March 15: Too much news.

A big story has so far been missed by Brunswick News which which effectvely has a monopoly on print news in this province. It's a response to a complaint against CBC  (Canada's radio and TV news service which is owned by the Canadian people)  filed by the owner of Brunswick News. Funny how the eagle-eyed editors at Brunswick News missed this.

http://www.ombudsman.cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/complaint-reviews/2017/two-twitter-accounts-one-reporter-it-s-dangerous/

And what will be the reaction to this? Well, one possibility is that there will be pressure on the federal government to cut the CBC budget.
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Meanwhile, the big news is that a roofer is going to jail for cheating clients. Above it is a big picture of the law courts building. Two pages later are two more stories of small-time crime. They, too,  have a picture of the law courts for readers who have forgotten what they look like. (That picture of the law courts must have appeared thousands of time over the years. And why not? It's cheap; and it fills space.

The big news is in the second section, Canada &World. Here we learn that a woman in a neighbouring city charged a man with taking photos of her in the washroom. And, to  clarify the story, it has a big photo of the courthouse in that city.

On the next page, a cab driver  in a nearby city who had been charged  (and acquitted) of sexual assault has lost his taxi license.

For more news of the greater world, a university in Ontario has removed the  weighing scales in its gymn.  (No. I'm not kidding. That is the news WE need to know.)

There are only four stories from the rest of the world - none of them of any importance. And there are none of those yukky stories about war or starvation or refugees. Millions of children are dying of starvation? That's too yukky poo for Brunswick News.

This is newspaper chain designed to keep people ignorant of what's happening around the world - and even around the corner.
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This story is an example of what was not considered important enough for the Brunswick News.

In fairness, I'm a little uneasy about it. As UN reports commonly do, this one takes pains to assure us that Americans don't do these terrible things. In fact, the U.S. has been one of the pioneers in bombing civilians and civilian institutions like hospitals. Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed everything. The carpet bombing of Laos and Cambodia was the heaviest bombing in history - and almost all the casualties were civilian. Bombing in North Korea stopped only when every building had been destroyed. And, yes, of course that included schools and hospitals.

Chemical wepons were widely used by the U.S. in Vietnam.  Depleted uranium shells were used in Iraq. The U.S. has been using cluster bombs for decades - and cluster bombs are not precision instruments - and they lie in wait for uncounted years. It is also blockading Yemen to keep out food and medical supplies.
Every major power has used terror weapons aimed at civilian populations for eighty years and more. There are no good guys. And The Guardian must know that.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/15/syria-conflict-study-condemns-weaponisation-of-healthcare
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I can well remember Sundays in Hong Kong. Every park would be filled in hundreds, even thousands, of women. They were like clouds of colourful birds in mass migration who  had settled all over the city to rest.

There were, and are, many domestic servants in Hong Kong. They are very low paid; and they work very long hours for six days a week. Sunday is their only day off. Many are there to earn money they can send home - often to places like The Phillipines where poverty is common. And, sometimes, a cut of their money has to go to a dictator for allowing them to go to Hong Kong.

Is this an evil inflicted on those women by evil orientals?

Well, no. The practice of exploiting these women was begun by Christian gentlemen from Britain, Germany, Portugal, the U.S.....and reaching back into the nineteenth century. Most of them had utter contempt for anyone who was not Christian and white like them. They still do.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/mar/10/sunday-sit-in-inside-hong-kong-weekly-domestic-worker-resistance
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I send this next one on mostly because I can't imagine an opinion column like this ever being permitted in Brunswick News. (In fact, I  find it hard to picture it in any North American newspaper.)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/15/employers-strong-unions-good-for-business-taxpayers-alliance
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Brunswick Press missed this story, too, though it sounds like an excellent model for New Brunswick.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/13/quebec-supermarkets-food-banks-donation-waste
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I include this next one to encourage a sense of reality about war, and American power at war.

Just consider - for all images of TV and movies and  over-excited news sources, the U.S. has NEVER fought (and so never won) a war against a country of it's own size and wealth. For the size of its military, the only war it has won in the last seventy years was against a small, Carribean island - Grenada.

Only a minority of its soldiers today are Americans. Instead, it is an extremely expensive army of hired killers, mercenaries from all over the world. They are not likely to perform well in a major war.

And Trump is going to boost the navy's carrier fleet? Cute. But nobody can be sure how a weapon will perform in any war. In World War 1, Britain and the U.S. based their naval power on the battleship. Later, they added a variant called the Battle Cruiser.

They kept building them throughout World War Two. In fact, the last British battleship was completed in 1945. But both Britain and the U.S. had missed a nasty reality that they should have seen even before the war.The battleship was a floating antique. And the battle cruiser was close to useless.

The carrier was decisive in World War Two. It can still be decisive in a small war. But in a major war? Who knows? I rather doubt that it will be.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/15/trumps-military-nostalgia-or-victory-at-sea-all-over-again/
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Amazing how much Trump policies look like those of Obama and Bush.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/15/trump-administration-secretly-resumes-cia-drone-assassination-program/
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The Fraser Institute, a propaganda house for the very wealthy which pretends to be a gathering of deep thinkers, is a great favourite of Brunswick News. It, along with other such "think tanks", frequently appears on the commentary page. And, like The Atlantic Institute of Market Studies and the CDHowe institute are treated with similar respect and obeisance.

I've known a number of people who do 'research' for these outfits. Some are opportunists kissing up to the rich. Some are quite sincere. Rather like evangelicals, they believe that their Their god is the only true god. They believe.  And because they believe, they don't have to  understand anything at all.

http://rabble.ca/news/2015/02/economics-journalists-fraser-institute-biased#at_pco=smlrebv-1.0&at_si=58c9707f8f9b5c51&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=1&at_tot=5

Okay. Maybe we shouldn't expect a reporter to know all that. But an editor must.
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I thought all of the following worth reading. The U.S. is acting as if it were something it clearly is not. It is not the dominant power in the world. And there is no possibility it can be such a power. Contrary to what movies tell us, the U.S. has not performed brilliantly in war, not even against small countries. And the effort to be what it is not and cannot be creates an uncontrolable and, probably, brief future for all of us.

The excuse, of course, is that other countries are the aggressors - powerful and murderous countries like Grenada and Syria Afghanistan and Libya. The U.S. is following a course made necessary by the greed of a very few. And it is an insanity.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46656.htm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46655.htm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46657.htm

Re the following item, watch Justin Trudeau closely. He'll be quietly scrambling to find a way to please the U.S. by refusing to accept refugees fleeing the U.S. And, I regret to say, we will see plenty of Canadians on the racist side.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46654.htm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46658.htm
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The U.S. has long since gone all the way to being a police state. The only questions left for Canadians is 1. How far has our intelligence service gone with spying on Canadians? 2. How much is the Canadian intelligence service in bed with U.S. intelligence and the CIA?

https://theintercept.com/2017/03/13/rand-paul-is-right-nsa-routinely-monitors-americans-communications-without-warrants/
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Another story missed by Brunswick News.  There was a time when almost all North Americann News Media were anti-Jewish. Now, it's reversed so if your want the whole story about Israel, you have to go to an Israeli paper, Haaretz.

https://theintercept.com/2017/03/13/rand-paul-is-right-nsa-routinely-monitors-americans-communications-without-warrants/
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Canada can fall in line behind Trump. Or it can follow a much more independent path. There is no in between. You can count on Trudeau to fall in line behind Trump. That's the way big business in Canada wants it.

Unlike those who try to get off a sinking ship, Canadians have a long history of lining up to get on. And the U.S. is very much a sinking ship.

March 13: American soldiers? What American soldiers?

Today, my local paper, a part of the Brunswick News chain, has four pages  (count them, four) of Canada and World news. A page one flash is that the tiny province of Prince Edward Island is sometimes left off of maps. Next to it is another big story that New York city might get a snow storm. Then there's a big story about a local company that repairs old sewing machines. And a big, international story that a father and son are racing each other in a dog sled race in Alaska.

In fact,  the whole paper has no news at all. This is a newspaper whose sole purpose is to keep us ignorant of what is going on in the world. And that's pretty much the rule in our commercial news media.

But what's going on in this world is a massive change that has affected all of us - and will affect us a great deal more. Part of that change is reflected in the stories below.

https://undertheradar.military.com/2016/05/10-things-you-dont-know-about-mercenaries/

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/08/iraq-afghanistan-contractor-pentagon-obama/495731/

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/03/return-of-the-mercenary/388616/

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Mercenaries-Enter-Yemen-as-Death-Toll-Climbs-20160316-0047.html

http://www.redrat.net/BUSH_WAR/mercenaries/

http://www.globalresearch.ca/garda-canadas-blackwater-the-worlds-largest-privately-held-security-firm/5519365

https://theintercept.com/2017/01/17/notorious-mercenary-erik-prince-is-advising-trump-from-the-shadows/

Remember the pictures of American troops marching home after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan? Remember the movies in which they are all heroes? Remember the proud boasts that the US has a highly patriotic population and the best army in the world?
None of that has been true for twenty years. American men are not at all eager to 'serve their country'. Nor is the American public willing to accept the death toll of eternal wars. That's been true since Vietnam. That whole linking of war with 'serving the country' has been a fraud. Most of the reports we get about "American' troops are fraudulent.

The greater part of the American army is made up of hired thugs from all over the world. And thugs is the right word because they ignore international law; they routinely murder, rob and rape on a grand scale. Charges for that are rare - and convictions almost unheard of.

These happy murderers, thieves and rapists were (and are) the bulk of the American army in Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria. These mercenaries (who also work out of Canada) are far, far more brutal and murderous than all the Muslim terrorists we have ever heard of.

Murderers, rapists, and thieves - these are what America now means to most of the world.

God bless America. (I wonder if the mercenaries have chaplains. I bet they do.)
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/millennial-jobs-education-1.4009295

We live under governments that are really agents for big business. That's why we can be sure that as change happens big business will not be harmed. Instead, we will. When American business screwed up a few years ago, the American  government decision was that it would have to bail out big business to the tune of a trillion dollars. And that bill was passed on to the American people and their children and their grandchildren......

Ordinary people can and do die of hunger and exposure for their economic failures. But, under the propaganda influence of our news media, God forbid that a billionaire should have to pay for his own mistakes.

We are very, very close to a period in which we will desperately need governments that government for us. But we are nowhere close to having such governments. The Liberals and Conservatives are a dead loss in that respect. (Trudeau is actually supporting a trade deal with Europe which puts the greed of big business way ahead of the needs of average Canadians. And our commercial media are playing their usual game of telling us nothing about it.)

Canada needs to make radical changes. The Greens, though their intentions are good, seem to think this can be done without thinking much about politics of how it will be done.  And the NDP desperately needs to become again the party it used to be. ( Yes, it's possible to win an election by talking like Liberals. But rather more is required for dealing with our situation. Here in New Brunswick, the NDP actually had a leader whose thinking was so far back in the nineteenth century that he quit the NDP to become a Conservative. What was the NDP thinking of in choosing such a leader in the first place?)
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I'm not at all convinced that God blesses America. The war in Syria was not begun by rebels or by the Syrian government. It was created by American oil billionaires to boost their profits. Even at that, the war isn't economically profit making because the cost of it is so  high. But, of course, the oil billionaires don't have to pay that cost.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/mar/13/syrian-children-pushed-to-brink-worst-atrocities-since-war-began-unicef-report

Funny how Brunswick news missed this item.
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And guess who is a major player in these crises. And guess why that "who" thinks it necessary to create the misery in this photo.  And guess who is making money out of this.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/13/un-officials-warn-of-worst-famine-crisis-since-world-war-ii/

This might have made a good sermonette for the Faith Page of the Brunswick News. I guess that's why it never appeared there.
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I found the language of this item a little overdone. But the fundamental message is important. For all the excitement about Trump, I don't think he's the problem. The problem is that the American systems of government and economy have collapsed. Trump is a symbol of that collapse, but not the cause of it. It's been developing for a long time - and Hillary Clinton as president would be at least as big a disaster.

The American systems have collapsed in the face of greed and a complete failure of social responsibility. And, soaked in nationalism and unthinking patriotism, Americans have little sense that things can be done differently.

In Canada, expect the Liberals and Conservatives to take Canada on the same ride  (as they already have). And hope for the Greens and the NDP to realize how much has to be done - and how little time we have to do it.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/13/the-dance-of-death/
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Despite his reputation, Obama was no peace lover. He used drone bombers far, far more often than Bush did. No western news medium has ever shown any interest in how many innocent people got killed. Now, trump is on track to set a new, world record in the use of drones.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46634.htm
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Washington doesn't need to censor the news. For the most part, the commercial media will publish only what Washington tells them to publish. For this story, largely ignored by the commercial news media, only propaganda has appeared.
Washington is quoted as saying that the U.S. Troops in Syria are there only to help with the firing of  howitzers. So they're not engaged in an act of war.

1. To send troops into any country, even if they're there to hand out candy to children, is an act of war.
2. To "help" by firing howizers at the other side Isn't an act of war? So the US wouldn't mind if China showed up in southern California to bombard the Mexican fence?

An act of war is also illegal under international war unless you are threatened by violence from the other country. When did Syria threaten the U.S.?

Britain, in its imperial days, was exactly like the U.S. is today. Acting in response to the greed of the British wealthy, Britain freely invaded countries all over the world, murdered huge numbers, and looted labour and resources. And, like the U.S. today, its leaders came up with Christian reasons for their murder and theft. American leaders have been doing the same for centuries. Here's a sample.

"We are the ruling race of the world. . . . We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world. . . . He has marked us as his chosen people. . . . He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savage and senile peoples." : Sen. Alfred Beveridge

Yep. It 's all part of doing God's will. God bless our business leaders, all men of Godly spirit.  I have read many such quotations from those politicians who serve big business. And I expect they might have been said by Hitler, as well.
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Asia is commonly absent from our news sources. That's a big mistake. It is quite likely that, within 20 years, Asia will be the world's dominant region.  (That may explain Trump's sudden round of increases in military spending. It is quite possible that American business leaders want a war with China - NOW - before China gets too strong.)

I suspect it's already much, much too late to stop China. Despite its size and the massive spending on it, the performance of the American military has never been impressive. Its victories have all been in wars against countries that were smaller and poor - usually both smaller and poorer. And, since 1945, it's record has been a dismal one even at that for a country of such size and wealth. And, always a danger signal, it cannot get its own people to support its wars.

Yes, it could obliterate most of Asia with a nuclear attack. Unfortunately, that would also obliterate the rest of the world.

http://journal-neo.org/2017/03/13/north-korea-the-grand-deception-revealed/
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The next item is about greed in the U.S. But that same greed, on the part of people who are much the same as the American greedy, is simmering in Canada and Britain, among others.

Trump intends to destroy even the very limited health care plan the U.S. has. His intention is to privatize health care so it can been used, like everything else, to make the rich richer. We've seen movement in that dirction here in New Brunswick. Trump is also looking to encourage privatization of education - and for the same reason. The implication is that government exists to enrich the already wealthy - and then the blessing will come down on us. This is capitalism as understood by self-centred idiots.

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/john_oliver_exposes_gop_health_plan_scheme_take_money_poor_rich_20170313
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I include the next one primarily because it's such a well-written analysis of a political leadership debate. There are not many journalists who can write such an honest analysis and do it in such simple language. But Karl Nerenberg is a pro among pros.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/2017-03-13t000000/leadership-debate-showcases-ndp-unity-and-feisty-spirit

My own view is that what the speakers said made sense in terms of getting votes. But they fell way short in dealing the changes that are needed - and very very soon.
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And here's one that involves the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/03/13/when-disinformation-is-truth/
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Here, in New Brunswick, we have a big story that has received scant attention from our press.

A string of salt-water beaches, important to the tourist trade have dangerously  high levels of 'fecal wastes', the nice way of saying pollution from toilets. In fact, by federal standards, the pollution is so high that the beaches should long ago have been closed.

The provincial, Liberal, government did nothing, said nothing. In fact, neither did the Conservativves when they were in power.   In fact, it probably goes back further than either of those governments - but nobody said a word. And the current government has given no hint that it is ever going to say anything - or do anything.

These are very popular beaches for the tourist trade - for trailer parks, campgrounds, local stores and restaurants.... But it's so bad that it's dangerous to go in the water - and even dangerous to walk on the sand. And the governments have known about it for a long time. That means the inspectors knew about it. And that makes it a strong possibility that the campground and trailer park owners knew about it.

However, we can only guess about the latter part because the Brunswick News has never gone beyond giving a couple of quick items about it. And that was two months ago. Since then, Brunswick News has shown no interest. Nor has their been much public interest, either.

That's quite an example of a cover-up press combined with a remarkably passive population. It's also quite an example of irresponsibility in dealing with an issue of human life.
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The final item is one sent to me by a reader. Alas! It came with no source. However, I know that its point is quite true. It's also nice to see the word 'fascism' used in one of its correct senses.
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A common cliché of protectionism is this one: the United States government needs to negotiate better deals for American companies.

It is time to call a spade a spade. This is fascism. Fascism is the economics of a government-business alliance. There should be no government-business alliance. The government should not be involved in business. Whenever government gets involved in business, it is always done to favor certain businesses at the expense of all the rest of them. It always involves a repression of decision-making on the part of individual buyers and sellers. There are no exceptions. There are always going to be a few winners and a lot of losers. But we do not see the losers. This is what Frederic Bastiat in 1850 called "the fallacy of the things not seen."

If I say this to the standard conservative, he nods his head in agreement. He is convinced that the government is up to no good when it intervenes into the free market. Then, a few minutes later, he tells me that the government should actively negotiate better trade deals for American businesses. In other words, his default setting on trade is fascism. He does not understand this. He does not understand economic logic, and he does not understand the meaning of the so-called business-government alliance.

....

This brings me to the idea that governments should negotiate tariffs and other quotas with foreign nations.

Why should any government agency negotiate in favor of any American business? What is the economic logic of this? This is one more example of government interference into the operations of the free market. Yet Americans who claim that they do not want government intervention in the marketplace loudly insist that some American trade negotiator has an obligation to get a better deal for America.

For America? For a collective? For all of America? How? The government cannot achieve this in any other field of economics. It is always discriminatory. There are always winners and losers. How is it possible for trade negotiators to get a better deal for all Americans? They can't. It's a myth....

March 9: Not a good blog today.....

....something wrong with me, I guess.

http://www.taxfairness.ca/en/news/canadian-money-offshore-tax-havens-hits-record-high

http://projects.thestar.com/panama-papers/canada-is-the-worlds-newest-tax-haven/

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04/26/corporate-canada-investments-in-top-tax-havens-up-17-per-cent-in-2015-new-data_n_9781106.html

There are many sites like the above on the web. It's not a secret. And it's not possible that Trudeau never knew about this. Indeed, he and other Canadian pms have signed agreements that made tax havens possible.

Ths sums ae enormous. And it is your money and mine that is being taken. It's the reason why New Brunswick is at the 'edge of a fiscal cliff'. It's the reason we can't provide adequate social services. It's the reason the rest of us have to pay higher taxes.

But, somehow, it has escaped the attention of editors at the irving press. After all, they are too busy stuffing trivia into their papers to listen the CBC or read the Toronto Star. (Maybe our chamber of commerce should have a special dinner to discuss this. Maybe the Saturday sermonette on our faith page should discuss it. Nah. It's about immorality and greed. Their Jesus never discussed those.)
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US heroes defend their country against the Yemen hordes..

https://theintercept.com/2017/03/09/women-and-children-in-yemeni-village-recall-horror-of-trumps-highly-successful-seal-raid/
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What we are watching in Africa and the middle east is repetition of the imperialist wars that have been going on there for several centuries. The difference now is that the leading imperialist power is the United States. And it works, as the old imperialist powers did, through its killing power.

And if you read the old books, (like those by Christopher Wren), the imperialist armies who invaded the region to kidnap slaves and to loot resources were valiant and heroic - just like the current crop. And the other side, the ones getting attacked, are evil and warped in our news media.

The reasons for the invasions and killing remain the same - the eternal  hunger of capitalism for more.

As a child, I adored films and stories about the French Foreign Legion. The Arabs were, of course, evil. It never occurred to me to wonder what a gang of thugs hired by France was doing in a foreign country, killing people. It never occurred to me why it was evil for those arabs to shoot at people who were invading their countries.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/09/imperialist-wars-and-interventions-fuel-refugee-crisis-in-africa/
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The refugee crisis is just beginning. It's going to get much, much bigger as another human stupdity linked to capitalism kicks in. Those same people who tell us that Muslims have to be killed because they're evil also tell us that climate change isn't happening.

So we'll just go one being happy, happy, happy as the world collapses around us.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/09/the-refugee-crisis-is-a-sign-of-a-planet-in-trouble/
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We don't get much honest news about Israel in our news media. You have to go to the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, for that.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/09/only-the-israeli-dead-matter-israels-failure-at-investigating-its-bloody-wars/
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I skipped The Guardian  today becaue they're wasn't much in it - excecpt for an article about how Russia is destabilizing The Balkans. Actually, it's the U.S. that has been destabilizing that whole region. And Canada has been helping out by committing troops that are too few to be of any use - but just enough to involve Canada as the U.S. looks for war with Russia.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/2017-03-07t000000/trudeau-government-escalates-belligerence-towards-russia
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And here are some shockers about just one of the problems raised by climate change.

http://journal-neo.org/2017/03/09/cias-climate-change-studies-can-lead-to-no-good/
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Ever notice  how few stories the irving press carries about oil and gas companies?

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39748-oil-and-gas-lobby-fights-california-regulators-to-keep-injecting-drilling-wastewater-into-protected-aquifers
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I well remember the news video. Men in white helmets brought a child injured in the bombing in Aleppo, Syria, to an ambulance which just happened to have a brightly lit interior with a chairr - and with a camera  aimed at it. We were told he had been injured in the bombing of Aleppo by those terrible Russians. And the men in white helmets were those valiant Syrian rebels who braved the dangers to bring help to a ravaged people.

This was obviously a fake.

For a start, the men wearing white helmets were almost certainly not Syrians. Most of those "Syrian" rebels are, in fact, Jihadists financed by the U.S. And - it was obviously just too cute with just the right lighting and the seat and the camera angle.

And there was lots of emphasis on how cruel those Russians were. Well, okay. But Americans have been bombing civilians, millions of them, for over seventy years. How come we never saw any TV videos of those?

It was propaganda. And it was obvious propaganda. But people bought it. And that led to the making of a documentary called White Helmets . And, gee, golly, whiz, it won an Oscar.

The whole thing was a lie - and an obvious lie. So how did it fool all of Hollywood? I doubt very much that it did. Hollywood is a factory for manufacturing lies.

And, offhand, I can't think of any of our commercial news media that told the obvious truth about this. The White Helmets were a propaganda gimmick from the start. And what's really bizarre is that they are Jihadist Muslims we have been taught to hate - but who have been largely created, financed and trained by the U.S.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/swedish-doctors-for-human-rights-white-helmets-video-macabre-manipulation-of-dead-children-and-staged-chemical-weapons-attack-to-justify-a-no-fly-zone-in-syria/5578469

There's a sucker born every minute.
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The US is sending a thousand troops to fight ISIS in Syria. That should be interesting. ISIS is one of the Jihadist groups that the U.S. has been financing from the start of the Syria war.  (though our commercial news media haven't said much about that.)

Why the U.S. change of heart? That's probably because the past 16 years of wars have done nothing to strengthen the U.S. position in the middle east - and it now faces jockeying with Russia and Turkey to maintain some influence in the peace talks.

http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/1.776140
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March 7: the crisis of greed.

http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.775820Lying,

a criticism of the news we get, is not just a malicious rumour that's floating around. Almost all the news we get from our commercial news media is heavily biased, and the bias is designed to strengthen what was a lie in the first place. There was a good example in my local paper today. The story  is about the Canadian government and it's  policy  toward Ukraine. The Canadian government has decided to maintain Canadian troops posted near Ukraine for at least two more years in order to defend eastern Europe from those terrible Russians.

That's a constant theme in our news media. Russia is a daily threat to eastern Europe, and has been an aggressor in Crimea. That neatly ignores a number of realities. One is that Russia was not the aggressor. The aggressor was the U.S. which helped to overthrow the legally elected government of Ukraine. It has since supported stunningly corrupt governments in Ukraine that steal tens of billions a year, and that have impoverished the people of Ukraine.  But that doesn't make our news.

Russia moved into the southern part of Ukraine (Crimea) because the people of Crimea asked it to. Crimea's population is largely Russian. Russia responded for that reason - and because a Crimea under Ukrainian control would expose Russia's major naval base to an American attack.

In other words, none of this was caused by a Russian threat. It was caused by an American threat to Russia.But you will never hear or read that through our "free press".

And why are Canadian troops in Latvia?  Well, say our news media, they are there to protect Latvia from attack. Right. A thousand or so troops will scare the Russians off.

Of course they won't. So why are they there? If the Russians did attack, such a tiny Canadian force wouldn't last a week. They are there to commit Canada to a larger war if the U.S.should decide it wants. And a large part of the U.S. wants one But it  has nothing to do with Latvia, and nothing to do with Canada. It has to do with the desire of U.S. billionaires to rule the world.

Ukraine and Crimea are the results of an American aggression, not a Russian one. And Canadians are being used as bait.

Here's an old item from The Guardian that told the truth as it was happening.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict
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Here's a story that could only appear on CBC news because most commercial news media want to keep it a secret that Canadians are being robbed blind by the wealthy - like all those people who own the commercial news media.
This is not just an annoyance. This has had crippling effects on all Canadians (except for the very rich.) And it can only get worse, much worse. Here's an example of what we don't get, as a rule, in commercial news media

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/opposition-reacts-kpmg-tax-dodge-1.4012519
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Government health care  has never been popular among the wealthy. Luckily, it doesn't affect the taxes most of them pay since most don't pay anything.  But it interferes with the additional profits they could make.  A similar move in Canada would probably bring high praise from our commercial news media. In fact, my local paper has already run several commentaries on how we should extend privatization of health care - you know, to take us back to the good old days of the nineteenth century.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/07/trump-replacement-healthcare-plan-cost-older-poor
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Big business has moved in on food - with its usual objectives. Quality doesn't matter Safety doesn't matter. All that matters is profit.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/07/sweat-shops-gmos-and-neoliberal-fundamentalism-the-agroecological-alternative-to-global-capitalism/
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A good article. Very true. And it applies to Canada as well as the U.S. Indeed, its seems to apply to most of the world.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/07/trump-fake-news-and-the-press/
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Not sure - I may have run this commentary before. But it's still worth a read. There's a price to capitalism, a very high price.  Capitalism has only one objectiive - making a profit Famine, poverty, refugees, health, lives mean nothing to it. It's extremely narrow and destructive. And philanthropy does almost nothing to change that - however much it gives chambers of commerce a chance to clap,clap, clap.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/22/can-the-climate-survive-electoral-democracy-may-be-can-it-survive-capitalism-no/
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Through most of history we have lived in societies in which  a very small number took a huge share of the wealth, leaving very little   for the remaining 99%. Over the last forty years in the western world, that trend has turned into a stampede. Our society will not survive it.

It's not the cruelty of the wealthy that will destroy us. It's their stupidity.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46606.htm
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Okay . Quick. Why is there a war in Yemen? Why is the U.S. involved in it? Why is Britain involved? Why has Canada sold weapons to Saudi Arabia (which is fighting Yemen) when such sales are against our international promises? Wny is there a massive famine in Yemen? How is that country a threat to Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Britain, and Canada?

And why aren't our news media answering any of these questions?
What has happened to us that we take part in such murder without even demanding to know what it's all for?

http://fair.org/home/downplaying-us-contribution-to-potential-yemen-famine/
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Hatred of Muslims run deep in the U.S. And, despite the tone of our news, it runs almost as deep in Canada. As a sign of that, watch for Trudeau to start backing off on his promise to help refugees. The same is generally true of Europe and Britain. It's all the fault of the Muslims, of course.

Over a million have been foolish enough to stand under our bombs as they were dropped. They lolligagged in the path of our bullets. They foolishly fled into   wildernesses to escape us, only to die of exposure and starvation. They tried to escape by sea only to drown. Those who made it were stuffed into ghastly camps in which there was no future.

There was no reason for western Christians - American, British, Italian, French, Canadian ----to kill way over a million Muslims who were not attacking any of us. There was no reason to create the horror of tens of millions living as refugees, living with no hope, living with families broken by the flight....

The only reason our politicians turned loose that hell was to please leaders of the oil industry who wanted fuller control of oil-producing countries.
(And the Christian churches stood by with their faces hanging out as that happened.)

And now, it's all going to be the fault of those helpless people we murdered and abused and effectively destroyed. After all, they're different from us. And that's bad. And they don't share our Christian  values.

What we have done, what we are doing is one of the horrors of all time. And we are doing it to make our very, very wealthy happy. There is no other reason.
Christianity looks very much like a failed experiment.
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Here's a look at socialism - one that won't appear in most of our news media.

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2017-03-07t000000/democratic-socialism-can-build-economy-works-everyone
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Hitler murdered over five million Jews. Yes. It was terrible.

No. It does not give Israel the right to murder Palestinians, to steal their land, and to control their lives.

Palestinians were not involved in the holocaust We were. We knew about it at the time. We knew about in the 1930s when it was still in its formative stages. And we didn't lift a finger. If we - Canadians, Americans, Britsh - were  (after a long delay) willing to help Jews by giving them land, we should have given them some of our land. Giving them somebody else's land was scarcely a sign of morality or character.

http://truepublica.org.uk/global/israeli-officials-warn-another-round-hostilities-gaza/
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 I don't agree with the next writer's premise that just a year ago the news media were honest. In fact, they weren't, for the most part, honest a century ago. But his general theme makes sense.

http://www.voltairenet.org/article195554.html
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After a major battle in the U.S. civil war, soldiers picking up the muskets of the dead found that most were loaded and, often, double loaded. That's odd.
A soldier fired his musket. One second.

He cleaned it out, reloaded with powder, then with a musket ball tamped down with a bit of cloth, raises the gun.....That took a minute or more.
Even in battle, a nusket should have been empty most of the time. So why were most of them loaded?

World War Two gave a hint of the answer as researchers discovered it took thousands, even tens of thousands, of shots for each enemy killed.

It was obvious. Most people don't like killing other people. Well, that would have to change. So armies around the world included "character-building" to make soldiers want to kill - and with no regard for age or gender. They were taught contempt for human life. And the results were gratifying. ( Though one has to wonder what it did to the minds that underwent this  training.)

Now, the good work goes on with video games.

https://theconversation.com/how-the-us-military-is-using-violent-chaotic-beautiful-video-games-to-train-soldiers-73826
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We so eagerly jump on whever Trump says that is different that we ignore how much he is like Bush and Obama. In the last 16 years, there  has not been single year in which the U.S. was not at war - and often in wars of which we get no news, such as drone bombings. In fact, there has hardly been a year of peace with the U.S. at any time since World War Two.

So, hey,  if you liked Obama, you'll love Trump.

http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/trumps-generals-have-disastrous-recipe-america-permanent-state-war
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Remember how, not many years ago, the very wealthy, especially in banking, went hopelessly broke - and had the gall to hit the American public for a gift of more than a trillion dollars. When they got the money, their boards went wild, giving each other multi-million dollar bonusses for their cleverness in ripping off the American people.  (and this gift was accepted from a government to which most of corporate bosses didn't - and still don't - pay taxes.)

Incidentally , the wealthy in both Canada and the U.S. pulled a similar rip-off in the depression of the 1930s, making everybody else suffer the crisis while themselves ripping off  eveybody else.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/06/trump-and-saving-capitalism/

For church-going readers, ask your clergy to deliver a sermon on whether capitalism is a Christian concept.
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This will seem a gloomy commentary; and, quite justifiably, it is. One factor is the combination of greed and stupidity that affects the economic leadership of the world. Another, possibly to be ranked with stupidity, is the war-making, especially of the West, in the last 40 years or so. And we're going to see a lot more of the latter. Our very foolish wars in the middle east have destroyed whole societies and nations. They aren't going to get any better for a very, very long time - if ever.

All those millions of refugees represent shattered nations and gross instability - in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria ... Watch now as Israel and Turkey dip their fingers into the cauldron.

Meanwhile, business leaders in the U.S. are putting on pressure for wars with China and Russia ASAP. The U.S. is falling behind China by a wide margin in economic development. The great war for American domination of the world has to happen soon - or never.

http://journal-neo.org/2017/02/23/who-is-responsible-for-the-economic-collapse-in-the-us/
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Children like the ones in this story, millions of them, will be with us for seventy years or so. - something we should have thought of before going to war.

http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/1.775713
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Trump and other are talking about anti-hate laws - making it a crime to preach hatred of a group. In this case, the concern is recent attacks on synagogues. It sounds reasonable. But it's not.

Will they extend such anti-hate laws to people who preach hatred of Muslims? Not likely, considering that Trump is the world's leading preacher of hatred against Muslims. And  Mexicans. And Latin Americans in general.
Indeed, most of us have our group hates.

We should prosecute people who threaten others - but not because of their hatred. It should be for the crimes they commit as a result of that hatred. And we already have laws against that.

Anti-hate laws sound good. But they are really about justifying some hates that the government wants us to hate.

http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.775820
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The good news is that there is a movement among Jewish groups in the U.S. to forge links with Muslims, and to help them. Judaism has a long tradition of open discussion of political issues, and of applying Judaic principles to dealing with them. It's a profoundly humane way of dealing with social problems.

Too bad Christians are not big on it. I have given many, many talks in Christian churches and Jewish Synagogues. I learned early that I better have something plausible and useful to say in a synagogue. In the churches, I learned my talk should be pretty light weight - and have a few jokes in it.
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March 5: Maybe I'm just cranky today.

The irving press had a big, front page headline story recently plus longer stories inside the paper - about the scandalous lack of rooms at this province's hospitals - leaving dying patients to spend their last days lying on stretchers in the halls.
Does the irving press give a damn?

For reasons I'll give below, it almost certainly does not give a damn.  Indeed, I suspect this treatment of the dying will simply become a part of its long campaign to privatize health care.  If the irving press did give a damn, it would have run the two stories below. Funny how the irving editors missed these stories. They were the leads for Thursday and Friday for CBC News.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/kpmg-offshore-sham-1.4006469

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/kpmg-tax-dodge-trudeau-responds-1.4009567

Of course, we are running up government debts. Of course, our health system can't afford adequate space.  That's because so many of the people with big money don't pay taxes. Billions of dollars, nobody knows how many, are hidden away in tax havens. This has been going on for years. Around the world, it amounts to trillions of dollars.

That means the rest of us have to pay much, much higher taxes - but without the taxes of the wealthy we're coming nowhere close to meeting the need. It also means the eventual collapse of our economic system. If we, every year, take money from most people and hand it over to the very wealthy - well - it should take no great brain to figure that eventually the system will collapse.

Trudeau says he'll look into it. Right. Trudeau has known all about this from the start.  It's hardly a secret - and he shouldl have been looking into this even before he entered politics - whenever he could take a break from his career of teaching showboarding.  And the opening up of a tax haven in Canada must have been known to the government. Gee! If some CBC reporters could find out all about this, where were are our secret police who are supposed to protect us from our enemies?

This is a prime example of how greed gets in the way of intelligent thought. This greed on the part of the wealthy creates hatreds and fears. Nor do these hatreds and fears take us anywhere useful. Instead, our politicians who sit in the laps of the wealthy steer the  hatred and fears toward destruction - like the mindless destruction we've seen in the last 16 years of American foreign policy - which countries like Britain and Canada have supported and even  joined in on.

We have created the most dangerous world in history. And, no, it wasn't peasant farmers in Afghanistan who caused the danger. No, it wasn't Vietnamese or Iraqis or Syrians. Nor do we live daily in fear of Yemen bombers in our skies.
No. It was greed - but not the greed of most of us because most of us are no richer and no safer for all the killing.

Now, think hard. How is it possible that any honest  and even marginally intelligent newspaper could miss the story of Canada becoming a tax haven for the wealthy?
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The Irving press has also been amazingly gentle in its coverage of the dreadful story of high levels of pollution at some of the province's most popular beach areas. And we're talking of VERY high levels of pollution. The paper gave us a statement of what had happened - but without any attempt to explore why it was allowed to happen - and why nothing was done. The editorial page had a tut-tut about it.

That was it. And that is not good enough, not by a long shot. Who allowed this to happen? Who failed to take action? Why has the government, even now, said and done nothing?

We're not speaking here just of fun at the beach. We're speaking of human health and, quite possibly, human lives. The government has known for a long time that these levels are dangerously high, and far, far higher than national standards permit. Was some person just unbelievably casual? Or was the failure to act helped along by "interested" parties?

A government should have launched an immediate and public investigation. But it's as silent as if this sort of thing happened every day. (And I guess it does in New Brunswick.)

This reaction smells - even more than the beaches do.

And remember - this is the same government that wants us to think fracking and pipelines and forest spraying are perfectly safe.
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Sometimes, The Guardian scares me - as in the following item. For a start, this isn't a news story. It's an opinion. It's also a silly opinion.

It claims to be study of left-wing news media in the U.S. - and applies the term to the mainstream, commercial media. What on earth is it babbling about? Exactly what is a left-wing news medium? I suppose some people think they know what it means. But it's extremely unlikely they do.

In any case, only an ignorant fool could refer to any part of the mainstream, commercial press in the U.S. or Canada as left-wing.

And these news sources are encouraging hatred among right-wingers? Again, almost nobody knows exactly what right-winger means. And Americans, of all wings, have been hating African-Americans, orientals, Jews, atheists, Muslims, Mexicans, aboriginals, anybody who's different, for centuries.

This is pure opinion listed as news and, at that, it's stunningly ignorant.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/05/left-wing-media-far-right-normalize-hate-trump
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Speaking of left and right, it's astonishing how we daily use words we don't understand. Once, as I was waiting to be interviewed by a parliamentary committee, I fell into conversation with an m.p. He told me he was a Conservative, then hastened to add he was a Progressive-Conservative.  He seemed to think that was important. In fact, it was meaningless.

The world 'conservative' originally meant one who favoured the preservation of old institutions like, say, the aristocracy. The word 'progressive' got added when the Conservative party needed a new leader, couldn't find one in the party, and so offered the leadership to a western premier. That premier was a member of the Progressive party. So he agreed to move to the Conservatives, but only if they changed the name to Progressive-Conservative party..

And what did the Progressive part mean? Nothing whatever. It might as well have been called the Sunshine Party.

Liberalism originally meant a break with the institutions of the past. Now, it doesn't even mean that. (No. It has never meant 'generous' or 'kind' or even 'looking to the future').

And then there's "Canadian values", a theme now being pushed by the Conservatives which means, roughly, kill Muslims. Like "American values", the term means nothing because there is no such thing as a list of Canadian or American values. It comes to mean whatever listeners imagine it to mean.
In the past, it has been a Canadian value to kill aboriginal peoples, to prohibit Jews from coming to Canada, to prohibit people from India, to discriminate against Japanese and Chinese, to tear criminals apart with horses ...

All the words above are imagined words. And everybody imagines his or her own meaning for them. And so politics becomes a debate between the ignorant and deaf on both sides with each hearing what he or she wants to believe.
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The Guardian does a better job with this observation on Canada.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/canada-conservatives-trump-brexit
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Isn't it just terrible to hear these stories about Russians trying to influence U.S. elections? Well, try not to get excited about it. Most countries do it - including to their own friends and allies.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/04/electoral-interference-as-reality-a-brief-history/
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Rachel Carson was a writer who had enormous popularity, notably in her writing about the seas, and what we were doing to them. And here is a pretty chilling look at how matters stand now.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/04/risking-lives-over-ocean-mother-murder/
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The U.S. seems to be giving up its attempt to replace Assad in Syria. That would be good to hear - if it did not remind us of the hundreds of thousands murdered and the millions refugeed as the victims of a war the U.S. should never have started in the first place. It has been one disaaster after another for U.S. foreign policy - Afghanistan, Iraq,  Iran, Yemen, Syria, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia -  after all that cost and killing, after all that human suffering, after so destroying lands that they will never recover in our lifetimes, it's all been a waste.

Has the U.S. learned anything from this? More accurately, have the billionaires who own the U.S. government learned anything from this? Almost certainly not.
.
"This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
Not with a bang, but a whimper."
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-us-is-dropping-its-calls-for-assad-to-go-the-syrian-regime-is-a-better-bet-than-isis-a7050261.html
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There has been little criticism of Trump for his denial of climate change. Of course not. People who are wealthy enough to own newspapers don't want to spread talk like that. Nor does the oil industry want to hear it.

But it's happening. And, contrary to rules of high society, it will kill the rich as well as the poor. And there won't even be time to give the rich dinners of honour for the their philanthropy.

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/03/05/global-warmings-threat-to-trumps-mar-a-largo/
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And here's a sobering note about Canada's 'sanctuary cities'.

While not as vile and inhumane (and unChristian) as the responses of the U..S. and most of Europe, Canada is by no means a leader in aid to refugees. Nor have our philanthropists been much in sight.

http://rabble.ca/news/2017-03-01t000000/dont-be-fooled-sanctuary-city-trend-migrants-canada-are-still-risk
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A story you may have missed in most of your press.

http://journal-neo.org/2017/03/03/the-hideous-truth-about-the-politics-of-american-poverty/
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Saudi Arabia  is one of the cruelest and least democratic countries in the world. It is also our good buddy in the middle east as it happily uses Canadian armoured cars to slaughter the people of Yemen. (Thank you, Justin Trudeau.)

Who are the Canadians who support Saudi Arabia? Well, I certainly haven't heard any hand-clapping in the streets. My guess would be that all the support comes from wealthy Canadians - especially those in the oil business - and from their numerous political  hacks.

http://journal-neo.org/2017/03/03/the-hideous-truth-about-the-politics-of-american-poverty/
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For all the sweet talk,  Canada is going to be in the fying pan to maintain good relations with the U.S. And Trump is not going to permit Canada to take it easy on refugees. He is going to insist that his friendly neighbour cooperate fully with American policy. Expect a profound Americanization of our border agents. Expect a gradual drop in the Canadian welcome for refugees. Trudeau will do that because he knows Trump will interfere with freedom of trade if Trudeau doesn't do what Trump wants him to do. And Trudeau knows that our patriotic Canadian business leaders will drop their Liberal campaign donations the instant Trudeau does that. (We already allow armed US border patrol officers to cross the border and operate in Canada. Offhand, I don't know another country in the world that is spineless enough to do that.)

Trump is going to want Canada to conform with the U.S. on refugees. He's also going to put on the heat for Canada to contribute troops to "cooperate" with U.S. troops - as they are already doing in Latvia. Trudeau will be expected to play follow the leader. And he will.

https://theconversation.com/trumps-border-plan-for-canada-so-far-not-a-wall-72916
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Enough. This has been a slow blog to write. And a depressing one. We live in a world in which our leaders, most of them, are enthusiasts for nuclear weapons - whose use nobody would survive. They've been thinking and talking like this for seventy years. And in all those years, they've made almost no attempt to find a solution to this problem. This is worse than stupidity. This is insanity.

We have news media that work at heating up our indignation at China for creating islands off its coast, and claiming them as Chinese territory. Indignant readers cheer on the U.S. for sending warships into those waters - an act that could easily provoke a world war.

Our news media haven't bothered to tell us that there is nothing unusual about what China is doing. In fact, the U.S. annexed islands (Hawaii) much further off its coast - and did so without the consent of the residents. It also overthrew the elected president of Haiti to insert an American puppet. For that matter, every country in North America is the product of land theft from the native peoples.
In comparison, what China has done is pretty tame stuff. And it may well be perfectly legal. But our news media don't say that. They just follow the official line.

Today, I read a story in a paper about how Christianity is an American value. And the scary part is that millions of people read that crap and nod their  heads.
As nearly as I understand The Bible, there is nothing Christian about building nuclear arsenals, invading countries to kill millions of people and create tens of millions of refugees. There is nothing Christian about the obsession with conquest, nothing Christian about an economic system that glorifies the rich and is based not on human compassion but on competition and greed.

I hate reading the news.

March :3: Stupidity and Insanity - the Keys to Power.

Here's the story on just one tax-dodge scheme for the wealthy. It seems to have been done with the knowledge of the Canadian government through a firm that has many government contracts, and through a 'prestigious' law firm.

And this is only one of many such schemes. Tell me again what a lovely man Justin Trudeau is.

Will it appear in the irving press?  Perhaps with an indignant column by Norbert Cunningham?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/kpmg-offshore-tax-dodge-1.4002778

I wrote the above note yesterday. Today, it did NOT appear in the irving press. It needed the front page for a big story that a local road got washed out.  Inside, there's mostly heart-warming stories. I mean, who needs bad news?
And Norbert? Forget it.

This is just one tax dodge  scheme among many that are carried out by our governments for the benefit of the wealthy. We, the majority by far,  have to make up the difference in higher taxes and smaller services. The price for that is heavy, and it's going to get a lot heavier. No society can survive by constantly debasing itself to serve the rich.

The creation of tax havens is one of the great threats of our time. Those with vast fortunes are free to keep all their money with no obligation whatever to the millions of the rest of us who have made their fortunes possible.

Will the wealthy use that money to spread wealth to the rest of us? Not bloody likely. That extra money will be spread to where labour is cheapest and the corporation bosses are least controlled. We are now well into a system in  which almost everybody is steadily getting poorer to benefit a very small group.  We are designing trade treaties which give away our right to decide what will be done (or not done) for our environment. We are allowing that very small group increasing control of the governments we elect. We allow that small group to control the information we get about what is happening in the world.

All of this now has the U.S. in dreadful confusion,  a nation of fear and hatreds. Trump has brought all this into the open. But he didn't create it. This has been developing for decades in the U.S, Canada,.......other parts of the world.

Impeaching Trump will solve nothing - because Americans (and most Canadians) are so thought-controlled that they don't even recognize the problem.
The U.S. has spent countless billions to kill people and steal their oil. Most correctly, the ordinary people of the U.S. have spent billions - money that they cannot now spend on health care or housing, or education. And for the sacrifice, the American people get ???  Well, some get killed. Some suffer for the rest of their lives after the killing. Meanwhile, the very wealthy, who usually avoid military services and who don't pay taxes to fight these wars,, trot happily to their tax haven of choice, occasionally  giving a gift to a local charity (clap, clap, clap).

And our news media soon forget. Remember the reason for the U.S. and Britain invading Iraq? It was because Iraq had   weapons of mass destruction.

 (Whatever that means.) But there were no such weapons - and Bush and Blair knew there were no such weapons.

One and a half million people were murdered. (Okay. if you accept the  U.S. figures, 'only' a few hundred thousand were murdered. So where is all the digust or even criticism about this mass murder?

The war was illegal under international law. That makes the masss murder a war crime. But the only person who got tried and hanged for it (very, very quickly) was the leader of Iraq. But our news carried not even a word about the criminality of Bush and Blair. Bush is now retired, honoured, and a regular attender of his Christian church. Clap hands for Jesus. Blair, like Bush, is now an extremely wealthy man, and an eminent member of British society.

We are creating an extraordinarily corrupt and murderous world with the most corrupt and murderous of us in charge. And we don't have much time to change that.
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A reader sent the item below. It's from a source I'm not familiar with. But I'll certainly be adding it to my list, and with thanks.

https://theconversation.com/can-the-government-save-money-by-privatizing-prisons-medicare-and-other-functions-73229?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%202%202017%20-%2068875122%20Stories%20of%20Note&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%202%202017%20-%2068875122%20Stories%20of%20Note+Version+A+CID_ee9a5d10312002f9398b2e1e20ceb291&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=Can%20the%20government%20save%20money%20by%20privatizing%20prisons%20Medicare%20and%20other%20functions


If that huge link doesn't work or if you want to see the 'magazine' contents, go to

https://theconversation.com/ __________________________________________________________________________________
The following item is gruesome. But it's important as a sample of how we humans behave - and always have behaved. Self-righteousness and the most brutal treatment of others have always gone hand in hand.

(Some Protestants will take a satisfying comfort in noting that the villians in this case were Catholices. But devout Protestants (and people of other religions) have a very similar record.)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/mass-grave-of-babies-and-children-found-at-tuam-orphanage-in-ireland
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What is the war in Yemen about? Why has Saudi launched a war on a country that is poor and is no threat to Saudi Arabia? Why is the U.S. supplying bombs and other weapons to the Saudis for this war?  Why is it supplying guidance to Saudi aircraft that are  bombing civilians? Why is the U.S. blockading Yemen  so that this country that is suffering starvation and disease cannot get food or medical supplies? Why has Trudeau insisted on supplying weapons to  Saudi Arabia for used in Yemen when that is contrary to Canadian international agreements? (And when are Canadians going to catch on to Justin Trudeau?)
This is a war so brutal and so contrary to international law---yet we hear virtually nothing about it. Have we become so numb that we have lost all morality?

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/mar/03/yemen-horror-uncertainty-act-prevent-famine-saleh-saeed-disasters-emeregency-committee
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People, all people, need some regulation. Cars need speed limits. City streets need stop signs. Buildings need building codes. That's obvious, of course. But the word from big business is that regulation of business is bad. And so it is that the big news media owned by big business routinely cheer the dregulation of business.

And here's a story that pokes a hole in that thinking.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/chile-wildfires-forestry-industry-plantations

New Brunswickers might think - forest spraying, fracking. The ones who do these things are people - just like us. So they need regulation - just like us.
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Well, to return to an earlier topic, the U.S. is now bombing Yemen. Why? Why is the richest country in the world bombing some of the world's poorest and most hungry people? Has Yemen threatened to attack the U.S.?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/03/lies-russia-trump-obamawww.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-launches-air-strikes-yemen-n728186
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There's quite a story to be told about the behaviour of Canadian mining companies outside Canada - and their utter contempt for the local people. Here's a part of it.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Big-Win-for-Colombian-Community-Against-Canadian-Mining-Giant-20170302-0004.html
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Why is the U.S. taking part in a war in Syria? And why is it supporting the 'rebel' side - the jihadists that the US says are evil? American wars since 1945 have killed millions. made refugees of many tens of millions, created the largest national debt in world history (one that can never be paid), devastated whole countries which are not likely to recover in the lifetime of any person now living.
The wealthy have made money out of all this, laughing all the way to their offshore tax havens. But what have the American people gained - if fanything - out of all this?

This isn't stupidity. This is insanity.

http://thesaker.is/syrian-war-report-march-3-2017-us-backed-forces-surrender-wide-areas-near-manbij-to-syrian-army/

And this most certainly not the world that Canadians fought and died for in 1939-45.
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Why are some people rich and some poor? Well, it's because the rich ones have ambition, and they work hard. The same phenomenon can be seen with other successful and admired people. Why is Prince Harry a prince. Well? he workd  hard and he studied. It was the same with  his father.

Any clergyman will tell you that. Jesus, on the other hand, had no drive and no ambition. That's why He never got rich - and why the chamber of commerce never gave a dinner in His honour.

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/why_do_some_people_have_money_while_others_dont_20170302
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Trump is building up the U.S. nuclear arsenal. So guess what Russia will do. (Only one guess.)

One, modern nuclear bomb could wipe out any country in Europe - or any state in the U.S.

This isn't planning. This is profound stupidity, hysteria and insanity.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/24/sleepwalking-into-a-nuclear-arms-race-with-russia/
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And here's a surprising story.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/shell-knew-oil-giants-1991-film-warned-climate-change-danger-video
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There are lots and lots of stories about Trump but, for the most part, they aren't worth reading. It was, for example, cruel of Trump to plant the widow of a Seal killed in a recent action - and out there right in the middle of his speech to congress so he could lead the applause. That really wasn't a moment to applaud that poor woman. But he's a lout. And we already knew that.

The really dangerous part of American political life is that the only altervative to the delusion, and corruption, and murder lust of the Republicans is the delusion, and corruption and murder lust of the Democrats. Americans have no alternative. The democrats have more 'class' perhaps. Obama did. But he still murdered and created refugees on a huge scale to obey his bosses. He still did nothing about torture. He still created crises with Russia and China.  He still allowed the tax havents to go on. He still represented the insanity of the wealthy.
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Here's the story of the widow, and how Trump used her as a propaganda stunt.  It reveals something of the character of Trump. He's disgusting. But his character is not the really dangerous part of him.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/03/notes-on-empire-and-spiritual-death-a-recent-episode/
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I usually leave Haaretz as my last reading because it's the last intelligent and honest commercial news medium left. I also have a fondness for it because it reminds me of the Jewish community I grew up with - honest, fair-minded, compassionate - all those qualities that today's Israel has thrown overboard.
Israel's treatment of Palestinians is shameful. It's racist. It's murderous I don't see any trace of Judaism in that. The Canadian response to this (none) is equally shameful.

Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, reminds me of the Judaism I knew and admired. His language in this statement is careful, very careful. But his message is clear. And it's honest. And intelligent.

And let's not kid ourselves. North American support for Netanyahu's Israael has nothing to do with Judaism. The U.S., in particular, supports Israel for one reason only. Israel is a vital agent in keeping control of the region for the U.S. and its oil barons.

http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.774304

March 1:We are on the path to disaster.

This news did not appear in the New Brunswick newspapers.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/automation-jobs-canada-computers-white-collar-1.3982466


This is no longer something that is coming. It's here. Heard of any government plans to deal with it?

Almost certainly not. If governments planned for all of us, they'd now be looking at drastically shortening the work week while maintaining wages. But they aren't doing it. And they are not likely to. Instead, we are following the Trump route. We are increasingly enabling big business to escape essential controls, to escape taxes..... (Where is the big irving pressstory on how Canada has become one of the world's leading tax havens? Exactly how did that happen? A country needs government approval to become a tax haven.)

What is the cost of tax havens to us? Could that possibly have something to do with rising government debt? (You bet it could.)

Today's front page story in the New Brunswick press is a breathless account of the province expanding wine sales. And, for the very excitable, the news was repeated in another story in section 1. That was also yesterday's story . In fact, it was also two stories in yesterday's edition.

The big story in Canada and World News is also local. The province's wealthiest man - who routinely and gractiously accepts gifts from the government  (and us) and who just happens to own the  newspaper - says that the province's power utility charges him too much. That is the lead story for Canada and the whole world.

It doesn't get out of Canada until page 3 of the section where it has a big story of a California bus crash in which one person was killed. (I needed to know that.) Pages three and four are still mostly about Canada - and are trivial. One is about police in a neighbouring province who are looking for lobster thieves.

In all,  there are just  three stories from the rest of the world. But Russia, China, Yemen, Iraq, Africa, Latin America, Asia in general, and Europe  don't exist.

There is no serious examination of what climate change could mean for us, nothing about the spraying of our forests, nothing about Canadian troops which are now stationed in several danger spots, no mention that we are playing war roles in Iraq and Syria without having declared war, no mention of our navy playing a role in helping the U.S. be provocative. And, of course, nothing about the automation revolution which is about to hit us.

Oh, and not a word about the Canada/EU trade deal.

This is a newspaper that is designed to keep its readers in ignorance. And there are lots of other newspapers just like it.

We are heading into some very dangerous waters. Big business will not pay its own way. It will not permit essential changes. That is going to lead to violence all over the world. And the violence is not likely to improve anything.

It already has led to violence. In effect, war has been continuous since 1945. Oh, I know. All those violent people are evil. Funny thing, though. It's the good people (us) who have been doing all the invading and most of the killing.

Nobody has invaded Canada, the U.S., Europe since 1945. The invaders have mostly been us 'good guys'.   The U.S., alone, has invaded some seventy countries, killing at least 20 million people.  And he U.S. has had Canada, Britain, France, Italy trotting along at its heels.

Yes. Muslims have also been killing us. People are like that when you invade their countries, steal their resources, kill their people. (Our side has killed some 20 million - actually, well over that, since 1945.)

Worse, the wars are unwinnable - by either side. Trump will build more nuclear weapons? And guess what. Russia and China will build more nuclear weapons. And the nuclear weapons of today make those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like firecrackers.

We need to restore democracy if we are going to avert the final violence. But we can't restore democracy if we are kept in ignorance by news media like the irving press. Believe it or not, the increase of wine sales in New Brunswick is not one of the great issues facing us.

And, New Brunswickers, you can't avoid the violence if you're too chicken even to talk about what's happening.
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Here's one of the problems the world isn''t dealing with. I guess that's because there's no profit in it.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/27/which-is-the-worlds-most-wasteful-city
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  One of the unnoticed disasters, repeated throughout history, has been the failure of Christians to act like Christians. Instead, they celebrate their faith with trivialities or hopelessly confuse the gospels with patriotism.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/01/priestly-advice-theresa-may-crisps-lent-dubs-refugees        
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      Behaviour has consequences.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/mar/01/water-scarcity-latin-america-political-instability        
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The greatest threat to the world is not Russia or China or even the U.S. The greatest threat has been the destruction of government by surrendering virturally all its powers to corporations.  It is the corporations that lie behind the wars. It is the corporations who destroy unions. It is the corporations that destroy the environment. It is the corporations that will use automation enirely for their own benefit  - but not for ours. And it is the corporations who will make sure we learn nothing from the news media. That's why we are entering a social and economic revolution even greater (and more brutal) than the industrial  revolution.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/2017-02-27t000000/where-have-all-jobs-gone
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The article you will never see in the irving press.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/01/there-is-really-only-one-way-to-come-to-grips-with-the-climate-crisis/
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Some of our press is starting to warm to Trump. And that tells us more about our press than it does about Trump.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/01/trumps-speech-outlines-plans-for-class-war-at-home-and-war-abroad/
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The U.S. is the world's biggest spender on 'defence' - which  is also the most corrupt department in the U.S. That's a big part of the decline of education in the U.S., of the lack of affordable health care, of the lack of social programmes for the growing legions of the poor...

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/28/trump-boosts-most-wasteful-department-reduces-all-others/

But,  hey, it has to protect itself from invasion by countries like Syria and Iraq and Cuba and Guatemala and Haiti.....
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War is very, very profitable for a few people. That's why we are in our 78th year of continuous war.

https://theintercept.com/2017/02/27/trumps-proposed-increase-in-u-s-defense-spending-would-be-80-percent-of-russias-entire-military-budget/
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Passing anti-hate speech laws and antiprotest laws sounds reasonable and desirable. It's neither. Inevitably, the decision as to who is the hater or protester is made by whoever it is that is in power. The result is that what begins as an anti-hate programme becomes an anti-democracy programme.
Better to let the haters speak out. Certainly, I find it just as important to know who they are. An anti-discrimination law is one thing. An anti-hate for anti-protest law is quite different.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39661-outcry-kills-anti-protest-law-in-arizona-but-troubling-trend-continues-nationwide
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Don't believe the following story. If there were any truth to the climate change story, our oil billionaires would tell us. I mean, they're rich. So they know things.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/spring_is_moving_forward_at_a_record_rate_20170301
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And here's some awkward truth about Canada's foreign minister and her Nazi father. Actually, Ukraine has been a heavily Nazi country going back to the 1920s. Naziis still publicly parade in that country. That's one reason why the predominantly Russian population of Crimea doesn't care much for Ukrainians.
Funny how our news media have never mentioned Ukraine's enthusiaism for Naziism.

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/27/a-nazi-skeleton-in-the-family-closet/
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Hiding money in tax havens is a theft, the greatest theft in history. Nobody knows how much money is involved, only that it is trillions. It is a major reason why don't have free higher education, why the U.S. refuses health care, why uncounted Canadians and Americans live in fear and hunger on the streets, why governments fall into profound debt. It is a theft greater than all the bank robberies and drug rings that ever existed.

But try to find a news media item about it. Canada has just been named as one of the world's great tax havens. We should be finding out who is using these tax havens, and how much they are taking from us. But most of our news media have never mentioned it. And they won't.

It is theft on such a massive scale that it will destroy our social order, unless, of course, our political and economic leaders destroy it first.

Only a person of astonishing greed could use such a system. Only a person of astonishing stupidity could not see the consequences of this.

http://truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/panama-papers-committee-investigates-london-uk-home-2000-enablers/_
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Here's a story that illustrates how superior Haaretz is to almost all of our news media. Who has been carrying out attacks on Jewish cemeteries in the U.S.? It's almost certainly American good ol' boys - the same ones who voted for Trump.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.774449
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Two things struck me as I wrote this.

Today, on March 1 in the city I live in, I went out with no coat or jacket. I went out dressed as I would be indoors. It's been like that for some days now . It was also drizzly out What's odd about that is that I live rather far north for this to be normal. Sure enough, records show us to have  come through the shortest and mildest winter in history. This comes after  years of steadily warming
temperatures and, most recently, the beginning of the breakup of the Antarctic ice. But not to worry.

Oil executives tell us that climate change is not happning and, anyway, it has nothing to do with fossil fuels. And hey, if  you can't trust oil executives, who can you trust?

The other thing that struck me is a report refugees in this world now amount to about 70 million, with large numbers of orphaned children among them. (There isn't much help for any of them. Medical workers, teachers, missionaries, social workers have devoted their time to offer what little help they can. But I haven't heard anything of oil executives doing that.)

Thanks to wars and to the climate change and to environmental destruction., the number is going to grow much, much higher. What are we going to do?
The major plan at this point is Trump's to simply deport them. No country is prepared to handle all the refugees we are creating.We are building one hell of a crisis - and most of our news media don't even notice it.

Who created this crisis? We did. We have, all over the world, created hells that will not recover for a cenutury - if ever. And we are planning to create more.
That's what happens when corporation bosses rule the world.