help the U.S. provoke a war. There's never been a word about the illegality of sending Canadian troops to Syria. If they aren't there to fight but just to teach Syrians how to grow pansies, it's still illegal.

This paper is worthless. It's actually a step lower than the scandal mags at the supermariet.
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Here's a rare insight into Bush, Blair and the Iraq war.

//www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/04/phone-call-bush-blair-failed-iraq
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And here's a look at the real world, and the real U.S.

//www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/04/phone-call-bush-blair-failed-iraq
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Oh, watch for stories of Hillary Clinton being questioned by the FBI. They'll be asking her about how she may have leaked national secrets. But this has been known for a long time. So why is the Attorney-General so suddenly keen to take action?

It's likely that both Democrats and Liberals want to get rid of their leading candidates. And it has to be done soon - perhaps before the conventions. They want unscrupulous candidates That part is okay. But they want unscrupulous candidates who are election winners. And both Trump and Clinton are weak in that respect. A charge against Bush would give the Democrat bosses a chance to replace her with someone more suitable.
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And here's a look at what our respectable news media are doing. Can you imagine what the unrespectable ones are doing? Of course, the Irvng press would never charge for this sort of thing. It does it for free.

http://www.alternet.org/media/big-political-news-outlets-are-selling-interviews-and-editorial-coverage-lobbyists-dnc-and-rnc
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And now for the sun and the sand and the sea.

July 2: a change of pace.

Wow! A blast from the past. I had forgotten about this site from my TV days until my son sent it to me.

https://www.facebook.com/CBCMontreal/videos/vb.128015371297/10153819907566298/?type=2&theater&notif_t=comment_mention&notif_id=1467421678793626

This, along with a couple of items in today's irving press got me to thinking how we cannot understand events simply by talking about them in newspaper style. Today, for example, we have yet another Brian Murphy column designed to offend no-one. He mentions how President Kennedy's father had to struggle against anti-Catholic feeling in the U.S.

Puhlease.  Kennedy's father as a mobster, killer, and bootlegger in a class with Al Capone. He used his position as American ambassador to Britain early in world war 2 to plunder British companies for his personal fortume. I don't know how devout he was; but he did not let the scriptures get in the way of his pleasures. He had countless affairs; and he made it a point that his wife should know all about them.  Once, crossing the Atlantic by ship, he shared a cabin with a movie star while his wife was in the cabin next door. He commonly brought girlfriends home, nodding to his wife and any guests who might be there, then heading upstairs to the bedroom for fun time.

He raised his sons to be just like him. Thus John F. Kennedy's scarcely secret affair with Marilyn Monroe.

Then there's today's story on Beaumont-Hamel where the Newfoundland Regiment was destroyed on July 1, 1916.  The regiment had drawn on fathers and sons of military age all over the province. In many outports, it took all the sons and fathers of military age. And, after July 1, 1916,   many of the outports, with their families, would never see them again.

In the story,  Newfoundland MP Seamus O'Grady furiously denied that the men were "colonial cannon fodder sacrificed by indifferent generals". No. They were brave men "who did not shrink from their duty."

In fact, they had no choice. If they had not climbed over the top to advance, they would have been shot by their own officers. Once over the top, They couldn't charge in glamorous style because they were loaded down with rifles and equipment. And they couldn't stop to shoot back.  They could only plod over a  huge stretch of flat and open land into the fire of machine guns, rifles and artillery. Over 90% of them were killed. None ever had a chance to fire a shot.
Shouldn't this tell us something about their generals? The commander for this battle was Field Marshall Earl Haig, one of the most incompetent asses in the history of warfare. And that's not surprising.

The British officer corps of that period was the dumping ground for the less intelligent sons of the British upper classes. Haig owed his rank to that and to his influence at the court. He spent the war struggling for rank and status, with no evidence he gave a damn about those who died because of his incompetence. How's that for an indifferent general?

(The American general, "Black Jack" Pershing was even worse.)
 The British government wanted to get rid of Haig, and to put in his place an outstanding Canadian general that MP Seamus O'Grady has probably never heard of -   Sir Arthur Currie.                  But the government  couldn't get past Haig's influence with the royal family.

As for being  'colonial cannon-fodder', that's exactly what they were And, contrary to what Mr. O'Grady seems to think, this had nothing to do with courage or duty.

In the 1870s, we suddenly find the British talking about how wonderful the  "English-speaking world" was. In particular, this sentiment was aimed at the U.S. There is even mention of it in a Sherlock Holmes story when Holmes meets an American,  and bursts into an impassioned speech about that "terrible misunderstanding" of 1775 - and how the English-speaking world, especially the U.S. and Britain should re-unite.

This reunion was a passion of Winston Churchill's life, too. That's why he wrote his History of the English-speaking Peoples. Why this sudden passion for the English-speaking peoples?

It was because most of the German-speaking peoples united to create modern Germany. And a united Germany would soon develop the industrial power to challenge British industry. It would also be large enough to back up its economic strength with military strength. Britain needed all the friends it could get. Thus the sudden, almost spiritual, belief in the unity of the English-speaking peoples.
But Canada could be a problem. It was next door to the U.S. The U.S. had invaded Canada once, and had sponsored other invasions. (In fact, it would theaten invasion again early in the 1900s, a threat that was averted only because the British agreed to allow the US to take land that Canada claimed on the Alaska panhandle. Canada was important to Britain. But the U.S. was far, far more important. By the 1880s, Britain was searching for ways to get rid of its responsibility to defend Canada.

But the 1890s  saw a sudden reversal of British needs. War with Germany seemed close, and the U.S. was still showing no sign of being interested in "the English-speaking peoples".

Britain needed all the English-speaking peoples it could get - and the only ones it could get in a hurry  were the colonies, especially Australia, New Zealand ---and Canada. But there was a problem. Colonies were not legally required to fight British wars. Britain needed a precedent.

The precedent was handy. The wealthy British wanted a war with South Africa, essentially against the Dutch farmers who controlled the two states there. The wealthy wanted to steal the gold mines of those states. Now, Britain didn't need help against the tiny, white population of South Africa. But it did need a precedent for the English-speaking colonies to fight for Britain.

So the wealthy of Canada  (who owed their fortunes to the British Empire) were told to beat the drums for empire, and to use the newspapers and politicians that they owned to clamour for war against South Africa - a war that had nothing to do with any Canadian interest, and nothing to do even with defending Britain.
Some 270 Canadians were killed in that war. Many more were made ill for life. And that,Mr. Seamus O'Grady, is what is called "colonial cannon-fodder". So please don't feed us that crap about dying for the King or Queen. They died  so British billionaires could steal gold.

Canada's Robert Service wrote of it...

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-march-of-the-dead/

But the precedent was set. And so, barely a dozen years later ,  Newfoundlanders cheered as fathers and sons marched onto the ships to die at Beaumont-Hamel.
Reading the news or listening to stirring  political speeches seldom tells us anything about reality. History is a much better teacher. Nations act because - well, it's n because of glory or serving the Queen or spreading democracy. It's not even because of the nation. It's because of the power and nfluence of dominant groups particularly dominant economic groups. And for over a century now, the news media have been their major tool -along with the help of the movie industry.

Now, think. Why did Canada send troops to Afghanistan? Why did we bomb Libya? Why have we sent troops to Iraq? Why has Trudeau now offered to send a thousand to Eastern Europe?

In South Africa, we were used as tools of economic imperialists. We were then a colony of Britain.

We are now, in land area, the largest colony of the United States.  To understand the news, we first have to see the realities of human behaviour.
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There's only one story worth reading in the irving press. It's the story on the next step in privatizing health care - privately owned blood clinics. Mr. Gallant is in favour. Of course. And we are actually going to pay them to set up business. (So when does Gallant decide to issue free guns to bank robbers? It would create jobs.)

In our Christian societies, thoroughly sunk in greed, corruption, mass murder, poverty, imposed starvation, torture, the Faith page reminds us to go to church while at the summer cottage.

I think Jesus would have noticed other things.

Maybe the irving chapel will  notice the other things. But I doubt it. Count on seeing one, tame duck in the pulpit.
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For some reason, I'm having trouble with The Guardian site. There's at least one opinion column that's good on Brexit. (But, for some reason, it won't copy.) Anyway, I've begun to realize that all these items on Brexit miss the point.
Brexit it not a crisis caused by the British. And it's not a reaction of misguided people. The real disaster is that a world economic system based on greed and corruption and war is collapsing. It has been happening for a long time. The trigger for the greater collapse was pulled by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan - with minor assisstance from Brian Mulroney.

Putting capitalists in charge has failed. It has become a disaster on both sides because we have failed to look at anything else in all those years. Rule by capitalism has been a disaaster. It has actually spread poverty and violence and mass murder. But it's a disaster for all sides because we have neglected working on -anything else.

In Britain, the vote against the EU was a vote against poverty. That poverty was the direct result of a government system that put all power into the hands of a capitalist bureaucracy which, in turn, looted everybody but the very rich. In Britain, the Labour Party  which might have provided some moderation was destroyed by Tony Blair. So it that the alternative to disaster could only be another disaster.

This general pattern is true of most of the EU, true of Canada, and true of the U.S. where the only alternatives are the disasters of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

We are facing a problem much bigger than just Britain. It is a world problem.
An example of the problem is our embrace of tax havens. Where the hell have the Canadian news media been on this one? Uncounted billions of dollars have been stolen from us. Who is doing it? What has it cost us? What to Trudeau and Gallant have to say about this?

We  have lost billions of dollars, money that is needed for health care, education, basic nutrition, housing. And nobody is saying boo. And, if I am to judge by the Faith page, Jesus wouldn't care about our levels of mass theft, mass murder , enforced poverty.....

Brexit is not the problem Brexit is a sign of a much, much bigger problem.
Sorry I'm having trouble with my computer. I can't corrent spelling ,either, without rewriting everything.
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This is a sample of the problem. The writer of this column, by the way, counts Canada as an American colony.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/01/washingtons-not-so-invisible-hand-its-not-economics-its-empire/
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Only a small part of this story will come up because I don't yet have a subscription to Haaretz.

But you need only that small part. Israel refuses to negotiate a peace deal with Palestine.  The reason is because Palestine insists that Israel stop stealing Palestinian land - and that it return the land it has already stolen - the so-called settlements.

Palestine won't accept any deal without the return of its land. This has the makings of a very, great disaster because Israel not only refused to return land, but constantly takes more.

1. The days of mass migration of Jews to Israel are over. In fact, many Israeli Jews are now returning to Europe.
2. Israel has a large population of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. They're treated like dirt. But they have larger families than Jewish Israelis have.
Add  one and two. Israel's days are numbered. I would normally not quote Henry Kissinger. But he gives Israel at life expectancy of a dozen years. I think he's right.


http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.728324?utm_content=%24sections%2F1.728324&utm_medium=email&utm_source=smartfocus&utm_campaign=newsletter
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I know it's a waste of time to ask Moncton city council to think about an urban plan. But here's an item that could suit Moncton very well.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/how-green-and-cool-roofs-can-provide-relief-hot-cities

By the way, I once knew a very wealthy man who owned a large, apartment building. His apartment was on the roof, with a huge lawn and gardening area. Very pleasant on a summer evening.
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This one strayed into a lot of me talking. Sorry. But I saw basic issues - like Canada's wars, the general collapse that brexit is just a sign of, the almost complete collapse of Christianity,...

And remember, spelling mistakes are not my fault. I can't correct them without rewriting everything. (I'm computer illiterate.)

June 1: Canada Day does not mean Lying Day

Canada, including New Brunswick, is in the midst of a storm over the building of oil pipelines. One of the disputed ones is proposed to pass through New Brunswick. There's another one, the Northern Gateway, projected to go from Alberta to the west coast.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled against the Northern Gateway Pipeline on the grounds  that native peoples had not been properly consulted. How could the editors of the Irving press have missed that story? It was on the web yesterday, on CBC news, in  plenty of time. (I think I can guess why they missed it.)
And one might consider the implications of this for fracking. Remember Rexton? Where native peoples faced riot police and snipers with combat rifles?  Severe force was used to protect poor, little billionaires who just wanted to create jobs for everybody.

Mind you, to be fair to the irving press editors, they needed the space for a big, Canada&World story.. The Supreme Court is willing to hear the appeal of an ordinary, harmless Dennis Oland who was sent to prison just because he was found guilty of beating his father to death. The defence also called him a 'model candidate' for bail.

Of course. He was just upset. Kiss. Kiss.

Also in yesterday's CBC news, but of no importance to the irving press, is that Trudeau is increasing the number of troops to defend Europe from "Russian aggression". It will now amount to a thousand.

What Russian aggression?

Are Russian ships patrolling North American waters? Are the Russians building nuclear missile sites on our borders? Are they carrying out war games on our borders? Was it Russia that overthrew the elected government of Ukraine?
This is not only lying. This is insanity. Troops on the Russian border could not stop a Russian invasion. Nor would it matter if they could. Any such war would be nuclear in minutes.

And the most aggressive nation in the world for the past 70 years has been the United States.

Oh,  and our very own intelligence service says Russia is preparing for war. That, at least, is true. But every military in the world is preparing for war. That's what militaries do. All of them. The U.S. spends more on its military than all the rest of the world put together. It's preparing for war big time.  In the case of the Russians, with western troops playing war games on its border, and western navies off its coast, the Russians would be damn fools not to prepare for war.
And what's the big headline for Canada&World? Our New Brunswick premier has given up his role as chair of the New Brunswick Jobs Board.
Zounds! I must contact Moscow.
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The most (and only) important story in Section A news is a warning from the SPCA that dogs don't like fireworks.
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The opinions and commentary pages are...well....

The editorial writer uses a Canada Day theme to protest the 2% tax increase and add a pitch for  fracking and the pipeline,  and attacks civil servants just for exisiting, all in one column. It's a staggering display of ignorance, bias and incomprehensibility. Tell, you what, kid, how about a column in which you tell us how much tax your boss pays?

Norbert's message is - damned if I know what it is. It's garbled, ignorant, ranting, insinuating. I have no idea what its real topic might be. He says we are Canadians and just like Americans, but we all differ from region to region. (How is is possible for us all to be just like Americans but to differ from each other? Would we elect a Donald Trump? Do we want to deport Mexicans?  Have we spent the last seventy years invading countries? Do we hate medicare?)

And Norbert, have you ever heard of class differences? Do you think that living in Moncton on a minimum wage is just like being an irving?

This is a silly, shallow, ignorant and impossibly written column.

Then there's a well-intentioned one from Diablogue Canada. It says we committed to collaboration, to accepting differences, to respect diversity....  An nice thought. But nonsense. I spent twenty years, at least, on the provincial committee to protect anglo rights in Quebec. I had death threats; our offices were torched; I  was fired by CBC because its Montreal offices were dominated by francophone separatistis. Separatists were allowed to rant on CBC. I never even discussed separatism on the show I was on. But I was fired because I had become Chairman of the Board of Alliance Quebec - and that was bad. Tell me about collaboration.

Tell me about tolerance in a country that has openly tolerated and promoted hatred of Jews, Africans, Orientals, East Europeans and many others. Fascists and Naziis paraded in Italian and Jewish districts of Montreal in full uniform. African-Canadians were denied jobs in just about everything. - and denied apartments, hotel rooms, even restaurants well into the 1960s.

Oh, and the Fathers of Confederation  had nothing to do with bringing us freedom or social justice or diversity. They murdered native peoples, exposed Chinese labourers to certain death, and were profoundly racist. Nor would they even know what social justice meant. Nor were they visionary.  The idea of confederation wasn't Canadian at all. It was British. And New Brunswick joined Canada because it  had no choice. (We have enough real history to be proud of. We don't need fairy tales.)
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Think New Brunswick was pure?

https://cogswell.lib.unb.ca/odetofredericton

The article below makes the point that if you want to understand New Brunswick, you have to read its poets - like Fred Cogswell. Otherwise, all you get is what the wealthy of New Brunswick want you to think - like the shallow propaganda of the irving press. New Brunswick has always been a province of people who live in fear of  their masters.

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/scl/article/view/11232/11990

When I was a student at Acadia, I was astonished at the racism of Nova Scotia, too. And the racism of Acadia university. It was worse, even, than Montreal. Any changes across Canada are very recent. But we have no sense of  the depth of racism we had and, in many ways, still have.

(Oh, read Alden Nowlan, too. I have a happy memory of an evening spent talking with him in my first university job at UPEI. And I love his writing.)
Then there's a column by one of our new, Syrian-Canadians. It has the same tone as the others. But that's understandable. He happened to arrive at a good time.
Alec Bruce is the only one not to fall into the Canada Day trap. This is a day to tell the truth, not to spread fairy godmother stories.
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The reality is there are few such things as 'Canadian' or 'American' or 'anything' values. This talk of supposed values is used to make us all conform. The fact is that immigration changes us, all of us. We do not fully 'absorb' newcomers. Nor should we.

David Suzuki wasn't absorbed. We put him, as a child, into a concentration camp. It's a good  thing we didn't absorb him. If we had, he might have ended up as a scientist for the sprays that we're killing our forests, wildlife, and ourselves with. And he'd be writing columns for the irving press about how it is good for us.
My friends in school and later were Syrians, Italians, Jews, Chinese, African-Canadians, Mohawk. They didn't get absorbed into Canada. They weren't allowed to. And I'm glad they weren't. Because I learned more from them than I did from from all the rear-end kissing, conformist Canadians I ever met. They didn't become me. They changed me. And I'm eternally grateful to them for that.
Don't 'accept' people. Join them. I still remember the explosion of theatre, restaurants, serious discussion. community action as waves of immigrants made their presence felt in the Montreal of the 1960s and 70s.

 It was wonderful.
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The only thing worth reading, sort of, in Canada&World, is the story of a United Church minister who wants to remain a minister, even though she's an atheist. Damn right! And I insist on being a sexy, beautiful, song and dance star - even though I'm unsexy, homely, and can't sing or dance.

Oh - a p.s. for Alec Bruce. He says that the EU is not and never will be a united states of Europe.  I'll add to that.  It's  run by an unelected bureaucracy which controls the national economies. And that bureaucracy is effectively appointed by major corporations.

Norbert must be terrible confused now. He should be foaming at the mouth because these are bureaucrats. But - they represent the very rich. Oh, what to think?

No  wonder Norbert couldn't get his thoughts straight for his column.
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The leader of Britain's Labour party is being pressured to step down. I mention this because of its similarity to the NDP in Canada. Now, I'm sure whether it matters what the party does because Tony Blair destroyed that party a long time ago. Blair saw a way to befriend the U.S. and make himself rich. So he abandoned all the principles of the party, moved it to the right, joined the disastrous and illegal  wars on Iraq and Afghanistan - and made himself very, very rich - a sort British equivalent of Hillary Clinton. Now, another right winger is challenging for the leadership of the Labour pary and he'll probably win.
So that means that even if Labour were to win an election, it wouldn't do anything different from the Conservatives.

Now, Tom Mulcair did not make himself rich. He's not at all that sort of person. But the NDP move to the right in order to win an election has done the same damage to the NDP that Tony Blair did to the Labour Party. And we've seen what that does at electon time.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/30/jeremy-corbyn-labour-party-rebel-mps
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President Obama has announced that some 160 civilians, all told, have been killed by drone strikes. He's lying. There have been thousands of strikes. They have hit schools, weddings, gatherings of all sorts, and explosions are not choosy about who happens to be standing near the target. It is simply not possible that so few civilians were killed.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/01/drone-killings-white-house- truth

Nobody knows the true number. Estimates usually begin at   500 and go into the thousands. There seems no doubt that the proportion of children murdered is very high. The U.S. also maintains secret torture prisons in Europe, helps to maintain a starvation blockade of Lebanon, murders environmentalists and politicians all over the world.  It does all the things we were told we were fighting against in World War 2.

And we don't even notice it. In fact, Justin has just ordered 1,000 Canadians to be sent to help out the U.S. in Eastern Europe just like we sent troops to die in Afghanistan for the good ol' USA, and aircraft to bomb Libya and Syria.

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I don't know what to think about the next item on education. It sounds wild. But we have to remember that teaching methods in our schools haven't fundamentally changed since the early industrial age. That applies to both public and private schools. (Private schools can provide better services through smaller classes. But their teaching methods are not significantly different.)  And teaching in universities hasn't changed since Moses announced the Ten Commandments.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/01/no-grades-no-timetable-berlin-school-turns-teaching-upside-down
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This is just a small sample of the failure of the world to help Haiti after its earthquake. Most, by far, of the money raised or announced by corrupt governments (like the U.S.) went into the pockets of corrupt,  private 'contractors'. That's common in all such work. I was sorry to read about the disaster of Red Cross aid. I have no reason to believe the Red Cross is corrupt. But it, to, has to deal with private contractors and government officials.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes
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And here's an astonishing one. i really don't know what to think of it. It's a huge improvement on current positions. But I'm not sure that the U.S. and Russia uniting to defeat the Muslim world is any better than the failed method of using  Russia and the U.S. fighting separately to do it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/obama-proposes-new-military-partnership-with-russia-in-
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And this is stunning.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45012.htm
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This one is in French.  (There should be a translation, but I can't find it.) Anyway, it's not a hard read - and it gets into what the EU and NATO are essentially about.

http://www.voltairenet.org/article192275.html

This is generally a good site for readers of any language.
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What to watch for.

The Repulicans the Democrats in the U.S. both find themselves with potential leaders they don't want. Donald Trump is too much a loose cannon. Hillary Clinton is not popular; she could lose the presidency. As well, she could be facing serious legal charges. But these are the two that democrratic process has produced.

The brass of the two parties have never given much of a damn about democracy. They know that their purpose is to make sure that both candidates serve the interests of the wealthy who pay for the election.

But Trump could be erratic. And Clinton could be a loser. Result? Both parties may use their conventions  to block the democratic choices.  There's lots of room in the rules to do that. So they'll set up their own choices.

So much for democracy.

And, given the choices that there are and the ones that might be set up, it's hard to care what happens to American democracy.