June 20: How not to write a news story...

It's on page 1. The page is well chosen. This is far the biggest story in today's newspaper. The story is that a majority of New Brunswickers have grave doubts about the development of shale in this province. In fact, that's a huge story in a province in which the newpapers and politicians and the gas companies have conducted an impressive propaganda campaign in favour of shale gas - and in which the newspapers have porttrayed those opposed to shale gas as a small minority wearing masks and causing violence.

In fact, this is a story about the major news in New Brunswick for at least two years. But it's not the lead story.  The lead story, at the top of the page, "Metro schools need more space".(Wow! Be still, my heart.)  The shale gas story is at the bottom.

And it gets worse, much worse.

The thrust of the story is that New Brunswickers have not bought the pablum fed to them by the government, the gas companies, and the newspapers. Opposition to shale gas is very, very widespread. And they aren't buying the jobs creation story, either. As to safety, a large majority feel it isn't safe. But, oh, you have to read quite a bit of the story before you learn that. Many readers don't go that far. Every journalist knows that.

Meanwhile, a false tone is set by the headline "Opinions are split of shale gas industry:poll" and the sub head "Energy minister says enthusiasm growing for economic potential."  Neither of these is what the story is about.

Opinions are split? Of course, they're split. On polls, all opinions are split. That's why we have polls.- to find out where the split is. In this case, the split is hugely in favour of those opposed to shale gas. That's the story - not some babble about opinion being split.

And the sub head? That's not about the poll at all.It's the opinion of the environment minister - and it's not based on anythng at all.

Now, here's the opening of the story, itself, "Despite protests and the mixed results of a new poll, the New Brunswick government says people are warming up to the economic potential of oil and gas developments in this province."

We haven't been told what the results are yet. But the message of the story is clear. Everything is going fine for shale gas.

That's a lie. It's a whole string of lies. And we still don't know what the poll was about or what its results were. In fact, we don't get figures at all until a good third of the way into the story. That's when we learn that the firm that conducted the poll says there is a clear majority against shale gas, and that their opinion will be very difficult to change.

But more space is devoted to the babbling of Craig Leonard who says people are warming up to the idea. Apparently, Mr. Leonard can read minds and see into the future. So why do we need polls? Or elections?

Oh, and just to be perfectly clear, the TandT also runs a big story on how native people, despite appearances, are all excited about the shale gas.

The TandT really should publish the names of universities where its staff studied journalism. We should have the right to know which journalism schools are the real stinkers.
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Oh, neither Craig Leonard in Environment nor Jody Carr in Education has replied to posts I sent to them two weeks ago, requesting information about Highfield Square and about the two million dollar contract for reading development which was given to an Irving.

They haven't even acknowledged receipt of them.

I am hurt.
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NewsToday is 16 pages of fishwrappers and ads.
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The editorial page is a dead loss. The editorial is the usual "city builds on reputation as entertainment mecca". Right. New York and Toronto and Las Vegas and Paris and London just shiver in envy of Moncton.

Norbert continues his series which should be called "Things I know nothing about". This man, who has never taught a class in his life, says 25 students is a reasonable number for a class. Where did he get that from? In my first year, I taught 32 - and the school board apologized saying they hoped to get down to an appropriate number like 18. (They never did. In my final year of high school teaching, I had 42).

Norbert, incidentally, has no source for any of the class sizes he names.

And, Norbert, will you please learn what words mean?  In what possible sense can the government  be "literally" borrowing money? And, if so, how does one "illiterally" borrow it?

And we should take Dr. Savoie's advice on education? Why? Is he an expert on education , too? Frankly, if I were looking for an expert on educaton, a university is the last place I would look.

You want advice on education? Ask the teachers of K-3. In my experience, these are the real pros.

Then he slanders doctors with innuendo, guess and gossip.

And, of course, he say not a word about any sacrifices we should demand from big business or wealthy individuals. And he gives no hint of how much of our deficit is caused by them.

Tell you what, Norbert. Why don't you say about the Irvings and McCains, etc. what you say about doctors - "maybe we should put them on salary."

Norbert, your columns have long since passed being just dumb. They are vicious, destructive, crashingly ignorant, and just one long, lingering kiss on the boss' ass.
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Rod Allen is still about 50, going on twelve.
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Beth Lyons has an insightful column on women in film. It's worth reading. In fact, in this whole edition, it is the only thing worth reading.
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Yesterday's Washington Post has a story that must have escaped the attention of the eagle-eyed (and eagle-brained) staff of the TandT. The World Bank is setting up billions of dollars for loans for cities in Asia which face catastrophic  storms due to climate change. The World Bank estimates we have, at best, twenty years to get ready.

But not to worry. Climate expert Harper says it's okay. That's why he has dismantled almost all environmental research and legislation in Canada. That's why Canada has a reputation as the worst foot-dragger in the world on adjustment to climate change.

And just to make sure, the oil industry (which includes shale gas) spends millions a year to tell us climate change isn't happening. That's why it's such a good idea to develop shale gas, and  to pipe the world's dirtiest oil to St. John. That's why the tandt has rarely published a word on climate change.

The bottom line is that the Irvings of this world know they have very little time to sell off all their oil and gas - maybe ten years - before our danger becomes obvious. That's not much time - for the oil or for us - but for the Irvings of this world, it's forever. Their corporation minds can handle only three months at a time.
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Oh, there's sort of newspaper on the web called Maine Sun Journal. On March 22, 2012, it carried a story the TandT missed.

It seems a gas station and convenience store owner who was a also a state legilator introduced a bill to wipe out a good deal of environmental legislation. This was a favour to a man who wanted to develop a mine in the province, but who needed the freedom to pollute to make it worthwhile. (and he longed to develop it because he so badly wanted to create jobs for the poor in northern Maine. God bless him.)

Coincidence - the man who owned the mine also owned an oil company that the representative, a Mr. Martin, owed a quarter of a million dollars to. So the representative was called in to have a chat with the mne owner. Speaking as mine owner, he told Mr. Martin it was terribly, terribly important to scrap environmental legislation to help those poor people get jobs.

Speaking as owner of the oil company, he assured Mr. Martin that they could work out some arrangement on the money that Martin owed.

We are assured there was no conflict of interest because Mr. Martin was dealing with two, quite separate companies - which just happened to be both owned by the same man - J.D.Irving.
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Oh, when will the super-reporters at Irving press get cracking on finding out the names of Canadian billionaires who have money in offshore banks?

 

June 19: A dynamite headline.....

....I iwonder if the editor who wrote that page one headline understands the whole meaning of it. "Moncton planning for climate change effects".

(Actually, it's only planning for some effects, particularly flooding and, to a degree, storms. There seems to be nothing here for drought or food shortages....or,,,,_                     

Well, let's start with what this means. Our city council has decided that climate change is here. It's going to get worse. And it's going to have severe effects. And soon. That has not been the general reaction of governments at any level in North American. And that has not been the reaction of big business which finances campaigns to tell us it isn't happening.

Harper is notorious around the world for his foot-dragging on this issue. For years, he denied it was happening. Then, a few weeks ago in New York, he announced it was happening - but, you know, something would be invented, or discovered or - well - something would come along. Maybe....

Meanwhile, he has shut down almost all federal reasearch funds on environment, cut off funding for university scientists studying it, fired hundreds of government scientists....  Well, ...duh...something will come along....

Moncton City Council is taking it seriously. Okay. So will Moncton City council be speaking against fracking? After all, the general scientific concensus is that climate change is being caused by our use of fossil fuels. (and, contrary to a letter in letters to the editor today, shale gas is not a great improvement on that. There is a slight improvement - but not enough to have any serious impact on climate change. As well, it realeases other substances into the environment that are even worse than carbon dioxide.

And ....
it takes one hell of a toll of our fresh water, millions of gallons of it that cannot them be consumed by people or used for irrigation. It should, then, be fascinating to see how we will cope with the droughts that come with climate change.

City council might also consider whether it's really a great idea to run a pipeline carrying the dirtiest oil in the world through this province to St. John to be refined - and belch more climate changers into the air. (Oh, and yes, pipelines do leak - a lot.)

Or we could spray the whole, damned province, killing all the vegetation and animals and most of the people, then pave it and rent it out for a parking lot. Dug...it'll create jobs...duh....
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The NewsToday story on Syria is, to put it kindly, superficial stuff. The reality is that the disastrous US  foreign policy of world dominance has created chaos, deadly suffering, profound chaos in the whole Moslem world as it pits Shiites against Sunnis. The west, with the Arab dictatorships has been supplying the weapons and the money to hire mercenary thugs. Whole nations are being destroyed.

The geniuses behind this are the same geniuses who planned the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of them tragic failures - the very, very wealthy want the resources and cheap labour of those countries - and damn the consequences. The "victory" in Iraq killed over a million, destroyed the infrastructure, and the country is now collapsing. The war in Afghanistan never had a clear purpose. It has won nothing despite appalling cost. And the opening of peace talks with the Taliban but without Karzai is an American admission of defeat.The Taliban has beaten the US.

Worse. The US will be paying billions in bribe money to the Taliban for years to come.


Big business should keep its big nose out of public affairs. In matters of foreign affairs, health, education, government budgeting, it has long shown itself to be utterly incompetent and destructive.

We shall be very luck to get of this without a nuclear war. And which are the countries most likely to start it. Not Iran. It doesn't have a bomb to start with - and it knows it would be utterly destroyed in return.

Nor will it be North Korea. It doesn't have nearly enough bombs to pose a credible threat.

The two most likely to start if are both our buddies - Israel and Pakistan.
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Big story on p. D4. "New Macdonald's Possible in Riverview". Wow! Wow! Wow! The city that punches above it weight - and this will give it a lot more weight to punch above.
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The "differently-advantaged" person who writes the editorials says we should build an events centre for the future. Gosh, I was hoping we could build one for the past - you know, with lions and tigers and Christians and stuff.
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Norbert still doesn't know what he's talking about. He still doesn't even know what a public policy planning expert is. He still thinks we can solve the economic crisis by cutting spending -even though the European experience is showing that is exactly the wrong thing to do.  He refuses to look at the very wealthy as a factor in all this.

When I read this preachy, pompous, self-righteous and ignorant column, I wonder - where the hell are all the university scholars in this province? Where are the journalism profs to talk about the shameful state of the Irving Press, and the shameless state of those who work for it?

Where are the education profs to talk about the abuse of our schools?

Where are the profs of economics and medecine to point out that Donald Savoie is NOT an expert on much of what he writes about?

One of two people  - both from U de Moncton are the only ones we ever hear from - and both are simply cheerleaders for big business. Where are the voices of all the rest? Are they shy?

And aren't people at U de M just a little bit ashamed?
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Couldn't disagree with Alec Bruce more. He sees an aconomic revival where, in fact, none is happening. He sees our big hope as being rugged, independent entreprenuerialism that will save us.

Bullshit, Alec. Rugged, iindependent entrepreneurialism (more correctly called banditry) is what has created this miss. It has political power now. It runs the US. It runs Harper. And it has openly declared, long ago, that it runs New Brunswick. That's why we're in trouble.

In the past year (unnoticed by the TandT) the number of billionaires in the world has grown by over 9% (clap, clap, clap.) Meanwhile, average h ousehold wealth around the  world dropped by over 5%. Alec Bruce, you know whose figures as well as I do.

Corporate tax rates in Canada and the US have been cut in half and more - and the rich don't even pay all of that. In fact, the whole story of tax evasion and pillage is far, far worse than even that.

In the US, 50,000,000, a record, are now poor.

The heart of true enterprise", says Alce Bruce, "still beats. We can hear it if we try."

What heart?

The rich and super-rich make up some 8% of the world's population. But they hold 82% of all wealth. The working class and the poor - who are 70% of the world's population have --wait for it ----
3.3%

The super-rich who are getting richer, who are charged extemely low taxes - and who don't pay even those -and who send us off to kill people and get get killed and who tax us to pay for their wars so - they can steal more - and who are so damned incompetent in handling public affairs and foreign affairs that everything they touch is a disaster - we can hear their heatbeat if we try?

Get real, Alec.
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Eric Lewis offers his usual nothing effort.

Brian Cormier has another good one. Well worth a read.
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Missing news?

1. Where's the follow-up on the offshore banking scandal that the TandT never reported in the first place? Where are the names of those who hid their money from the taxman? (hint - it's not just people. Think of our major banks which scammed over 16 billion in taxes over a ten year period.)
2. We now know that when Conrad Black got hit with a huge bill for tax evasion in the US, he paid it by selling off the pension fund of his bankrupt Hollinger corp. As a result, 2,300 of  his retired Canadian employees no long have pensions. But don't worry. He and his delightful wife are still living comfortably. And he still has his Order of Canada. (clap, clap, clap).
Just listen to that great heart beat.
3. Our government - working for you. In a school hall yesterday, I saw a sign asking people not to wear scents (perfumes) since they can cause illness in others. It was printed by the New Brunswick government. What a wonderful approach to social order, I thought. We could really save money with wider use of this.
If we put up posters saying people shoujld not drive and drink or speeed, or drive on sidewalks. (or rob banks or do break-ins) we could make enormous savings in police costs.

Of course, it would be a big mistake to put up signs saying that fracking could harm people. That would upset all those gentle billionaires with the big, beating hearts.
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A good source of news is CCPA Monitor. I get mine by subscription from
http://www.policyalternatives.ca

The site below, sent in by a reader, is another excellent one.

http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/we_are_being_watched/

It's interesting. People who oppose shale gas are protestors. Those who protest against anti-shale gas are not protesters.

People opposed to killing our environment are called "eco"-protesters, and get investigated by the police as threats.

People who actually do want to destroy the environment and who use money and force to do it are not called terrorists of any sort. In fact, the police report to them twice a year.

I shall have to go sit in the Irving Chapel to ponder this. I suspect there must be a very broad-minded god in there.



We shall be very lucky to escape this without a nuclear war. And who are the countries most likely to open such a war? No. Not North Korea. No. Not Iran. It's two of our allies - Pakistan and Israel.

June 18: Well, well, well.....

The letter below was sent to Letters to the Editor of the TandT over a week ago. But it has yet to appear. It is from doctors in Sackville experessing deep concern about the health risks of shale gas development.

Professor Savoie, whose field of expertise has no connection with health, got a full week of columns to pimp for the shale gas companies, The only report warning of the dangers of shale gas came from Dr. Cleary - who is a real expert in health. Her presentation got garbled  in the TandT report of it - and she has since been pointedly ignored.

And now the doctors are being ignored in favour of the professor Savoies of this world who are trotted out whenever the corporations want something done. U.de Moncton seems particularly prominent in this game. That is not a good sign.

Hon. David Alward, Premier

Centennial Building
Po Box 6000
Fredericton, NB, E3B 5H1 Fax 506 453 7407
June 10, 2013

Dear Mr. Alward;

We are writing on behalf of the Sackville Memorial Hospital Medical Staff regarding the New Brunswick Government’s intention to move forward with unconventional shale gas development.

It has been a year since our group of doctors joined the New Brunswick College of Family Physicians to call for a moratorium on the development of this industry because of concerns of potential health risks to the people of New Brunswick as a result of unconventional shale gas mining or fracking. We asked that first there be a full assessment of health issues, using evidence-based information to determine whether public health can be adequately protected and if so, how this could be done.

Since that time, Dr. Cleary, the chief medical officer of health produced a comprehensive report regarding this issue, requiring that baseline population health assessments as well as water and air quality assessments, be completed before any further steps be taken to develop this industry. Regarding the Government’s Oil and Natural Gas Blueprint, released earlier this month, she has expressed concern because health wasn’t identified specifically as an objective or a priority. “I would question, if we’re not bringing in this industry in order to better the lives and the health of the people of this province, well then why would we do it?”

The doctors of New Brunswick know that health is important.

We are deeply disappointed that the Government is planning to go forward without making health a priority. As physicians who have pledged to “do no harm”, we have a responsibility to safe guard the health of the people of New Brunswick.

There is currently no objective evidence that this practice is safe. There is insufficient knowledge to produce evidence-based regulations for safety of workers or populations living in areas of this industry.

At the same time, reports of potential health problems continue to emerge. We feel it is premature to go forward with this.

For all of these reasons, we are again calling for a moratorium, of at least 10 years, on the development of the shale gas industry.

Sincerely

Sackville Memorial Hospital Medical Staff

c.c. Hon. Mike Olscamp, MLA; Hon Hugh Flemming, MLA, Health; Hon. Bruce Fitch, MLA, Environment;

Times and Transcript; Sackville Tribune-Post
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Note: the title Hon, short  for "honorable" ,is commonly given to men who lack the brains and integrity to be called "mister".
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The two items below were sent to me by a reader. They will illustrate what is not being reported in the Irving Press.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvMhmF4Myw


 https://www.facebook.com/DoctorsWithoutFrackingGags?filter=2
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The TandT Letters to the Editor did have room for a long but not very intelligent letter from a shale gas advocate. He is, what a surprise!, a commercial devloper. In effect, he says, duh____ shale gas will create jobs, duh...

Yeah, duh - and Hitler's burning of millions of Jews created jobs for the sons and daughter of the Father land, duh.... (There were some silly people who protested that, too.) It is, of course, important that we get together to work for the future. But that does not mean it's a good idea to herd like sheep behind promoters who dan't give a damn what damage they are doing.

Before we get together, we need information - information of the sort that has been kept from us by the TandT  (and by self-righteous developers who are alsoo weak in logic.)
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Section A again has two stories about the purchase of Highfield Square. Like yesterday's two stories, these are by cheerleader Brent Mazerolle wearing a short skirt and waving pom-poms.
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The US envoy to Canada assures us that the NSA is not tapping computers and phone calls in Canada. No. We're friends. The US is spying on its   friends in Europe - Britain, France, Germany, etc.  But, oh my goodndess, it would never spy on Canada.
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The Canadian Press offers us another loaded "news" story on Syria, and how us good guys are looking for a peaceful solution. Get real.

This "civil' war in Syria was being planned a good, 20 years ago by the US and others. An Assad win would be a disaster for Israel. A win by the "rebels" would be even worse since it is certain that any government formed in their Syria would be of the most extreme Moslem variety. Nobody is looking for a winner. The aim of the game is to destroy Syria as a coherent nation.

Oh - There was a huge explosion at a Damascus aiport. First reports say it was an Israeli missile. Israel has not responded to the reports. Anyway, the foreign new editor didn't think it worh reporting.
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For those who missed it the first time, the Your Business page repeats the story that a fish market has opened at the airport. It even uses the same photo as last time. I've never seen that before. That page must have one, dozey editor.
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The editorial says we chould clean up downtown Moncton to get rid of half-way houses and assorted low-class bums. (That would spruce up the area, and attract a higher class of bum.)
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Norbert persists with his silly columns on how the government could save money. And he still ignores the role of big business in creating our provincial debt.  He opens it with a paragraph congratulating himself on his keen mimd. He repeats his self-congratulation at the end - but is generous enough to suggest that others may have good ideas, too.
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A solid column by Alec Bruce on the   squandering of money by the very rich at a time when millions are  suffering. At big time events, it is common for politicians to get astronomic fees for speaking... George Bush, a man who would have great difficulty in understanding even the TandT gets 500,000 at least for a speech. That's several thousand for a burp.

And these are speeches that we all know are designed to say nothing. Explain that to a woman working at WalMart.
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And, alas, I have to disagree with Gwynne Dyer when he says the election of a moderate leader means new hope for Iran.

No, it doesn't. The US doesn't care how moderate or  how democratic the new president is. Strategically and commercially, the US wants a puppet state. Democracy would be a disaster. The last time Iran had a government the US approved of, it was a dictatorship under the Shah. In fact, he was put on the throne by the US.

Similarly, Israel wants Iran out of the way as a rival power.

The election of a moderate will change nothing.
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And now I'm off, wearing clean underwear and socks, for my daughter's grade eight graduation and then prom night. (Curiously, she hasn't yet invited me to the prom. But no doubt she will when she sees splendid me at the grad in clean clothes.)

June 17: sometimes, it's hard to know what to say...

In my early days of TV, I knew a producer at the station who was sent to cover a strike. When he got there, nothing was happening. The strkers were sitting around quietly, having coffee, chatting..... This was not going to make exciting television. So the producer stirred them, got them to make some signs, then march around on street holding up their signs.

He was fired the next day. No ethical journalist fakes news. Some people would excuse the producer. I mean, he didn't simply create a strike out of nothing. There really was a strike on. All he did was to pep it up for twenty seconds of TV time.

Maybe. But it doesn't matter. A serious and ethical journalist reports the news. He or she does not tamper with it. And that takes us to last Saturday's editorial in the TandT.

If you will read my blog for June 16, you will find a comment from a reader at the bottom. It says the protesters at rte 126 who blocked fracking trucks were NOT wearing masks. I - being a lousy journalist - had not picked up on that. So I took another look at the video of the protest. Not a mask in sight.

Then I re-read Saturday's editorial. Yes. It said they were masked. The editorialist was not just biased. The editorialist was lying. If there were a scrap of journalistic integrity in that whole, wretched Irving press, any - from the copy boys to the publisher - the person who wrote that editorial would now be out of town (perhaps looking for a new job with Fox News or a scandal mag.)

But no such thing will happen. The Irving press does nothing but lie and trivialize.

But this is worse that just a lie. The reference to masks was there for a reason. It was to stir up hatred of protesters - and fear. It was to provoke violence. It was to ensure that any violence that might happen will be blamed by the public on the protesters. It suggests pretty strongly that SWN and the Irving press want violence as the easiest way to ram their project through. And if the protesters won't start violence, well, it's always possible to arrange things to look as if they did - just like that TV producer who got strikers to get up and march around looking militant.
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To my astonishment, the TandT had not even a mention of the big story that holders of offshore bank accounts (some of them) have been named  - and lots of those named are Canadian. The Irving Press must have been the only newspaper in Canada not to report this today.

In fairness, though, they needed the space for two big stories on buying Highfield Square to build an events centre.

Both stories are written by Brent Mazerolle which, I suspect, is not a conincidence. Mazerolle (who describes himself as a communicatons specialist (hired propagandist), writes two stories that say nothing we didn't already know about the "events" centre. More interestingly, he says not a word about there being any opposition to it.

Well, gee. If there's no opposition, why is this taking so long to decide?

He also doesn't mention how this all started. The original proposal was to build a hockey stadium. That would have been very nice for the owner of the hockey team who would get a brand new facility at taxpayers' expense and who, by pure coincidence, is related to owner and management of Irving press.

The idea of calling it an events centre and then building up all sorts of wild imaginings of what an events centre would do came only after it was obvious that an overpriced hockey rink was not going to fly with the public.

Lord, this town has one, seedy government which exists only to feed a lot of greedy hogs at the trough.

And Brent Mazerolle's "news" stories on today's front page are pure propaganda to keep us stuffing the hogs.
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For another sampled of biased reporting,  this time in international news, check out today's story  on Syria on the first page of News Today.

As a special bonus, it features starements by Harper so idiotic that even he must know he's lying.

The tone of the article, sometimes by implicaton, sometimes by quoting only the "right" people, is that Assad of Syria is a brutal monster, and the we have to help the freedom-livng "rebels" to get rid of him and establish a democracy. There is not to mention that major supporters of the struggle for democracy are the dictators of the two most intolerant dictatorships in the world, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

I'm sure Assad is not a nice guy. But he almost certainly has more popular support than the "rebels" do. For openers, the "rebel" forces are largely made up of people who aren't Syrian. Large numbers are hired mercenaries from as far away as South America. More are Moslems, many members of or connected to Al Quaeda and other groups that this paper usually calls extremist and terrorist.

There is not the slightest chance of a democracy emerging out of this. In fact, the "rebels" are so divided against each other that there is not the slightest chance of forming a government of any sort. And the US knows that.

The US is committed to nothing but war for the foreseeable future to establish mlitary dominance so that American business can enjoy world dominance. The purpose of the war in Syria is to destroy Syria as a functioning country. The result has been to plunge the whole region into a chaos that could well draw in Russia and China.

And if you think this is exciting, just wait until the US hits what is likely to be its next target - Pakistan - a Pakistan which has nuclear missiles. (Actually, if Israel gets its way, the US will try to mop up Lebanon, Palestine and Iran before going on to Pakistan.)

And it's not going to work. US foreign policy is controlled by big business. That's why it has been such a series of disasters - starting with a war with Iraq because of WMDs that weren't there, a war with Afghanistan for no clear reason that has been hugely expensive with no clear gain of any sort....
Business men should stick to business, and get their noses out of things they nothing nothing about - like foreign policy, education, government budgeting, etc.

Harper accuses Russia of beinig out of step with the rest of the G8. Well, duh, that might be because  seven of the eight just happen to the US puppets.

And he babbles about establishing democracy though he knows well this is absurd. And, he says, "Putin is supporting Assad's thugs". Yes. And he and Obama et al are supporting Moslem terrorist thugs - but Harper hasn't noticed that. He says he opposed extremist elements like terrorists.

Gee, Steve, haven't you noticed that "terrorist" and "extremist" elements are the leading force fighting against Assad?

Oh, yeah - and Harper  says we have to support the "rebels" in their fight for democracy. And then he says, we will not follow the US lead in supplying the rebels with weapons.

Huh? He supports the side that is fighting for democracy - but he won't cooperate with the US and Britain and France in supplying them with help????

Of course, he won't. Even he has figured out that, as in Afghanistan, such help would suck us into a major war -and this time with unguessable consequences.

The news article mentions that the US has proof Assad has used Sarin gas. It does not mention that UN inspectors say no such proof exists. (The US also "had proof"c that Iraq had WMDs.)

This biased reporting is from prestigious The Canadian Press. But when it comes to foeign reporting, there are very, very few news services you can trust. And The Canadian Press isn't one of them.
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The editorial is the predictable kiss up to Robert Irving and his Economic Leadership Council. It admits that Irving said nothing in his first speech. But he talked about 'winning', so the TandT is confident. I mean, he could have given a speech about the importance of losing.

In summary, the editorial says " Elected leaders should work closely with new Economic Leadership Council". Benito Mussoliini could not have said it better. That is precisely what his fascist movement was all about. All we need now are catchy armbands, and some kind of raised arm salute.
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Norbert's column is hopeleslly ignorant of its topic. Worse, it's gutless. In all his columns about our budget deficit, he has not once mentioned the role of big business in creating that debt. Andh he is ready to call for sacrifices from the poor and the middle class. But, obviously, we must not disturb the very rich in any way.

Norbert, this is contemptible.
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I hate Alec Bruce and Steve Malloy.
Bruce writes about the importantce of walking, and walking quickly, and lots for physical, emotional and intellectual health. Malloy talks about calories.

We didn't have a car until I was 16. Every day, I walked a very long way to school, no matter what the weather or the state of my health. Our family entertainment was to go for long walks, hours long, in the evenings. Even after we got a car, my father rarely drove me anywhere. It was simply unthinkable. I walked over Britain from Scotalnd to Wales to Dover carrying a pack that weighed forty-five pounds (Much of that due to a massive volume of The Oxford Book of
English Verse).

Then - I got a car, developed a taste for restaurants, deep fried egg rolls, French fries...and the rest is history. I don't need Bruce and Malloy to rub their newly disccovered virtues in my (flabby) face.

The columns are good. But written with no consideration for my feelings.
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In letters to the editor, Brian Gallant, leader of the Liberal party, has one that pretends to be impartial on the fossil fuel issue, but really says nothing but "kiss-kiss" to the oil industry.

There are two, good letters on shale gas.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPIEzSwPwT0

The site above was sent to me by a reader who said you must all see it. I hear. and I obey.
 

I'm starting this blog on Saturday because tonight the CBC will release the names of some thousands of people who have hidden bank accounts overseas. That gives the eagle-eyed, two-fisted journalists at the Tand T all day Sunday to check through the names. Will the TandT mention it in Monday's paper?

My guess is it will. This is too big for even the TandT to ignore it. I suspect the real question is - how will they treat it? Will it be a straight and honest report? Or will it be heavily slanted? My guess is the latter.

Ah, some Mondays are more fun than others.

Oh, if you want to see a video about arrests at the blockade of fracking trucks, Google Charles Leblanc's Other Blog. You'll note that not a single protester was violent. So much for the tantrums of the editorial writer of the TandT. (Incidentally, the police used only as much violence as removing peaceful people required - nothing excessive.)
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It's now 12:20 on Sunday afternoon. I'm late starting this post, so it probably will be a short one.

Journalists at the TandT will be delighted with the release of names of those Canadians who have offshore, secret bank accounts. It covers on only the smaller offshore banks. So the people it gets are only multimillionaires. The big boys are still safely covered. God bless them.

Meanwhile, Harper has been fighting off national and international pressure to have the search widened. (Well, of course he is). And he has reduced the revenue staff people who are the experts needed to conduct the search - so they couldn't do the job even if they wanted  to.

So , the TandT will probably feel safe to mention the release (without mentioning that it covers only the small-timers). And it probably won't even mention that at the G8 summit Harper has won recognition as the world's leading white knight in refusing to investigate offshore banking.
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Now, let's take a look at the anti-fracking protest and what it really means. (Because the TandT will certainly never tell you.)

It is just one example of a social breakdown that is occurring over much of  the western world. For the past thirty years or so, big money has been making itself even richer at the expense of everybody else. Through the power of its money - and its stranglehold on almost all news media - it has bought ownership of the traditional parties - like the Liberals and Conservatives in NB, and the Democrats and Republicans in the US.

Incidentally, the destruction of the only survivng news service operating beyond the control of big business and government is CBC. And Harper has already prepared the legislation to get rid of that.

Mr. Irving has made no secret of his place in the new order of things. He announced himself as being, without election, a member of the government. He did not try to hide the fact that the official advisers to the minister of finance were his people. Another Irving has, for no known reason, been given a two million dollar contract by the government to do a job he has not shown he has and qualifications to do. And another has taken a leading role in pressuring Moncton Council to build an overpriced hockey rink. (I always thought us voters were the ones who got to decide how our money should be spent.) And it's no secret that the NB civil service is being reorganized to operate in a way that Mr. Irving approves of; thus the quarrel with our health services workers.

In Canada, this has led to a growing distrust of government and business leadership. And that is bloody dangerous.

In the US, where Obama's politicies are indistinguishable from those of George Bush, the political leaders (Congress) are now officially the most distrusted people of all those connected with government. The response to  distrust that has been a massive spy programme which, among other things, is intended to round up all those who are suspected terrorists, critics of the government, environmentalists - and imprison them without charge or trial.

No. I'm not kidding when I include environmentalists. Some US police forces have already been ordered to treat all environmental protests as terrorist attacks. Police are being trained in military style and with military equipment like armoured cars to deal with public protests of any sort.

The whole fabric of American social order is breaking down as we watch.  Big business in the US has become Big Power that runs wild. The US constitution is pretty much in tatters. Only a fool could believe that American democracy still exists.

All that holds it together is a fear and hatred of Moslems that is encouraged by the US government and news media. The US bosses need Moslems in the same way that Hitler needed Jews.

(Yes, I know Moslem terrorists killed 3000 innocent Americans in New York. The whole world was required to go into mourning. The US has killed innocent Moslems by the million. I wonder how many of our churches have held memorial services for them.)

Canada, like the US, is drifting into that same chaos of distrust and fear. Why?

Well, look at the whole shale gas issue. A lot of New Brunswickers - maybe not a majority; but that doesn't matter because it's still a lot -don't trust their government and they don't trust most of their news media.

That distrust puts us well into the process of destroying our own civil order. And who is reponsible for that distrust?

Well, people don't wake up one morning and suddenly turn into protestors becaue the devil had intercourse with them during the night. The distrust happens because they realize most of their news media have lied to them. Their  busness leaders  have lied to them. SWN has lied to them. Their politicians have lied to them.

And once the business leaders and politicians create distrust, we're into the downward spiral. Politicians will tighten the laws - and even the existing laws will be on their side. Of course they will. Politicians and business leaders can pass laws that make it illegal for us to defend out province, our homes, our families. Under Hitler, it was illegal for Germans to protect Jews.

Don't blame the police. They didn't make the laws. It's just their jobs to enforce the laws they are told to enforce. (But not do so against, you know, important people.)  In the anti-shale gas protests, the RCMP have used the minimum of force to do what they're told to do. (Not so in the US, where extremely brutal behaviour is encouraged.)

Across North America, we are watching a general breakdown of social order. It's not being caused by the protestors. In fact, the protestors are the only ones who are trying to use their rights to freedom and to democratic rule, and to save those rights.

The threats to the social order are our leaders of big business, and the Liberals and Conservatives and journlists that they buy.

Those are the bastards we have to defy - or watch the collapse of two of the finest countries there ever were to live in.
 

June 15: Going too far...

...that's the title of today's editorial. And going too far is exactly what the editorial writer does.

The editorial is written, almost certainly deliberately written, to be inflammatory. (I don't discount the possiblity of crashing supidity on his/her part - but I more strongly suspect deliberate provocation, with stupidity as a sort of bonus offering.)

He/she/it accuses the anti-shale gas demonstrators yesterday of being bullies. Oh? Were they punching out the trucks? Slashing the tires? Beating up the drivers and the police? What, you moron, is your definition of the word bully?

What happened is that they blocked the road to fracking trucks. When told to move to the side, most did. Some refused to move. They were arrrested, so far as I know, with no gunfire, no police assualted, nothing.

But the editorial writer didn't even confine himself to those who were arrested. He condemned ALL protestors as bullies. In fact, he doesn't even know who most of the protestors are. And there has been no violence. So where's the bullying?

He/she also complained that some of them wore masks. Yes. That's because we live in a province in which believing in the wrong things can cost you your job. That's why New Brunswickers shy away from public discussion of public issues. That's why people like you make their livings out of kissing up to the big boss.

Oh, speaking of masks and hiding identity, I notice the editorial column isn't signed. Why not adopt at least a pseudonym like, say, gutless? Unethical would work, too.

The final sentence is a gem, suggesting that protestors are acting for their own agenda without any care for the rights of others.

Do you know what words mean, Mr./Ms. X? We all act for our own agenda. Even Jesus did that. So how about an editorial accusing Jesus of being a bully? And, you write they do it without regard for the rights of others. Oh? Others don't have the right to know about the dangers of shale gas? Others don't have a right to be protected from poisons?

Tell you what. Why don't you write an editorial about your big boss. He acts on his own agenda. And I see little evidence that he gives a damn for the rights of others.

Instead, you have written an editorial that encourages violence - by the government and supported by anybody who's dumb enough to take your editorials seriously. As journalistic ethics go, that is beneath contempt.
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Norbert writes another column blaming most of us for causing the world economic crisis, and demanding that we pay for it. Apparently, the super rich who are still getting richer need all the help they can get from our sacrifices. This is juvenile.
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Ditto for Beliveau. He's another one who doesn't know what a professor of public policy and administration is. Professor Savoie is an expert - and apparently an all-purpose one.

Like Norbert, Belliveau also skips lightly over the role of big business in causing our economic problems. Bill - tt was over two years ago that Mr. Irving announced he was a member of the government - and he appointed the official advisors to the Minister of Finance. He's the one who calls the shots, not that moth-eaten bunch in Fredericton. So why not give your advice to him?

And, speaking of experts, as you do whenever say Professor Savoie and kiss his hand, isn't the province's Chief Medical Officer a sort of expert? And an expert in a field that neither you nor Dr. Savoie has a clue about? So why don't you ever quote her?
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Brent Mazerolle is back to writing trivial irrelevancies, wasting a perfectly good space I could have used for my crayons.
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The remaining column (that I won't say much about because I don't know much about the subject) is by Ernest MacKinnon, a former provincial deputy minister for pensions. I will say that it is well written,, clearly argued, and looks eminently sensible. And that makes it today's class act in the TandT).
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The West has been killing people, most of them civilians, at a pretty hectic rate over the last dozen years, killing several million, at least - and creating more millions of orphans and crippled and starving. The West (with the help of the Moslem dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and Qatar) has created a civil war aimed at destroying Syria as a nation.

The US is also spying on the personal lives of quite innocent people all over the world, and using robot drones as indiscriminate assassination machines. It sorta seemed to me there must be moral implications in all this. So I turned to the Faith page for inspiration.

And, oh, the churches are getting right to the heart of the moral aspects of this crisis. Three of them are having barbecues; one has a yard sale. Another is having a speech by that paragon of all the Christian virtues, Frank McKenna.

The sermonette is by a minister who is, we are told, passionate about relating faith to modern culture. It's about how we have to use more modern parables. The message is, to say the least, unclear. And his concluding question about whether we should forgive mass murderer Robert Pickton doesn't seem to me to come to grips with much of anything.
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Escept for the op ed piece by Ernest Mackinnon, read today's TandT only if you are terminally bored, or if you genuinely enjoy being talked down to by liars, hypocrites, and fools.
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For something worth seeing, I have two suggestons.
One, sent to me by a reader, is:

http://www.psr.org/environment-and-health-policy-institute/reponses/the-big-secret-fracking-fluids.html

Show it to the editorial writer. Help him with the big words. Send it to Dr. Savoie and ask for his expert opinion.

I also recommend another blog not for anything it has to do with all this, but for the sheer beauty of it. (and  because it was created by the very artistic younger sister of a girl I taught in my first year of teaching (grade 7). It's a pleasure just to look at it.

http://shirleymontrealwestisland.blogspot.ca/

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Oh, some minor notes.
There are reports by auditors indicating serious, even gross, underestimates of building and other costs by the City of Moncton. The city has not released the reports; and the TandT seems to think it not worth mentioning. This is the same city that has estimated the cost of a new hockey rink at $105 million.

There are also reports, official ones, of fracking companies in Canada and the US spending almost a hundred million on Communication specialists  (hired liars) to tell people that fracking is good for them.

And I have not received a reply to a note I sent to education minister Jody Carr asking -
Now that an Irving has been given a two million dollar contract to improve reading skills for younger students, can us taxpayers be told...
1. What training he has to justify such a contract?
2. Why can the work not be done by trained teachers that we already have?
3. Why are we laying off teachers at exactly the time we are handing out such a huge contract to an Irving, and at a time when we are being urged to cut spending on health and education?

And young Jody might get after our environment minister to answer some, small questions I posed months ago.

1. Under the law, land owners whose land is polluted are required to clean it up. Why was that law not applied to the owners of Highfield Square? (The best i could get is that the minister's office didn't know where Highfield Square is.)
2. How far does the pollution extend beyond Highfield Square? (for answer, see above.)
3.What dangers does this pollution pose? (ditto)
4. How do you intend to get rid of the highly toxic waste water produced by fracking? (dead silence.)


 

June 14: World aghast at double disasters.....

.....but the TandT is the one that got the big story of the day - a fish market has opened at the Moncton airport.

In other news, which didn't make the TandT, the US is stepping up its intervention in Syria. It is going to officially supply the rebels with weapons (it has always been supplying them. But now it will say it is.) It also plans to train Syrian rebels. The reason is that Britain and France and the US (all of whom played a part in starting the rebellion in the first place) now say Syria has been using WMDs. Gee! That's just like those awful people in Iraq, the ones who had the WMDs nobody can find.

The WMD in this case is poison gas.The only UN report on this says that the rebels have used it; but there is no evidence the government has. Well. That just shows how much the UN knows. We can trust the US, Britain and France to tell us the truth.

The US has also been supplying the "rebels" with trained soldiers, mercenaries from Latin American armies. Active intervention in that war by the western powers now seems a certainty. Syria can expect a bloodbath with even more, far more, than the 100,000 or so already killed. (And how many orphaned? widowed? crippled? imporverished?)

And it's much, much worse than that. Russia and China see this as a direct and unacceptable attack on their interests. Jihadists will see this as a staging ground for an assault on Israel. Israel sees it as a chance to destroy Palestine, and annex it to Israel.

What we're watching is a giant step to violence throughout at least North Africa and the Middle East with all major powers confronting each other. I shall not even attempt to guess what that will lead to.

But, hey! How about that seafood shop at the Moncton airport? Eh?
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The whole world, including friends of the US are aghast at its immense spying programme. It's criminal. It invades the space of every country on earth. (except, according to Mr. Harper, Canada.)
We haven't begun to hear the whole story on this one. ( and we aren't ever going to hear it from the TandT.)

Oh, I know. It defends us against terrorism. Most experts in the field say it doesn't. but it does put information about all of us into the hands of the US government - and into the hands of hundreds of thousands and officials and agents who can use it to attack political enemies, blackmail, coerce, even to murder under Obama's assassination programme.

But not to worry. Harper assures us that Canada is the only country in the world not affected.

This crisis IS even worse than the war in Syria. By spying on them, the US has declared war on every country in the world. That is not an exaggeration. Such intrusion is, by legal definition, an act of war. And within the US, it is the end of democracy. It's hard for us to grasp anything so fundamental and serious, I know. Most people in Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy couldn't grasp it, either. And so they sleep-walked their way into disaster - disaster for them and for everybody else.
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Speaking of Harper,  Arthur Porter, he man he appointed watchdog of our spy system, CSIS, is now in a Panamanian prison on charges of stealing millions of dollars from a Montreal hospital project. Way to pick'em, Steve baby.
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Speaking of local spying, you are, I suppose, aware that the RCMP has admitted to spying on environmentalists (on government orders), AND reporting their findings twice a year to top business leaders.  You see no problem with that?

Okay. Let's tell the RCMP also to spy on top business leaders, and then meet with environmentalists twice a year to share the information with them. Let's see if the TandT wets its pants over that.
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The lead story is an over-excited one about Robert Irving who has been, democratically i'm sure, chosen chairman of an Economic Leadership Council. This council of business leaders is going to plan the future development of Moncton.

Screw off, Bobbie, and take your flunkies with you. Y'see, in a democracy, we plan our future. We elect people to carry out our wishes. You and your friends have no more right to plan the future of Moncton than your brother and his flunkies had a right to plan the economic future of province.

Try to understand. In a democracy, we are all equal, and we all have equal rights. That means you have all the rights I do - but no more. You are not a superior being. Nor are your friends superior beings. You and they have no more right to interfere in our public insitutions than anybody else. And pass that word on to the princeling Irving who just got a contract from our snivelling politicians to interfere with our school reading programmes.

Incidentally, get a new speech writer. Your speech, as reported, was nothing but empty buzz-words. Our mayors and councillors were, of course, ecstatic about it -  which proves we have municipal politicians who are much like the lackeys we have in Fredericton.

Oh, and get a dictrionary. This assumption of political power by business leaders is , well, look under  "fascism".
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The cartoon, about flooding in Alberta, misses the point of that story (as the TandT also has). The danger of the flooding was that it seemed likely to cause overspills of the tailingponds, those vast lakes of the toxic waste from oil sands, that surround For McMurray, and poison all the fresh waters of the region.

Any news on how we're going to dispose of our far more toxic fracking waste? Could be a cartoon there - if a cartoonist had editors with guts and integrity.
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The editorial would be outclassed by the chatter of monkeys at the zoo. It'a a complaint about how politicians are overtaxing us. Yep, it's all the fault of them there politicians. It has nothing to do with the power of big business, with constant interference of big business in government. Yep. We gotta cut billions in spending, and get rid of useless social services so we can continue to give gifts and tax breaks to billionaires.
Incidentally, the US economy is not rebounding as the editorial claims,  not unless you kid yourself about what those official figures mean. Poverty and hunger are rising. Incomes are dropping - except for the rich.  In fact, it is quite likely that the US economy will never rebound to where it was.
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Norbert sticks with what he knows - rantinig ignorance. And our universities would attract huge crowds if their professors gave public presentations in their special fields? Norbert, Norbert....New Brunswickers don't like to attend serious talks - and certainly not if it's a talk that offends an Irving, and someone might see them there and report them.

I gave public talks on current events in a Montreal suburb smaller than Moncton every month for fourteen years. And for all those fourteen years, the audiences were 200 to 300 (maximum capacity).
You can check. I gave them at Eleanor London Library in Cote St. Luc. I also averaged some 60 talks a year in churches, at conventions, all sorts of topics to all sorts of audiences. A hundred would have been a small audience. The biggest was over 2,000.

I've given the same talks at the Moncton  library for two years. I'm lucky to get three people. Why the difference? Are Moncton audiences too sophisticated?

I see no evidence they are. After all, they turn out in droves to hear Robert Irving talk in buzz words.
No - two things are happening.
1. Monctonians are deliberately trained by the Irving press (and most of the private media) to be interested only in the trivial. (Wow! a new fish shop at the airport! Wow! University registrars don't just collect fees!
2. Monctonians are scared of the people who hold the real power in this province.

That's why this is the first province in Canada to go openly fascist.
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Alec Bruce's column is brilliant. I had no idea he was so well-informed about education. This is a must read.

I will just add one point (which in no way changes or criticizes what Bruce has written.) Education Minister Jody Carr is wasting money by putting it on "outcomes" in the form of tests at higher levels. But he is going to continue doing it because that is what his real boss wants. And the real boss thinks education is something like manufactutinig toilet paper.

I have written to the honorable minister to ask who is supplying the administration for the "outcome" tests. Is it the schools? Is it an outside agency? Who? He hasn't answered yet but, of course, it's somplicated question, and he's a very busy man.
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Michael Sullvan has excellent ideas on beautifying Moncton - but loses it when he advocates that the development of downtown ideas should be done in meetings with the big money players and developers.

That kind of "cooperation" is a large part of the hearings into corruption in Montreal's city government.

Anyway, these money people can meet with the mayor and the council whenever they want to. And I'm quite sure they do - maybe too often.

Should,for example, Robert Irving be in on the planning for the "events" centre? Isn't it possible that his ownership of the Wildcats might affect his judgement? And the owners of Highfield Square have every interest in selling off that land -whether it makes sense or not. They just want to make money out of a piece of useless land.

Isn't inviting these people to help plan urban growth rather like asking bank robbers to help police in designing burglar-proof banks?
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Jody Dallaire's column is first-rate. The answer to the exploitation of women in the sex trade is not in punishing the women - or even their pimps (though pimps almost never get punished, anyway). The answer is in criminalizing the johns, the men who pay for sex. They are the cause of the problem.
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And - the last letter on the last page by nine-year old Ira Reinhart-Smith of Alma, NB, is a delight. Read it. This is one, smart little girl.