Nov. 12: Time is running out.

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1. Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 2m2 minutes ago
   

   It is our sacred duty to support America’s Service Members every single day they wear the uniform – and every day after when they return home as Veterans. Together we will HONOR those who defend us, we will CHERISH those who protect us, and we will celebrate the amazing heroes
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4. .___________________________________________________https://theantimedia.com/war-since-2001/ https://theantimedia.com/war-since-2001/
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6. That's six trillion dollars. All of those wars were fought to satisfy billionaires who want those wars to make themselves even richer. And virtually all of those billionaires (like our own here in New Brunswick) pay no taxes for themselves or their corporations. We, with money and lives, pay for their wars. And we and our children are going to pay one hell of a price for that.

We have just remembered our war dead and our casualties. And we certainly should do that. But look at what Trump says of it - We will honour

those who defend us? Mr. Trump, who the hell were American soldiers defending Americans from when they bombed Yemen children into starvation? When they invaded Afghanistan? When they killed millions of Korean civilians? When they killed half a million or so Iraqis? When they bombed, napalmed and agent oranged the people of Vietnam? When they overthrew the elected government of Haiti? Was Haiti about to invade the U.S.?

When Canadians died in Afghanistan, who were they defending us from? Did I miss the Afghan hordes that descended on Toronto?

Every war since 1945 has been a war of pure greed, of slaughter of millions of civilians Most of the soldiers didn't know that. We lied to them just as Mr. Trump now lies to them.

The Legion, alas, has never caught on to that game. In Afghanistan, when it should have been protecting our military, it played the American game of slaughtering civilians. There is every possibility the U.S. will soon attack Venezuela, and that Canada will be expected to contribute. That might be patriotism in the ideas of the recruits we sent off. But most of us should know better. This would be murder in the name of pure greed.So far, 48 dead have been found - but the number is certain to become much higher. The Brunswick News has a big story today on the wildfire. It's about a man from Moncton who lives there. Nothing happened to him, and Brunswick News told us all about - nothing.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/migrant-caravan-us-border-tijuana-1.4906364

These families are fleeing the hell created  by among others, wealthy individuals who hold stock in Canadian companies in Central America. But Brunswick News didn't think that part of the story was interesting.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/15/saudi-prosecutor-seeks-death-penalty-in-jamal-khashoggi-case
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Here is a very gentle account of the horror Israel has been inflicting on Gaza.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/13/the-guardian-view-on-gaza-the-risk-of-war-is-real
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I guess we all like to kid ourselves that we, as a nation, are special. That's really a racist assumption - as though all those in any nation are a distinct people, generation after generation. Imagine my shock when I learned that my French name, Decarie, is actually Spanish - though the family has been established in France for a thousand years or more.

In the same way, Israeli's Jews see themselves as a race a distinct people descended of thousands of years in the Holy land. (In fact, Hitler had defined them in that same say. That was the basis of his drive to destroy them.)

Canadians are not a race. English are not a race. French aren't. Or Germans.

But it takes courage to say that in this world. So enjoy this slice of reality from Israel.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/the-twisted-logic-of-the-jewish-historic-right-to-israel-1.6654428
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/12/lest-we-forget-many-victims-of-the-first-world-war-are-already-forgotten

As we recently remembered World War 1, how much did Canadians hear about the Chinese who served and died for Canada - almost always as labour at the front? Our aboriginal people? Canadian Blacks?
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https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-global-warming-report-falls-short-of-honest-truth

Here in New Brunswick, we have just elected a premier who feels his first priority is to revive fracking in the province. Think of that.

We have - maybe - twelve years of serious work to prevent climate disaster from becoming the final disaster. And Mr. Brian Higgs figures his first priority is to generate more climate change - fast.

As I read that, I wondered - how stupid can this man be? We are facing the greatest crisis in human history - and all he can do is make it worse by creating profits (for a very little while) for people of astounding greed, arrogance, and indifference to human suffering?  And how can a society be so sheeplike as to allow this?

The obsession of the wealthy is easy enough. Mr. Higgs and those he serves understand only profit - and only for themselves. They are not necessarily stupid. But greed blinds them to any reality. So it is that they spread poisons on us, and  they refuse  to recognize that climate change is happening. They are trained to believe that they can have anything they want. There is a long history of this self indulgent obsession, of the mass murder it creates and, in the end, the terrible suffering.

And  they get away with it because so many of the rest of us are sheep. That's the history of the rise and fall of every empire I have ever heard of.

Brian Higgs is a useful tool for such people. I was struck, several days ago, when he reacted to plans for a government programme. His reaction? It was quick and brief. "This should be given to private business."

He gave no reason for that. But the reason was simple. This is a man who has spent his life working for people whose only purpose in living is making profits. It's the kind of thinking that led to the U.S. creating the disaster of privatizing education. Privatization didn't create better schools. But it create profits. And profit is the only thing the Brian Higgs of this world understand.

We are destroying the planet? The Brian Higgs of this world have no room in their heads for thinking of this. All that counts is making profits for billionaires.
Nothing else has any meaning at all.

People's Alliance, what are your featherhead leaders thinking of in supporting this intellectually defective man?
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/14/thanks-trump-last-year-there-was-sixfold-increase-americans-seeking-asylum-canada

What are we thinking of? We create horrors out of the nations we exploit. And when millions flee the horrors we have created, we block them. We have created the millions who are fleeing hunger, hopelessness, war - Hells that WE have created. Then we punish them for fleeing.
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Julian Assange told the truth about American war crimes, torture, starvation, murder..... And now, the land of the free intends to crucify him.

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/11/14/us-intel-will-bring-assange-to-us-in-chains/
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https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/15/a-cop-on-the-beat/
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https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/15/the-palestinian-declaration-of-independence/
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/15/radical-idealism-jesus-and-the-radical-tradition/

Perhaps the most stunning event in history has been the failure of Christian churches to have any significant effect on our murderous and greedy behaviour. On many days you can see them outside hospitals and holding up anti- abortion signs. Okay. Where the hell are those self-righteous twits when the U.S. have deliberately killed millions of children, and is now starving the babies of Yemen to death?
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https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/perverse-cycle-european-arms-sales-saudi-and-uae-worth-sixty-times-aid-yemen-356882718

The U.S. leads the world in arms production. Why does it spend so much? Because it means monster profits for arms companies. 6 trillion dollars in the last 16 years. That's why Americans can't get medicare. That's why there are millions of homeless. That's why higher education is prohibitively expensive for most families.

This is a massive redistribution of wealth in the last 16 years in which the U.S. military has not preformed brilliantly, and has not fought any opponent close to its own size.

No. This is nothing to do with military needs. It has to do with redistribution of wealth from almost all Americans into the pockets of a small number of the very wealthy. That's why the U.S. now has by far the biggest national debt in history.
And that's why it's all going to crash.

But don't worry. The wealthy have all hidden their money in secret accounts.
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We have, almost without noticing it, slid into a an era - not a new one really, but rapidly expanding one of government.

At some point, perhaps three centuries ago, we slipped from government by the aristocratic born to government by the wealthy.. It was always covered by glib posturing.

The American revolution was not a revolution for the granting of power to all. In fact, the U.S. Senate was designed to interfere should the 'people' - represented in the House - get uppity. (Though modified, it still sometimes carries that role.) Similarly, those of low income were originally denied the vote - as were women. And, of course, slaves.

Nor was the revolution really an attempt to kick out the British. It was to get a free hand for wealthy Americans - like George Washington - to steal aboriginal lands.

The Confederation of the British colonies had nothing to do with people coming together in love and joy. It was to create the setting for a transcontinental railway that would hugely benefit British capitalists.

From the start, it was capitalists who got power, a power which from 1880 or so they controlled with the new and cheap daily newspapers that they owned

The newspapers gave the wealthy tremendous control over what news would be distributed. As well, the emergence of democracy meant that the politicians who had money to campaign with had a tremendous advantage. If they were obedient, they could get election funding from the very wealthy..

Thus the election victory of Mr. Higgs in New Brunswick. This corruption shaped our 'democratic' politics from the start. And it has now risen to such a pitch that democracy in most of the world has simply ceased to exist.  We are now very largely governed by the very, very wealthy.

It's glaringly obvious in the U.S. for both Democrats and Republicans as the two parties have, for many years, represented the wishes of the very wealthy. The system is wildly and even openly corrupt. Canada is not much different with both its Liberals and Conservatives.

That's why we are now having so many wars. The wars enrich the wealthy though plundered resources, and the steering of government money into war spending which is good for war - and also for the pocketbooks of billionaire corporations like Boeing.

And this is going to send us into financial collapse which, in itself, will cause a really big war. Meanwhile, with bootlickers like Mr. Higgs, our politicians avoid dealing with the greatest crisis of world history - the impact of oil on our future.

No. Climate change is not a myth. It is real and it is close. Leading world scientists, some of them almost as intelligent as Mr. Higgs, agree that climate change is on us, and that we don't have much time.

We need massive programmes to deal with this. We don't have much time. And we're doing nothing - worse than nothing.

You have children? Do you hate them? Why are you setting them up for this?
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Announcement -

On Nov. 22, at the command of my daughters, I shall be moving to Ottawa where they can keep an eye on me.  I'm sorry to leave. But I shall continue the blog - including keeping an eye on New Brunswick, and including my usual summer visits to New Brunswick.

However, I shall certainly miss a few days.starting with Nov. 22. How much I miss will depend on how long it takes me to get settled in - probably a week.

Nov. 13: The Canadian Empire

Oh yes, there is a Canadian empire. Us Canadian just don't like to brag. (I guess that's why the Moncton Times and Transcript never mentions it.)

Like all empires, it exists to protect the very, very wealthy among us who like to make easy money out of controlling and ripping off other countries. And it's fun because, like most empires, it does little to nothing for the folks back home - and, of course, nothing whatever for those miserable souls who live in the empire.

In this case, the Canadian Empire is in Latin America - as a sort of branch of the American empire there.. There's even a book on the subject. It's by Todd Gordon and Geoffrey Webber, and it's called "The Blood of Extraction: Canadian Imperialism in Latin America". Fernwood Publishing, Nov. 2016). Funny how the Moncton Times has never mentioned it.

It's Canadian mining companies, mostly - Hudbay Minerals, Goldcorp, Barrick Gold, Nevsun Tahoe resources. Times have been good. These have gone from 2.5 billion in stock  in 1990 to 59.4 billion in 2013. (Actually, it's a lot more. Much of that money disappears into tax havens so that our billionaires won't be pestered.) All of this is marked by devastating pollution, corruption,  militarised violence, detentions, assaults, death threats. Oh, and low, low salaries and extreme poverty.. Lack of basic services - like education. In all of this, the Canadian mining companies have the full cooperation of the local government - and of the Canadian government. (Your tax dollars at work. No - not the tax dollars of the mining companies.)  Oh, and anybody who complains runs a strong change of being murdered.

That's why so many thousands are fleeing their homes. And the number is far, far greater than the caravan of migrants we read about. Our greed and brutality along with that of the U.S. is destroying whole nations.

Trump is very close to sending troops to some countries - like Venezuela. We might not know about the Canadian role. But Trump does. And it is very likely he will demand the presence of Canadian troops to help kill these impoverished people. . But we'll call the troops 'peacekeepers'.

Watch for the big story in ths irving press. But don't hold your breath.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/monsanto-roundup-health-canada-1.4896311

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/thumbs-up-from-putin-as-trump-rains-on-armistice-parade

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/poland-far-right-independence-centenary
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Here's an opinion from an 'evil' source. But it's pretty accurate.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/443754-elections-illusion-democracy-us/
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/12/california-fires-latest-what-is-happening-climate-change-trump-response-explained

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/california-wildfires-1.4901303

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/nov/13/california-aerial-firefighting-crews-tackle-blaze-near-simi-valley-highway-video

Hey relax. Don't worry. Climate change isn't happening. Why, if it were, Mr. Higgs would know.

What the hell... We have twelve years before it's too late. So enjoy.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/12/political-system-failing-us-british-energy-dept-blockaded-protest-climate-inaction

Yes, There are dangers in fracking, very great dangers. But New Brunswick's new premier thinks its good. The people of this province have elected a stooge. This is a man of no social values at all. This is the kind of person who has been the curse of New Brunswick almost from the start. How could so many people vote for someone who is so obviously a stooge?
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This next story wasn't important enough to make our Moncton Times.

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2018/11/quebec-demonstrations-call-action-climate-change
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It's not just New Brunswick that has a government of half wits.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2018/11/quebecs-new-government-putting-barriers-cultural-diversity
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https://www.thenation.com/article/brazil-bolsonaro-education-repression/

Bolsonaro is, with no exaggeration, an ultra-Nazi. But Trump's foreign affairs man, Jon Bolton, has publicly embraced him as a really democratic leader. Bolton says Bolsonara is his kind of guy. And so he is.
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https://consortiumnews.com/2018/11/12/yemeni-war-deaths-have-been-underestimated-by-5-to-1/

Much of that killing is being done by Canadian weapons. Makes ya proud to be a Canadian, don't it?
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Sometimes I'm so proud to be a Canadian.

https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/13/canadas-sunny-ways-60000-per-yemeni-death/

Sometimes I'm not.
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-media-omission-of-assanges-grave-plight-trump-is-free-to-prosecute-assange-for-airing-us-war-crimes/5659795
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/87-of-the-worlds-oceans-are-dying-report/5659810

Yes. There are things we have to do that are more important than killing children in Yemen.
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Though most Canadians don't know it, Canada has been knee deep in interfering with Venezuela That is why there is every possibility that Canada will be expected to  join the U.S. if (when?) it begins murdering Venezuelans.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/maduro-in-the-cross-hairs-what-you-are-not-being-told-about-the-crisis-in-venezuela/5659476
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Our local paper  hasn't paid much (any ) attention to the fighting between Israel and Palestine. It looks very likely that Israel is planning a full-scale invasion of Palestine. A nation that Israel has plundered and impoverished for years may now be getting the final touch.

Hitler's mass murder of Jews has resulted in a Jewish nation that now follows the Nazi example. No. That is NOT an exaggeration. And it no way does this resemble Judaic thought.

https://thesaker.is/november-13-2018-gaza-is-on-edge-of-israeli-ground-invasion/
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https://www.aljazeera.com/
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This is the most depressing blog I have ever had to write. But there's nothing new about it. We are on a path what we set on back in 1945. We have betrayed everything we said we fought for in World War 2. (Just as we had earlier betrayed all we said we fought for in World War 1.)

We are all now, even here in New Brunswick, governed by a massive greed combined with stupidity. And it's not simply the premier's fault that he got elected. What's devastating is that so many people voted for him. We are living in the most dangerous time in history. But we elected a premier whose life has been built around kissing his boss' rear end. And the boss' other end sees as little of the tremendous dangers we face as his stooge does.

Well, what's in the local paper?

Well, Premier Higgs will meet with those other provincial premiers including Ontario's goobledegook Doug Ford. That should be a real meeting of minds. Both want no carbon tax. Hell, we have lotsa time, lotsa time to deal with climate change.

Then there's another half-wit article on how our governments are spending too much money. And, as usual, there's no mention of the reason we  overspend. It's because the wealthy of this province pay NO income tax, and close to NO property tax. They also expect massive gifts from us taxpayers.

My, it's hard to live in a province in which our main purpose in life is to maintain the irvings in the style they are accustomed to. Of course, that's only for the rich. When some of our homeless slept in a tent, they got kicked out. Then there's a big commentary of a sort that the irving press specializes in. It's a piece of propaganda on the commentary page written by a servant to the very rich.

 It's a pitch for our economic policies to be designed to make rich people happy. That fits with former premier Frank Mckenna's view that the purpose of government is to serve the very rich and, even better, we should dump elected governments in favour of governments made up of rich people. Actually, McKenna is behind the time. We already have such a premier in Brian Higgs.

And that's about it for the Moncton Times and Transcript. Yemen? Israel? war with Russia? China? Syria, Iran? Venezuela? Never heard of them there places.

Nov. 10: There'll be bluebirds over...

...The white cliffs of Dover\
Tomorrow, when the world is free.
There'll be love and laughter
And peace ever after
Tomorrow,  just you wait and see.

I was a very young child when I heard that recording of the wonderful Vera Lynn. She gave a dreadful world a sense of hope. We were fighting for a reason. We were making a better world.

And today.....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/10/autonomous-drones-that-decide-who-they-kill-britain-funds-research

Is this the world Canadians died for? We'll come back to this.
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Some years ago,  I visited Vimy Ridge where Canadian troops achieved a stunning victory in World War 1. There I saw the memorial to the Canadians. And it was a stunning sight.. But I found photos of it in today's news somehow flat and less impressive. So I turned to a government site for photos.

Alas! It, too, was flat. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe you need to climb up the tunnels to the top of the ridge where Canadians defeated the Germans. And maybe you need to stand on the ridge, and look down over the line of advance.

http://ww1.canada.com/after-the-war/photos-views-of-the-canadian-national-vimy-memorial

Sorry. I just couldn't find any photo that captured  the magnificence and beauty of that memorial. You have to go there.
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Another story that won't make Brunswick News, despite its importance.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/09/russia-hosts-talks-between-taliban-and-afghan-peace-council

The U.S., for all its bullying posture, is a power in decline. And that's why we're seeing Russia and China moving in as the peace brokers.
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Remembering war should not mean glorifying it.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/09/disremembering-vietnam-making-americas-wars-great-again
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https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/10/latest-us-led-air-strikes-kill-at-least-80-syrian-civilians/

God is on our side. Yes,  God is on our side. If it were otherwise, our clergy would have told us.
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Don't worry. If climate change were happening, our Brunswick News would tell us. And a thoughtful man, I mean a  really thoughtful one like our new premier Mr. Blaine Higgs, would tell us, too. Yes, he would.

https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/10/california-wildfires-kill-nine-drive-150000-from-their-homes/
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Canada's prime minister gushed apologies to Jews for Canada's refusal to help Jewish refugees in the 1930s. (He should have included all the years up to 1948).
But now, when Israelis are abusing Palestinians just as  Germans once abused Jews, he sees nothing, hears nothing....

https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/10/open-letter-to-canadian-pm-trudeau-re-the-unapologetic-irony-of-canadas-historic-rejection-of-the-palestinian-people/
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This next one is very long, but well worth the read. We are always told that wars are about good guys and bad guys - with our side always the good one. And that is simple-minded nonsense. Almost all wars are about greed. And, often, they're about greed on both sides.

https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/10/jingoistic-perversion-of-1918-ww1-armistice-centenary-humanity-ignored-yields-genocidal-history-repeated/

You want examples? Check out almost every war in U.S. history, including the 70 or so since 1940. Oh, also check out the American revolution. A battle for equality? Not likely. There was no equality for women, none for slaves, and none for men who were poor. And it is not a coincidence that the American leader was George Washington - who was probably the richest man in the U.S. - and the man who would fire up  the plundering of native peoples.
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A big story in US/Canada news? Not in New Brunswick's irving press.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/11/09/news/us-judge-blocks-construction-transcanadas-keystone-xl-pipeline
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/11/09/opinion/remembrance-means-committing-ourselves-peace-and-justice

I shall comment further on this later on.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/11/08/analysis/lng-vs-climate-5-charts-show-burden-british-columbians
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https://off-guardian.org/2018/11/09/building-bridges-vs-buying-bombs/
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And one of many signs of western rebellion against U.S. rule of the world.

https://theantimedia.com/france-protect-iran/
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Wildfires aren't caused by climate change. We know that because Mr. Trump says so. Anyway, that terrible California fire was caused by poor forest management. Mr. Trump even said so.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/donald-trump-california-forest-fires-blame_us_5be6932fe4b0e843889816e0
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On Nov. 11, I remember Bertie.

Bertie was a big kid - but slow. He quit school in grade four when he was fifteen. He used to come play with me. I was  only six then. But, well, he was really six, two. We had great times. He'd push me in my car, and he'd yell as he ran.

Then, when he was sixteen, he appeared wearing a khaki uniform. He had stolen his older brother's draft papers, and joined the army. He loved that uniform. He'd march forever listening for the click of his heels on the pavement. His mother said she'd report it. But she never did.

It was many years later I met a man who had been with him in his first action.

"We were just inside the German border, all of us face down in the dirt with a German machine gun cutting the air above us. I think Bertie was cryin'. Yeah. He was crying'. Hell, he was only sixteen, a kid.

Then, suddenly he jumped up screamin', and the machine gun cut him in half.

Craziest thing. When he jumped up, he was screamin' for his mother."

The family got a notice he was buried in The Netherlands. It was, of course, under his brother's name. The family said they'e report that.. But they never did. Then the government sent them a big cheque. They drank it in a few weeks.

Not until many years later would I visit his grave, and get the name changed

And so, on Nov. 11, I don't think much about glory or heroism. I think about why Bertie and so many others died. And I wonder why so many have had to die since. And I wonder why they're still dying.

Since 1945, the U.S. has scarcely ever known a year of peace.

There was Korea. And no, that was not fought to protect us from Korea. And no, it was not fought to bring democracy. Both Koreas were dictatorships. Both continued as dictatorships. The purpose of the war was to give the U.S. a base to attack China - because U.S. big money wanted to control the China market. The Americans fight wars for the same reason the British Empire did - to plunder nations for the benefit of the very wealthy, and to murder all who obected. (Britain still does that, but on a much smaller scale.)

All of America's wars since then have been fought for much the same reason, to give wealthy Americans control of the world's resources and it's economies. All are wars to make the rich richer. That's been true of Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and it will be true of Iran. That's why Trump slaps trade 'sanctions' on Russia, China, Venezuela, Cuba.......

Nobody knows how many have been killed. It could be 30 million. It could be more, many, many more. We cooperate with U.S. billionaires in starving children to death. And we are now planning the final war that could put an end to all human life.

No, I don't think that's what we thought we were about when Vera Lynn sang,  "Tomorrow, just you wait and see".

No. We have betrayed everything we told our Canadian fighters in World War 2 and Korea, and Libya, and Afghanistan they were fighting for. And this, too, is important to remember on Nov. 11.

But we won't remember it. No. We'll settle for the usual, brainless speeches by clergy while we plunge ahead into the greatest destruction ever known to satisfy the greed of the most savagely greedy people ever known.
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Nov. 8: It's not just Trump

The problem is not Donald Trump. The problem is about half of the American population. That's roughly the number who supported Trump in the mid-terms.

The problem originated, I suspect,as a patriotism gone mad. Americans have it drummed into them as children that they are a god-fearing people - and also that they are God's chosen people. When, in the 1830s, American land speculators and slave dealers flooded into what was then northern Mexico, Mexico reacted against them. Of course. They were taking Mexican land. They were bringing in slaves to a Mexico that didn't accept slavery.

These Americans were thorough scoundrels who had no right to be there. But in American schools children learned they were the heroes of the Alamo. So the U.S. invaded to revenge its heroes. And that is how it stole Texas, Arizona, California....(There's a reason why so many cities in those states have Spanish names.)

When American slaughtered native peoples to steal their lands, the heroes were the Custers and other mass murderers.

They attacked Canada for no good reason but to steal it in 1812. But their schools teach them it was to protect their independence in the face of Canadian aggression.

American schools then and now taught and teach history as if it were the same as patriotism. Inevitably,  this blended with a belief that Americans were God's chosen people, and it was God's will they should rule over others. This is essentially what Trump''s policy is. And it reflects the wishes of American capitalists.

It wasn't just Americans who felt that way. The British Empire was very similar, a murderous and thieving institution that saw itself as God's agent. And this showed up in the popular anthems of both countries

For the U.S. "God Bless America. Land of the Free. Stand beside her and guide her...."

And in Britain, "God who made thee mighty make thee mightier yet." (Yeah. God wanted Brits to murder Asians and Africans and Chinese by the millions. God wants Americans to starve children to death in Yemen.)

Both nations used God to justify their murder and plunder. And both nations, while clapping hands for Jesus, have killed uncountable millions and tortured them, and plundered their lands.

Trump is a man of God? You bet. That's why the Bible Belt praises him.

Patriotism can be admirable. But it can also be used to twist our minds and to make them useful to the rulers of this world. Trump knows that. That's why he was angry at football players who kneeled during the national anthem.

This week's vote suggests this union of God and America has the support of at least half of all Americans. And that makes it useless for the rest of us to plead "God help us."

Trump lost some ground in the House. But, in the most racist campaign ever seen in an American election, he did well in the Senate. Add to that the reality that the Democrats have their own history of racism and wars of mass murder.

No. I'll wait for a while before cheering.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/07/justin-trudeau-apology-fight-antisemitism-ms-st-louis

Our apology needs to come a lot further than Trudeau took it.

It wasn't just that shipload of Jewish refugees we refused. I knew some of the German Jews who had managed to get into Canada in the 1930s - and it was common that they had to pay bribes. Nor is that the whole story.

Over a hundred Jewish children managed to escape the death camps and get to Spain - but they weren't allowed to stay. This was, of course, during the  war when the death camps were in full use. They asked for permission to come to Canada or the U.S. But both  countries, fully realizing what they were doing, refused to accept them. And they were sent back to the camps.

Indeed, for several years after the war, Canada still refused to accept the Jewish survivors. To this day there is discrimination against Jews in Canada and the U.S. I have seen it up close, especially among our "upper" classes.

As a high school student, I was in a class that had a high proportion of Jews in it. And I could daily see teachers who discriminated against them. And I shall never forget the discrimination I met from a group of eminently respectable people who assumed I was a Jew.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/05/sperm-whales-canadian-arctic

This don't worry new Brunswickers none. Ain't no sperm whales in New Brunswick. So it's okay for us to go frackin......
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http://www.rabble.ca/books/reviews/2018/11/capitalism-runs-womens-housework
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http://rabble.ca/news/2018/11/trump-and-new-senate-allies-threaten-canadian-indigenous-communities-near-alaska-border
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http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/activist-toolkit-blog/2018/11/how-help-organizations-supporting-migrants-mexico
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http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david-suzuki/2018/11/human-behaviour-root-orca-plight
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Canada is nowhere close to meeting its requirements to stop climate change. And that's the old target of 2050, let alone the more realistic one of 2020.. Indeed, our oil industry in the west is running wild. And New Brunswick is right in the stampede under the leadership of Brian Higgs. This man is a disaster.

New Brunswick's recent election was fought largely on non-issues. And New Brunswick is going to pay one  hell of a price for  that.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/11/while-albertans-panicked-about-state-oil-industry-big-five
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https://www.thenation.com/article/refugee-caravan-honduras-mexico/
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https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/08/russia-u-s-instead-spends-on-military/
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This is a long read. But it's worth the time. Capitalism has no nation, no moral values. It exists only to gorge itself.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/profits-ber-alles-american-corporations-and-hitler/4607

Burp!
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https://news.sky.com/story/yemen-10-year-old-boy-who-weighed-just-10kg-dies-in-country-on-brink-of-famine-11547450

God bless America.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50578.htm

Relax. The Trump government says he's a great democrat.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50576.htm
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Yes. The cost of cleanup of oil operations is extremely expensive. And the oil companies commonly dump that expense on the tax payers. That also, incidentally, applies to the clean up for fracking. Didn't NB's premier mention that when he promised to introduce fracking?

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/11/06/news/alberta-new-democrats-and-tories-reject-liberal-request-debate-oilpatch-liabilities
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https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/malnourished-children-yemen/

I guess the minister at your church has been talking to you about this.

No?

Well, I guess Jesus wouldn't have given a damn either.
____________________________________________________________

https://off-guardian.org/2018/11/08/watch-who-are-these-russians-and-why-do-we-hate-them/
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https://truthout.org/articles/new-un-report-warns-of-impending-catastrophe-as-world-warms-glaciers-melt/

No need to be concerned. New Brunswick's new premier says we need more oil development. And he'd know because he talks with Mr. irving.
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http://www.voltairenet.org/article203725.html
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There is a great difference between American/Canadian Jews and Israeli Jews. American and Canadian Jews are becoming increasingly critical of Israel.

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-vast-majority-of-u-s-jews-support-democrats-disapprove-of-trump-poll-shows-1.6634059
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You think 6,000 migrants from Latin America is stunning? Try millions.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/million-refugees-migrants-venezuela-181108155245793.html

For over a century Latin America has been dominated by American corporations, a domination made possible by the interference of the American military. Together, the corporations and the military have bled Latin America dry. Funny how that has never made the New Brunswick press.
___________________________________________________________

And now, a look at the news in New Brunswick. Sigh!

Their really isn't any unless you really really care that a local dental clinic has a dog to calm patients. Then there's a whole page on how the local hockey team has a great-looking dressing room.

Then there's the regular column by Dr. Herb Emery who holds the Vaughan Chair in regional economics at the University of New Brunswick. And I
am afraid I cannot take his columns seriously. Or respectfully.

This time,  the great need he sees is for New Brunswick to develop it's shale gas potential. Right. I mean, we have twelve years to play with before climate change becomes unstoppable. And I guess it's just a coincidence that premier Higgs wants this, and that his former boss, Mr. irving. also wants this.

But, says Dr. Emery, there are people blocking it because they are willful political opportunists. How does he know that? Well, it's because Dr. Emery can read people's thoughts.

Will this create jobs? Yes, indeed - in the usual way. (Mr. irving will demand a government grant as an incentive to pay wages, and Dr. Emery will cheer him on.)

I seem to recall an earlier column in which Dr. Emery was critical of the provincial government for deficit spending. Funny thing, though. He didn't mention that it had to do that because the wealthy of New Brunswick don't pay any income tax, often don't pay property tax, and expect regular handouts from us. Funny how his eagle eye has never noticed that.

Nor does Dr. Emery have any understanding of what a democracy is. It would suggest he sit in for a term of Political Science 101.He should learn what a government is, and what an opposition is. This would help him to understand while some people  in the other parties don't support the government party.

You see, in a democracy, we are all entitled to have a set of values that is reflected in our politics. In the  values of Mr. Higgs, that means given Mr. irving whatever he wants -  such as fracking. But supporters of Greens certainly don't see that as a value. And I would wonder just how much the supporters of the People's Alliance would.

In a democracy, the opposition is there to ensure  that those opposed to the government party have a voice. If a Hitler were to appear as the leader of a minority government, would Dr. Emery suggest that the opposition parties have an obligation to be Nazi?

Given his criticism of those who oppose fracking as being feeble minded or even traitorous, it follows he would expect the other parties to turn Nazi, too.

As a professor with 40 years of experience, I have developed a certain distrust of university chair holders.

Any world news in the local paper? Oh, for sure. The big, world story is that a woman age 106  became an American citizen on election day. In other world news, a local mother has been forbidden to bring her baby to her university classes.

Then there's the comics page.

It is not possible to read this newspaper and know anything about what is happening in the world or even next door.
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Nov. 6: It really doesn't matter.

There is, it seems, something worse than climate change. And we may have only two years to deal with it. (But it can't be all that important. Our local Moncton Times and Transcript hasn't mentioned it.)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/03/stop-biodiversity-loss-or-we-could-face-our-own-extinction-warns-un
_____________________________________________________________
Prince Charles has a long record of making inappropriate speeches. But this time he's bang on. We need to take a good luck at ourselves and our ancestors before we criticize other nations.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/05/prince-charles-says-britains-part-in-transatlantic-slave-trade-was-atrocity#img-1
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As an example of the above, the western powers have been making life in Congo a hell for 150 years with no sign of slowing down.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/nov/06/doctor-fear-of-armed-attack-ebola-patients-congo-drc
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Today's diet of U.S. election news.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/04/america-minority-rule-voter-suppression-gerrymandering-supreme-court

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/04/the-american-civil-war-didnt-end-and-trump-is-a-confederate-president

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/06/midterm-elections-trump-pathologies

Mind you, I'm not at all  convinced that most of the Democrats are any better.And that puts Canada in a terrible position with it's long, long border on the U.S. As climate change continues to severely damage parts of the US while making parts of Canada more reliable, watch for Trump or his successors to demand Canadian unification with the U.S. And watch for American billionaires to pull down their pants so Canadian billionaires can kiss their bums.
_________________________________________________________________
http://rabble.ca/news/2018/11/us-mid-term-election-has-been-story-bigotry-and-fear

________________________________________________________________

Most Canadians probably have never heard of the United Conservative Party. They're the lucky ones.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/11/son-rich-farmer-outrage-fails-trump-embarrassing-questions
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Think Canada needs a Donald Trump party? It has one. It even has 7,000 or so followers in New Brunswick.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2018/11/what-proud-movement-and-how-could-it-influence-upcoming

Well, why not? Eastern Germany had gone Nazi. So we can, too.
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Yes, despite Mr. Trump's boasting there is tremendous poverty in the U.S. (and in Canada), and it's growing.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/05/evidence-pours-poverty-getting-much-worse-america
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Julian Assange told the world the truth about American murder, torture, starvation. (Luckily for us delicate souls in New Brunswick, our newspapers have never told us about this.) So now he has spent years holed up in a room of an embassy in London. But the God Bless America forces are after  him.

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/11/03/live-assange-emergency-meeting/
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Expect nothing, no matter who wins the U.S. election.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/democratic-candidates-praise-trumps-attacks-on-immigrants-as-troops-arrive-at-the-border/5659051
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Our local press has had nothing to say about Brazil's election of a very far right fascist president. Nor has it ever had much to say about the far right in Israel. So here's an item that might be a catchup.

https://theantimedia.com/brazil-president-elect-bolsonaro-sons-idf-mossad-shirts/
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50560.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50562.htm
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And some very good news (but our local press didn't carry this, either.)

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/ozone-layer-is-recovering/
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God bless America. Real good!

https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-uses-banned-white-phosphorus-bombs-in-syrian-city-for-the-fourth-time-in-two-months/251537/

(Lady la-di-dah, who recently honoured Moncton with a visit, is closing down the site above because it doesn't deliver honest knews - like the Moncton Times and Transcript do. She's the one responsible for closing down these sites on Facebook, and for deciding for us what we're allowed to read.)
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-usa-ivanka/china-grants-more-trademark-approvals-for-ivanka-trump-firm-including-voting-machines-idUSKCN1NB0TL

It must be nice to  have a career and a hobby at the same time.
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https://theantimedia.com/sanctions-iran-global-power-shift/
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Our local press didn't mention this story, either. So we won't even think about it.

https://truthout.org/articles/new-un-report-warns-of-impending-catastrophe-as-world-warms-glaciers-melt/

Hey. If this were a real problem, our oil bosses would tell us.
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http://www.voltairenet.org/article203382.html
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https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/russia-deploys-new-cruise-missiles-to-mediterranean-off-syrian-coast-1.6619453
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https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/second-republican-campaign-depicts-jewish-opponent-clutching-dollar-bills-1.6631238
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And the newspapers in New Brunswick? What's to say? For breakfast I  had four pieces of bacon. I finished the paper before I finished the bacon.

Who do I hope will win the election? I don't think it makes any difference. The U.S. has been an aggressor state since it was founded. It's whole history has been one of aggression, mass murder and theft. It's hard to find a single year in its whole history when the the U.S. has not been killing somebody. And, in modern history, that's been true of both  parties.

The day after the election, the whole world will still be threatened by the U.S. no matter who wins. Both parties have been killers and thieves bought by big money. That's not going to change. Both parties obey what big business tells them. And that's not going to change.

In the near future, I think it likely that the U.S. will be applying pressure on Canada to help fight its many wars. And I think big money in Canada will support that.

But don't worry. Just read the papers of Brunswick News,  and you won't even know it's happening. Then Canadians will die fighting wars to make American billionaires richer just as in the Boer War when Canadians died fighting for billionaire brits in South Africa.
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Nov. 3: There'll be blue birds over.....

...The white cliffs of Dover.
Tomorrow just you wait and see.
There'll be love and laughter
And peace ever after
Tomorrow when the world is free....


This child can still hear the magnificent voice of Vera Lynn as she sang that to our soldiers in world war 2.

As November 11 approaches, think of those words. I'll come back to them on that day.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-midterms-race-border-1.4888533
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Here's a story that the newspapers of New Brunswick have almost entirely ignored. And hiding a tragedy of this scale is what's called fake news.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/un-yemen-famine-1.4889673
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/03/stop-biodiversity-loss-or-we-could-face-our-own-extinction-warns-un

Not to worry. New Brunswick's new premier will handle this. He's going to develop fracking - and call it biodiversity.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/nov/03/caravan-migrants-crosses-river-guatemala-mexico-video-report

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/01/migrant-caravan-mexico-journey-illness-exhaustion-danger

Aren't they disgusting? Perverts, all of them. But Trump will stop them with thousands of Christian soldiers. Onward Christian soldiers.

For American readers and those in Europe, you will already know about this. But I include it because here in New Brunswick, our monopoly newspapers cover only important foreign news - like Loose Pig Recaptured Down the Road.

For Christ's sake (seriously), I wonder how the hell our churches can ignore the horror these people are suffering from, largely as a result of the behaviour of U.S. corporations in their country? And how can it be that it's the bedrock Christians of the U.S. who cheer for Trump in this brutality?
___________________________________________________________

Among America's most insane Christians in Trump's national security advisor John Bolton. He hates Cuba because it is not a democracy (neatly forgetting that Cuba was thirty years under the vicious dictatorship of the U.S. and its thugs.)
He also heaps praise on the new Brazil president, neatly forgetting that he is the most vicious nazi since Hitler. But he hates Venezuela because it is a democracy.

Given his position, Bolton is probably the most dangerous man in the world. He wants nuclear war. He wants it very, very much....

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/01/trump-admin-bolsonaro-praise-john-bolton-troika-tyranny-latin-america

Tell us, all you Christian churches, do you think nuclear war is a good idea? Or are you just too gutless to criticize it?
________________________________________________________________
Here's the man Bolton and Trump both admire.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/01/bolsonaro-and-the-rise-of-the-far-right
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Christian Britain, whose capitalist wars along with those of the U.S., and other western countries, have created tens of millions of refugees, have in the past two years, accepted twenty unaccompanied child refugees. Isn't that sweet?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/03/uk-admits-only-20-unaccompanied-child-refugees-in-two-years

And isn't it just wonderful about Meghan and what's-his-name?
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Our Brunswick New did not, of course, have this story.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/02/landslide-189-2-un-vote-international-community-once-again-rebukes-us-cuba-embargo
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/02/praising-openly-fascist-bolsonaro-minded-john-bolton-hails-brazilian-strongman
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Here's a picture of the migrants that brave and Christian American troops are prepared to shoot at. Why are they migrants?

That's largely because American capitalists teamed with corrupt politicians have plundered their countries and made survival impossible.

(Will a local church, the Irving Chapel, named after a local oil billionaire and owned by the family, have a sermon on this topic? Not bloody likely.)

https://www.thenation.com/article/refugee-caravan-honduras-mexico/

The other churches won't have a sermon on this, either.
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Julian Assange told the truth about American behaviour around the world. That's why he has, for many years, been confined to a room in the Ecuador embassy in London. Now, the U.S. wants him for telling the truth - and the government of Ecuador has been caving in.

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/11/02/new-threats-to-julian-assange-consortium-news-to-broadcast-emergency-meeting-live-on-saturday/
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https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/03/julian-assange-modern-day-political-prisoner/
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Again, a topic that has been of no interest to Brunswick News.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/warehousing-immigrant-children-in-the-texas-desert/5658821
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50553.htm

Onward Christian solders....
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50557.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50550.htm

We're so lucky here in New Brunswick. We have a new premier who is a man of the people, a simple lad who has spent much of his life as a humble senior executive of the richest man in the province.....

....a man of the people, that's what he is.....
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It's not the fault of our oil barons and their control of the Alberta oilfields.

I mean, okay, they didn't do something over 260 billion dollars worth of maintenance they were supposed to do. No. And so now we common folk have to pick up the tab. Hey! They're busy, you know. They have families and friends....


https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/11/02/analysis/damage-control-albertas-oilpatch-watchdog-nonsensical

Funny thing. The New Brunswick newspapers, all owned by an oil baron, haven't carried this story. Well, in fairness, they needed the space for a really big story. A local burglar was caught when police found his fingerprints on a TV set. Wow!
________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/how-capitalism-stokes-the-far-right-and-climate-catastrophe/
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Facebook is the outfit that is ousting social media (like this) from its site because it says they're fake news. (They leave the big commercial media alone because they have such high standards of telling the truth and only the truth. Yeah.

However, there is one social media site that facebook approves of - one that encourages race hatred. Hey! We can't trust people who don't look like us.

https://theintercept.com/2018/11/02/facebook-ads-white-supremacy-pittsburgh-shooting/
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http://www.voltairenet.org/article203725.html
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https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/melania-trump-cairo-hotel-bill_us_5bdbbb91e4b01ffb1d00bc8e
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Normally, I would use this space for the press of New Brunswick and, perhaps, to comment on the NB election. But what's the point? The press of New Brunswick is trivia. The election? We now have another loyal servant of the irvings as premier.

No. There's nothing here worth talking about except possibly, New Brunswickers are going to suffer the worst government they have ever seen.

So let's go back to the new world we were creating in 1945.

In fact, it was really the old one. Almost all wars in human history have been caused by greed. That's why Athens and Sparta and Egypt and Rome conquered. They plundered, took over land, enslaved nations....

When Columbus landed in America, he did the same thing. He murdered on a wide scale, stole gold, murdered whole societies, enslaved people. And he was followed by the British, the French, the Dutch all of whom killed hundreds of millions, impoverished whole nations and, just like the older empires, all the profits went to a ruling class of the very rich.

When I was fourteen or so, I was given the gift of a multi-volume history of England by Winston Churchill. I was captivated by the romance of it all. Oh, that man really knew how to write.

Alas! I later studied history - and learned what a ruthless bastard and liar he was.

His England was the creation of vicious warriors who murdered and plundered all over the world, killing some 350 million people at least. And the leading ones warred strictly for themselves, also plundering the English people that they ruled.

Eventually, they were replaced by a new ruling class made up of people who made a lot of money. These were called capitalists, and  they were as scavenging  and murderous as the warriors had been - though they usually left the fighting to others. Like the warrior class, though, they commonly were and still are born into their exalted status. Donald Trump and his offspring are samples of the type.

Almost every war has been fought for that ruling class. That's why the British murdered there way to an empire. That's why the native peoples of the Americas were slaughtered That's why the Napoleonic wars were fought. That's why Congo has been a misery of murder and torture and starvation (at the hands of Christians) for a hundred and twenty years.

That's what World War One was about. And that's why Canada, with other nations, sent troops to try to stop a Russian revolution that was a revolution against greed, poverty, hunger and abuse.

That's why World War Two was fought. (Oh, I know Hitler was evil. But the real rulers of Britain and France and the U.S. and Canada actually admired him. They opted for war in 1939 not because Hitler was evil - and certainly not because they gave a damn for his slaughter of Jews. No. They went to war because  they feared German capitalists would Challenge British, American, and Canadian ones.

Churchill, though not titled, was born into Britain's ruling class. And that was all he cared for. He couldn't care less for the needs of the English people - and they knew it. That's why they voted him out in 1945. They knew they'd never get decent salaries or medical care with Churchill in charge.

But, tough luck for Churchill, it was American capitalists who won that war. They deliberately undermined the British economy, particularly in cutting themselves into control of the British oil industry. Then, American capitalists set out to make the whole world an American empire.

That's what the Korean war was about. It was to give the U.S. a springboard for an attack China. That explains the 70 plus wars the US has fought since 1945. In not a single case was a war fought to protect the U.S. (In fact, nobody was in a position to attack it.) Since 1945, the U.S. has killed tens of millions of civilians by bombing, by burning alive, by deliberately starving, by poisoning......

It has destroyed any democracy in Latin American that got in its way. It has impoverished that whole continent to make American capitalists (like Donald Trump) unspeakably rich. It has destroyed essential social needs like health care. It has destroyed public education - the system that was to give opportunity to millions who are not rich. It rouses the nation to anger at the very idea that people should expect more than 12 or 13 dollars an hour - while insisting on annual salaries for the rich of millions and even a billion - with no income tax.

We are, in all seriousness. in a period of the worst greed and insanity this world has ever seen. It's most pronounced in the U.S. - but evident in many countries.

Couple all that with the statement of Frank McKenna in Ottawa that we should change our political system so that government will be by the very, very rich. And they will, of course, have no controls or limitations on them.

Be scared. Be very scared.

Niv, 1 A bad, bad, bad, bad day.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/31/five-countries-hold-70-of-worlds-last-wildernesses-map-reveals

One of those countries is Brazil. but its Amazon rain forest has been declared as a target for the new, very fascist, ruler of Brazil. As well, the U.S. oil industry is seriously looking at Alaska.

_https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/the-guardian-view-on-brazils-new-president-a-global-danger
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/neo-nazi-eastern-chemnitz-germany-saxony

Nazism is back - in Germany, in Brazil, in the U.S...and quite possibly in Canada. (Watch Ontario and Quebec for this.)
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/01/straight-racist-incitement-trump-campaign-ads-warn-critics-easily-mistaken-neo-nazi
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Despite all the years of big talk, Canada has done virtually nothing to solve the problems it has created for its native peoples.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/indigenous-nationhood/2018/10/political-storm-brewing-saskatchewan-further-risks

Remember the recent and much ballyhooed 'apology' to them? Very nice. But an apology followed by nothing is no help.
_______________________________________________________________

I don't agree with the following article. It wants to keep Steve Bannon, an American, far right fascist, out of Canada. (He has been invited here for a debate. Some debate. His opponent is a Canadian, David Frum, now resident in the U.S., who was raised to have utter contempt for anybody who was not born very, very rich like him.)

No, I don't at all agree with either of these people.But if I banned them, I would be acting just like them.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/10/justin-trudeau-should-pick-phone-and-have-steve-bannon-stopped
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Lac Megantic - perhaps the greatest railway tragedy in Canadian history -happened against a background of greed and neglect involving the railway and Irving oil, owner of its cargo.

But the New Brunswick newspapers never reported that part of it. Not long after, the railway company and Irving were involved in another 'accident' of  greed and neglect. But the irving-owned press has largely ignored that one, too..

http://www.rabble.ca/news/2018/11/lac-m%C3%A9gantic-rail-disaster-eve-destruction

Will the irving newspapers carry a review of this book about the Lac Megantic disaster?  Not bloody likely.
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https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/01/saudi-crimes-khashoggi-murder-yemeni-genocide-complicity-in-us-imposed-muslim-holocaust-muslim-genocide/
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https://countercurrents.org/2018/10/31/in-the-wake-of-deadly-attack-on-synagogue-in-pittsburg-paamerican-muslim-groups-express-solidarity-with-the-jewish-community/
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I found  the next one unpleasant to read - but true.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/01/the-new-global-tinderbox-its-not-your-mothers-cold-war/
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50531.htm
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https://thesaker.is/russia-will-decide-the-fate-of-syria-without-america/

For all its spending and for all its size and the size of its armed forces, the U.S. has been remarkably unsuccessful militarily  (and against much weaker opponents) for seventy years. And it is now facing the loss of its middle east empire to to Russia, China, and to the local population.

This is a situation most unlikely to get better.
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https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/netanyahu-asked-trump-to-stick-with-saudi-crown-prince-after-khashoggi-murder-1.6615049
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This story just in. I had though today's news was slow. How wrong I was.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/01/trump-admin-bolsonaro-praise-john-bolton-troika-tyranny-latin-america

Yes. The new hero of  the American government is the closest thing to Hitler the  Americas have ever seen.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-venezuela-cuba-nicaragua-1.4887859

Now, Saudi Arabians are good guys to Mr. Bolton. And, anyway, the U.S. has the right to enter any country and tell it how to run itself.
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And the Moncton Times and Transcript has its own John Bolton in the form of editorial commentator Norbert Cunningham. I don't believe I have ever seen a commentary as contemptible as this one. It is, quite seriously, a demand for the overthrow of democracy. And no, I am not exaggerating.

It was two or three days ago that a former New Brunswick premier, now a shill for the extreme right wing Bilderberg Group, proposed an end to democracy in New Brunswick. No. I am not exaggerating. That is exactly what he said. He stated that democracy does not work, that elected politicians are a failed idea.

Frank McKenna proposed (gushed) that democratic government should be done away with, and that the province should be run by the very wealthy New Brunswickers, whether they now live in New Brunswick or in other provinces. McKenna gushed and Norbert Cunningham slobbered.

I have never seen such a statement in any democracy in the world since the origins of the free press some 140 years ago. This is a statement Hitler could have made. And Norbert Cunningham has made it just days before November 11 when we remember the thousands of Canadians who served and died in defence of democracy.

Yeah. Democracy no damn good. Politicians stupid. People stupid. Now, get a man who runs an international string of fast food stores. That's the kind of person you want to run a province.

Norbert, you twit...for a start....politicians DON'T run this province. They rarely have. From the start this has been a province run by big business. That's why the wealthy of New Brunswick don't pay taxes. Those are left for us suckers.

The Liberals and the Conservatives have both been run  by big money from the start. Surely, Norbert, even you must have noticed that. (Well, maybe not.) And whenever the wealthy hold their hands our for more big money, it's our money they take. The idea that the wealthy create jobs and wealth is a crock.

Well, they do create wealth for themselves, but for the rest of us, the wealthy cost us money. We have to let them escape taxes. (and guess who has to make that up with bigger tax bills.)  We have to pay them to come here. We have to give them handouts. The biggest scroungers in this province are not the people who live on the streets. The biggest scroungers by far are the irvings and all their friends.

Norbert, medicare was not brought to us by the wealthy. Nor was public education. That's why in the U.S., where the super wealthy REALLY rule, the education system is a mess, and millions can't even get medical care of any kind.

As well, Norbert, as you should know but seem not to, there was a time of government by the very, very wealthy. It was called the middle ages - and the very wealthy were called lords and dukes and earls, title they got from being born to lords and dukes and earls - just as so many of our wealthy were born that way.. And they stuffed their own bellies while starving everybody else.

Norbert, intellectually and morally, your column of today is beneath contempt.
Try to detach yourself from whatever rear end you are kissing.

And speaking of kissing, the cartoonist has yet another cartoon attacking  N.B.'s premier. Nothing wrong with attacking a politician. But this has been the only one he has attacked for months. And the cartoons are always vague in meaning. The Conservative leader gets no attacks despite a platform that is both vague and threatening. Guess who mr. irving wants to win the election.

Local news in today's Moncton Times and Transcript is, as always, trivial. And the ONLY item in world news is another speech by Trump. The U.S. is following policies in Europe, the middle east, and Latin America that are almost certain to lead to nuclear war - soon. Among them are very dangerous war games near the Russian border which are, and which are intended to be, threatening. And the U.S. is moving up much of its nuclear arsenal to Europe. The US navy is constantly interfering in Chinese waters.

Can you imagine how the U.S. would react if that were done in Mexico or the Caribbean? We are very close to the final act for our civilization. But don't worry about it. Just read the Moncton Times and Transcript and you won't worry about anything.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50556.htm
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