Oct. 17: You know it's a slow day when.....

.. the big story, the page one, banner headline,  is about a boy who once got lost in Moncton, and now, fifty years later, has come back for a visit. Wow! A world scoop for the TandT. Eat your heart out, New York Times.

On page A6, there's a big and not very clearly written story about the finances of the NDP. Gee. My impression is the Conservatives and Liberals have a lot more financial help; but I can't remember ever seeing a story about how muchthat help is or who it comes from.
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NewsToday actually has news, sort of. Our federal government in this time of troubles and world chaos has come down hard on the key problem facing a Canada. Yep. We're going to get tough on cyber bullying. And that's not all.

There's going to be a law enforcing balanced budgets. (That way, people will forget the name of the PM who unbalanced them in the first place.) Of course, that will apply only in normal times - whatever normal times might mean.

Benefits for civil servants will be "reasonable, responsible, and in the public interest," Way to hit the ball, Harper. I mean, we all know that all other parties are campaigning for civil service benefits to be unreasonable, irresponsible and against the public interest.

We will be permitted to take booze across provincial borders for personal consumption. Now, there's a practical and serious move to deal with hunger across this country. Or thirst. Whatever.

Oh, and we're going to cut cell phone and cable TV costs. Another big step forward for the homeless and the poor of this country.

And Harper is going to search for missing aboriginal women. Well, there's a really good promise. He's been making it for years. So it's stood the test of time. Weird, though. Here's a situation which has existed for years. Hundreds of aboriginal women just disappear. Now, in a civilized and developed country when such a terrible thing happens, do people normally just forget about it and the government ignore it? Of course not.  Why on earth would such an event, already covered under existing law, find its way into the throne speech? Isn't a government just normally expected to do such a search?

The only possible explanation for putting this in the throne speech is to find a nice way of saying, "Okay. These hundreds of aboriginal women have gone missing. And we haven't given enough of a damn to seriously look for them. But now we're going to look. Okay? Now get off our backs."

We're going for tougher sentences for crime. It's been tried. Many times. It doesn't work. The US jails more people and for longer time than any other country in the world. It even puts them for life in solitary. It e xecutes them. It's not working. This is a Harper pitch for the moron vote.

Harper will provide more support to veterans. Right. He's the guy who just savaged the pensions for disabled veterans, ensuring that they will live in poverty.

That national War Memorial will be re-dedicated for all who fought for this country. Actually, it probably won't. Will it, for example, include native peoples who died to save this country from the European intruders? Will it  include the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion that fought against fascism in Spain at a time when our political and business leaders were busy kissing up to Hitler?

It will, I'm sure, include veterans of the Boer War. But what did that war have to do with fighting for "this country"?

I don't believe we have ever seen a budget speech as trivial as this one. It's really a national embarassment.

Oh, Harper is also going to continue his celebration of the war of 1812 gesture with multi-multi million dollar celebrations of other events, mostly military and all focussed on the gloty of war.

In short, these are more pitches to the moron vote. The story is on C4. Considerable space is given to an  historian who has built his career on kissing up to the military and to whoever is in political power. Read the story. Look for the personwhose statements are the most arrogant. (Try to picture him walking - somethinig like a swaggering Daffy Duck. Note his comment that most Canadian historians are NDP. Despite many years in the  profession, I didn't know that. And professor Granatstein doesn't know it, either.)
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There are actually two  (count them, two) more columns on the alliance of the city governments of Moncton, Fredericton, and St. John.

One is by Alec Bruce, and it is, to say the least, glib. Again, there is not the slightest hint of what this alliance is all about or what the mayors would do. Instead, we get a pointless story comparing their spirit of cooperation to the lack of cooperation by parties in Washington. In effect, all this column says is cooperation is good and lack of cooperation is bad.

Not only is that a simplistic statement (is it good to cooperate for evil purposes? is it good to cooperate with fanatics?) But it is impossible to see any connection between an alliance of city mayors in NB, and party conflicts in the US.

And Norbert is at least as bad. Again, he gives no idea of what the alliance is about or why an alliance is the best way to handle whatever it is he's talking about. His main point seems to be that the world changes, and we have to change with it.  Well, yeah. But why this change in particular?

Curiously, he also praises the successes of the past in social and educational programmes. And I agree with that praise. But that was achieved, as he says, by increasing the size and role of government. And isn't this the same Norbert who forever rants that big government is bad?

So far, none of the coverage of this mayoral alliance makes any sense at all. But this frequency of coverage surely means that somebody of great influence at the Irving Press wants it.
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Rod Allen is his usual self, witty, euperior, insightful, lovable. But that's only when he's looking in a  mirror. And this is one more utterly trivial little story about his favourite subject - himself.

Jody Dallaire looks at the very serious problem of gettinig people involved in politics, keeping up on what is happening, following the reasoning of various parties. What she produces is the only item in today's paper worth reading.

Alas. It's hard to keep up on politics  in a province that has such stinking and ethically corrupt  newspapers.

 

Oct. 16: sigh......

It's not that there's nothing in the TandT today. That, after all, is standard practice.

They don't mention that the UN investigator has made it clear we can expect a very negative report for the whole world to read on our treatment of native peoples. I never thought the TandT would mention it. They still don't mention the recent and shattering report on just how close a massive global warming is. I never thought they would. They don't mention the recent report that of the thousands killed by US drone strikes, at least half have been innocent civilians. I never thought they would.

Mr. Flemmiing, we are told supports the way the RCMP is handling the anti-shale gas protestors gently. It encoutages, he says, "reasonable people coming together to do what needs to be done."

Reasonable people? Who are all these reasonable people? The Irving Press jourrnalists who have lied from the start about providing us with information? Show me all their articles in support of Dr. Cleary's warnings - or even say what they are. Show me all their stories about how shale gas companies have evaded prosecution for damage by making huge settlements out of court.

Tell me about the political and journalistic support of an academic fraud to push Dr. Cleary to the side. Tell me about the shameless coverup of the fraud. Tell me about the slobbering front page story about how Professor Lapierre is an oustanding world scholar with all the qualities of a saint who was "hounded" out of his jobs, presumably by vicious and deranged shale gas protestors.

Oh, I'll bet  "reasonable" in the story means those nice and accomodating people like Mr. Irving and SWN who had done their very best to explain everything, and who only want to do good for people.

Oh, and what is it that NEEDS to be done? We need water hyped with toxic chemicals pumped into our ground? We need toxic waste that cannot be cleaned, and is going to have to be dumped somewhere.

Mr. Flemming, you are a part of that government of shameless liars and sell-outs. You are one of those who gave shale gas companies permission to poison our lands. You couldn't  have shown more clearly who it is that bought you. Police can pound us for protesting against the abuses you have foced on us. They can do it because you gave them permission.

Okay, Mr. Fleming, but fair's fair. Will you now give permission to the general population of NB to urinate on your lawn? It's something that really NEEDS to be done.
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Liberal leader Gallant is taking a courageous and far-sighted position on the central issue of our time  - making it easier for college students to get loans. Very advanced thinking - for North America.

Twenty years ago, I was visiting professor at the University of Groeningen in The Netherlands. I had excellent students, most of them fluent in at least three languages. They paid no fees at all. That's standard practice in at least six, European countries - all of them poorer than Canada. In fact, my Dutch students even got a monthly allowance for food and other living expenses.

And they were excellent and serious students.

Great idea, Mr. Gallant, to make it easier to get loans. I'm sure it will get you lots of votes the next time we have the election of 1950.
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NewsToday has ads.
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Today, there are two (count them, two) opinion pieces on the "vision" of  more powers for an alliance of Moncton, Fredericton and St. John. That's a total of five major items on this proposal to take power from the provincial government and give it to the cities - five major items in just a few days. And all of them think it's a great idea.

But not one of them has given any sense of  how this would work, what it's purpose would be, or why. We are told it has many backers. But we are also told that they have no proposals for what they would do.

Today, there is an editorial - which tells us what the earlier articles on this subject did. That is, it tells us nothing. But it's in favour.

Norbert Cunningham is in favour, too. He uses language that sounds great, very impressive. But for all that facade of language he, too, tells us nothing. It's called,  he says, progress. But he gives no reason why it should be called that. Norbert has a real talent for saying nothing while making it sound impressive.

But, we've now been warned. The people who really run this province have decided on something, and it's something they want us to approve of without knowing what it's about.

Hell, Norbert, that's not progress. That's the way things have always been done in New Brunswick.
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Alec Bruce has a column on the Throne Speech which is well worth a read. The Throne Speech, partciularly this one, is the Harper pitch to draw the idiot vote. These are the same people who thought Robert Goguen's recent flier on his busy summer was just inspiring. You know, introducing Harper at a barbecue, attending luncheons. Posing for photos with famous people we never heard of, looking like one of the more simple-minded characters on Sesame Street..... Just Go-Go Goguen, non-stop at serving the people who elected him  This man should be in the cabinet.

Of course, then they'd have to find someone else to send for the coffee..
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On Op-Ed, the only thing worth reading is the Lost and Found Column. A man, it seems. lost his wedding ring in the partking lot between Costco and Kent. Yep. That's what he says. Should be a good story in there.
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There is an interesting letter to the editor (it's the Letter of the Day), "Evidence of high returns should end gas debate. I was intrigued by it because it's writing style closely resembles a type I have seen on almost a daily basis on the letters page - though always under different names. Just wondering.

I icannot  understand why it is Letter of the Day.since is has nothing original to say, and much that is trite.

For example,"The silent majority...have been busy analyzing and studying the data on shale gas, and are confident the industry...is safe."

That's bizarre. The "silent majority" concept originated with a Reagan vice-president who was ignorant. the very idea that there was a silent majority or that we knew what it thought became a standing joke.

The writer thinks the silent majority has been studying the data? Well - didn't we just learn that a very large number of them, perhaps a majority, are functionally illiterate? How would they find the data in this province? Surely not in the Irving press. If they could find the data, how could they possibly understand it enough to analyze it?

No. That's a very strange letter, and stranger still it should be Letter of the Day.

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New Brunswick has historically been run by people who had power because of their money. Indeed, that's quite common everywhere. But in New Brunswick, it's made worse by the most submissive population I have ever seen - and that includes my time in China just after Mao.

It's now so bad that we may be at the last chance. It is so bad, that there can be only one issue in the next election. Whatever we vote for, it has to be against the rule of the Irvings. That means it cannot be for either the Conservatives or the Liberals.

I don't' like just voting "against". But there really is no choice. We cannot survive much longer living at the bottom of the heap, and breathing in the burps and farts of Irvings lying at the top. Their political power has to be broken.




 

Oct. 15: Unfinished business...

Let's start with a letter to the editor, "Don't confuse them with facts."  This is a type of letter that has appeared many times in the Irving press. The writer accuses anti-frackers of not knowing the facts; but he gives an amazing display of his own, crashing ignorance.

In fifty years of fracking, he writes, there is no proof of posoning of wells. Well, here's a lesson in business.

When a complaint is made about a poisoned well, the fracking companies settle (usually on secret terms) out of court. They do that because even though the cost typically runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's cheaper that fighting a law suit. It also keeps the story out of the papers, so gullible people can write letters that there is no poisoning.

Did the premier of BC know that when she said there is no proof of poisoning? It's impossible to imagine she wouldn't. - just as it's quite impossible to think that David Alward doesn't know that.

For just a sample of such cases, google fracking out of court settlements. Even a TandT reporter could find that out - if he wanted to.

Then there's the question of the massive poisoning caused by waste water from fracking. And there have been convictions on this. Again, it's easy to find out. Google fracking convictions toxic waste.

You know, there's something very sick about a society in which people who want to protect themselves and their families and neighbours from forced poisoning get arrested in order to protect the poisoners. There's something wrong with a society that spies on those people as enemies of the state, and gives reports on them to the poisoners.

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Then we should give some thought to the prof. Lapierre case. My, how quietly that all blew over; and how quickly we moved on with nothing changed! We were repeatedly told he was a man of great distinction and repute internationally. For years, he held major positions in New Brunswick on environmental protection. And in all of those years of appointments and awards (and a KC Irving chair at the nuniversity), nobody ever checked his credentials.  Many a government and many a big business was involveld, handing him jobs that would affect the lives of all of  us. And nobody checked.

And how does one get appointed to such government plums in New Brunswick? I think we all know that. Dr. Cleary get misreported, and then ignored. Even her winning of a national award was ignored.  But Prof. Lapierre was lauded as a giant in his field, a man of interernational reputation.

So I did some checking.

I could find no evidence of international eminence. This is usually gained by publication of research. But I found nothing that was even remotely in the big leaques.

Yet the Irving Press raved on about his splendour. He was being honoured, you remember, as the only Canadian to be invited to a major conference in Washington.. But it wasn't a major conference. It wasn't even an academic conference. And he wasn't being honoured. The Irving press lied about the whole t hing.

For decades, he has held major positions with direct effect on our lives. Indeed,  some with direct effect on whether we have lives at all. He was quite deliberately brought in to destroy Dr. Cleary's report - and then to become the lead man in serving the interests of SWN and friends.

He was not only utterly without qualifications to do that. He was also acting with a stunning immorality, endangering all of us.

That sounds criminal to me. and, it seems to me, there is some reason to question the legality of the roles played by politicians and big business in this.  I mean, if police are going to punch out a woman at a demonstration, and grind people's faces into the dirt because they don't want to be poisoned, shouldn't we all be taking a closer look at all those people in high places who might be guilty of far more serious offences?

But Alward didn't even apologize to us. Mr. Anonymous, leader of the Liberals, did his usual imitation of a dead pebble, and Mr. Irving wrote an impassioned letter about what a splended chap Dr. Lapierre is.

He is not a splended chap. This is not just a case of faked credentials. This is a case of those faked credentials being used in a way that could do very serious harm to hundreds of thousands of people. And it was done, it seems evident, with full collusion of the political and business leaders of this province.

This is not just a blip in the news. There are strong indications here of criminal behaviour - and of the stunning depths of corrutption and manipulation in this province.
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So much for Section A. There's also even more about this alliance of city mayors for New Brunswick.
Today is the third day of talking about an alliance of municipal governments - and there is still no indicaton of the purpose of it. Even the people proposing it admit they don't yet have a clue what they would do.  There really is no story. So why are we getting it three times - and with more to come?

Well, whatever it may all be about, the prominence given to this non-story suggest its something the Irving want.

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There is no report on that stunning story of severe global warming - and very soon. But, as I wrote yesterday, I never thought the TandT would have the integrity or the brains too publish it.

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Foreign Minister Baird, the man who gets all indignant at abuse of human rights, is going to Laos to announce Canada will spend one million dollars to help that tiny and primitive country to dispose of the millions of cluster bombs that have lain all over it for decades, regularly blowing hands, arms and faces off children who pick them up.

Two million tonnes of bombs were dropped by the US on a poor and helpless Laos during the Vietnam War.

Two hundred and seventy million bomblets, cluster bombs, were included - 270 million bomblets on an almost defenceless population of 6 milliion people - with whom the US was not at war. Eighty million still lie there, waiting for children to pick them up.

God bless America.

Isn't it awful the way them there terrorists killed people in New York?

Canada will donate a million dollars for the cleanup. We spent thirty million on the 1812 celebrations.
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Norbert Chunningham passeth undetstanding. He attacks the CBC for not have paid enough  attention to Alice Munro over the years. (She recently won a Nobel prize). Norbert, when the hell has your stinking and ignorant paper ever paid attention to any writer? When has the TandT ever published a book review? Except for the announcement of her award, when has the TandT every mentioned Alice Munro?

Then Norbert slags all other Canadian writers and "neurotic and obsessed" - largely, it seems, because they do not reflect his constipated political views.

Norbert concludes, "It's time we grew up."  Yes. Indeed it is.
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Oct. 14: The biggest news story ever...

I've put off writing this for two days. I still can't work up any joy at getting started on it.

Today's newspaper has one item in it worth reading - Steve Malloy's column on functionl illiteracy in this province. This isn't just a minor issue. It's a major reason why New Brunswick is in decline, and why it's such a sinkhole of political stupidity and corruption.

But, as a reader of this column wrote in a couple of cays ago, news in the Brunswick Press is always late and always reflects laziness because it's so often put together days before publication, and then just thrown in whenever there's a space to be filled.

In today's paper, we learn that Jim Moore has released federal budget hints. Jim Moore - he's a sort of court jester, but reliable, who looks after expensive programmes that aren't a damn bit of value but which capture Canada substantial sub-literate vote - you know - Moore's the guy who was in charge of the War of 1812 "celebration".

He's also going to be in charge of the even more expensive celebration of Canada's 150th anniversary. No doubt it will be followed, some twenty years later, by the celebration of the deliberate killing by starvation of native people in our west.

But the big push in the budget speech will be on helping Canadians get lower prices for cable TV.

I mean, who gives a damn about gross corruption in the Senate, about an oil shipment that killed 47 people? Who cares about revelations that our government is spying on foreign companies - and our government is spying on Canadian people who have done nothing illegal - and reporting their spying directly to Canadian big business?

I'll bet that Harper will have a get tough measure on pedophiles in there, too. Are they on the rise? Not that I have ever heard of. Is there any sign that his get tough measure of the past have had an impact on them? Not that anybody has ever heard of. But, hey, this is a safe and sure vote-getter.

Damn you, Harper!  One million Canadians depend on voluntary food banks to survive. And that means even more are living in hunger and suffering and bad nutrition, many of them children whose lives are shaped (or misshaped) for them by grade four.

One million Canadians, or the ones who are lucky enough to have a voluntary food back in there area, depend on food banks. And you, Harper, are going to focus on the really big problem facinig this country - the high price of cable TV.

And nobody at the TandT had the wit to comment on the arrogance, abuse, triviality, cruelty, stupidity of this proposed throne speech.

But, of course, it will get the support of every illiterate in Canada - and that's a big step to power in the next election.

We'll pass lightly over the US demand that Iran turn over its uranium stockpile to the West if it wants to avoid a war.  Oh? It sounds reasonable to you?

well - Uranium has many uses, some of them quite legal. The US has never produced any evidence that Iran is working to use it for a bomb. The US has a nuclear stockpile - not to mention a couple of thousand nuclear bombs. So why doesn't it lead the way in turning them over? Israel has a uranium stockpile AND it has illegal, nuclear bombs. Not to mention stockpiles of poison gas. Lots of countries, including Canada, have uranium stockpiles. So why is the US demanding that only Iran turn them over?

Because that's a sure-fire deal-breaker for any attempt to establish peace with Iran. Iran has to say no. It's quite willing to open its uranitum processing to inspection to make sure it isn't developing weapons grade material. But it needs some uranium for fuel. So, if you want a war, you just need to stick in a demand they have to say no to.

There are powerful Americans who don't want peace with Iran. And it looks like they're getting their way.
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But far the biggest story is a that a climate research group - which even Environment Canada says is a highly credible one - has warned that we are within much less than a lifetime of irreversible global warming. They said it was start with tropical and sub-tropical cities like Kingston, Jamaica, which will become so hot as to be uninhabitable within a decade. And which will get hotter every year after that. By the 2070s, even Anchorage, Alaska will reach that stage.

Long before that, our food supply will have largely ceased to exist. As well, the oceans are becoming highly acidic. And the causes? Coal. Oil, Natural gas.

But Environment Canada, with the authority of its boss, Stephen Harper, announced that the Canadian government is taking quick action to deal with the crisis.

What quick action?

Well - Harper has taken away almost all funding for climate research. He has destroyed every effort to lower our greenhouse gas emissions. He has dismantled almost all environmental protection in Canada. He is working desperately  to bring more oil investment money into Canada. and to export more oil so we can create even more emissions.

The problem is not simply that so many of us are too lazy to learn how to read. It's also that we are ruled by people who are both greedy and stupid.

That's why we're getting a budget whose main feature will be to reduce TV cable charges.

This story, by the way is at least four days old. It hasn't appeared in the TandT yet - and I doubt whether it ever will.
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I thought we had hit bottom with the shale gas issue. I mean, we had a province that completely ignored a report by its chief medical officer which warned of the severe health danger of shale gas. Our government and out newspapers then joined to take the soothing word of a professor who had no qualifications to speak on the issue, and who would not have had the qualification even if he had really held the qualifications he claimed.

And where is the investigation of all that? Where are the questions about who called on Professor Lapierre? How come, according to a letter from Mr. Irving, he and professor Lapierre were such great buddies? Doesn't Mr. Irving have an interest in shale gas? Is it possible that.....?

What it comes down to is that politicians and journalists and, quite possibly, business leaders, joined hands to spread lies that put our lives in danger. That's surely criminal. Where's the investigation?

Instead, we get bozo letters and press releases that this will duh - create jobs -.  duh. Right. Enjoy your job while people are sickening - and you're working outdoors in a temperature of 60 centigrade.

If ,when you are about to cross the street, someone shouts that a truck is coming, most people would have the brains to take a look. Most New Brunswickers don't. They look to Mr. Irving or one of his hacks to say, "Alll clear." Then they step in front of the truck.

But don't worry. If the worst happens, Mr. Harper will rush in legislation to reduce cable TV fees even more.

 

Oct.12: one million Candians depend on food banks...

..and food banks in New Brusnwick are facing an increasing demand. You can find both stories if you look hard enough through today's back pages . Canadian poverty, if still below the disgraceful  US levels, is rising. But it's hard to find the stories hidden away like that - and they don't really say much.

However, it's easy to find a whole page story with pictures on how to restyle the kitchen in your luxurious home, a kitchen witih "...two dishwashers and multitudes of ovens and warming pans". Then there are two page of pictures of a 2400 square foot home.

And if you're looking for a holiday  spot in Thailand, but just can't bear the buzz of Bantkok, there are delightful photos, two pages of the charming city of Chiang Mai.

I don't know how many people in this town are eager to renovate their kitches with multiple dishwasher and ovens otrto ride an elephant in Chiang Mai. But it it must be quite a few since the stories of these two are not only prominent, but also occupy about ten times the space of the stories on poverty.

And then there's a full page on how to store and serve your extensive wine collection.

Of course, these stories come cheaply off news services that specialize in churning out trivia. Indeed, many of them are prepared by people in the business - such as real estate and travel agents - and the paper actually gets paid to run them.

A comment posted on yesterday's blog points out that the Irving press is freqently days late with news stories, frequently being beaten out by The Moncton Free Press (check google) which depends heavily on amateurs. Often, the TandT stories appear to have been written days in advance, then held for a slack day when there's space to fill.

Cheap and sloppy. That's the motto of the Irving Press.

A good newspaper, hearing of a million Canadian living in poverty would have spared us the gab about building luxury kitchens and taking exotic trips; and it would assign some serious reporters to find out what poverty means. What does povery look like in Moncton? What does it mean in terms of housing? Of health? What effect does it have on children? on education? How much damage does it do all of us?

But we get - "yep, lotsa food bank people, And now, movin' on, we ask the question - Are two dishwashers really enough for your kitchen?"

A real newspaper ( and there aren't many) would find out the permanent damage that poverty does to children, the pain and fear of it for adults, and why so many Canadians are dependent on food banks when corporations are making their biggst profits in history.

But those are questions you'll never see in the Irving Press. Nor will you see questions like - how much to the super rich actually pay - no. not what is there tax rate- how much do they actually pay in taxes.

And how can we possibly tolerate a system in which a few earn more in a day than most others do in a lifetime?  How can we tolerate, as happened in Nova Scotia, a system in which an arrogant multi-billionaire can demand a forgiveble loan from our tax money so he will hire people to work at the lowest wage possible to bujild ice-breakers he is already overcharging us for?

How can we possibly tolerate a system in which arrogant billionaires actually create poverty and destroy millions of lives to satisfy their own greed - which can never be satisfied?

Then, when they have robbed us blind, they toss back some of the loose change - the TandT babbles about how they're "philantopists?" With other loose change they build a church, (naming it after themselves, of course). I'll get God is bustin' his buttons with pride over that one.

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The lead story of the day is that the mayors or Moncton, Fredericton and St. John are forming a partnership to get more control over spending and job creation out of the provincial government.

It's a pretty silly idea since no municipal government in New Brunswick has ever shown much of a talent for being creative or innovative. As well, such a transfer and division of power would weaken our existing ability to create improvement at the provincial level.

And the municipalities have no policies yet. Wow! A group with no policies and lots of evidence of corruption wants us to give it more power. Hold me back.

It's a brainless idea - a group that wants more power to so something but doesn't know yet what that might be.  But columnist Kurt Peacock thinks it's a great idea - though he seems unable to give any reason why it is.  I guess that must mean Mr. Irving likes it.
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There's lots on the Rexton confrontation. But there's nothing on the story that the UN is now investigating Canada for human rights abuses against native peoples. There's a lot to tell, most of which Canadians never heard in school (or university) history classes - like the deliberate starvation of native peoples on the western plains. And the failure of EVERY Canadian government to deal with the enormous hardships we have forced on native peoples.
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There's nothing on the major story that the permier of Ontario has been sytematically destroying virtually all envionmental protection in the province. In that, she is following the lead of Stephen Harper who has not only destroyed most environmental protection, but has destroyed research on how to deal with climate change.

Like Harper, the premier of Ontario that deciided that the oil must go through, regardless of the consequences. And that's a major reason why Harper is abusive of native peoples. They are the ones with the strongest legal case to bar him from forcing through pipelines, and permitting drilling. That's why the very idea of native peoples has to be destroyed. That's why Harper is intervining is native education- to use the system to assimilate native children - just as the residential schools did in the cases of abuse that the UN Human Rights commission is now investigating.
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The Faith page sermonette is that it's important to practise thankfulness. Well, that's safe. That message wouldn't offend even the greediest  and most irresponibile people who make their millions and billions out of a province in which at least tens of thousands go hungry every day.

And it's so nice to have something ---you know----nice---for Christians to talk about over their church breakfasts and pie sales.
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Excellent column by Bill Beliveau. We are are going to pay one hell of a price for Harper's refusal to pay attention to even basic preparation for climate change, his destruction of environmental regulations, his destruction of research in these fields, his destruction of native society - all in his single-minded determination to make money (largely for billionaires) out of oil while it's still possible.

Excellent column by Gwynne Dyer.

Skip the rest.
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Oh, do you hate kids, and just want to scare them away from your place on Hallowe'en?  Go to page A 13, and cut out the picture there. Then pin it to your door at a child's eye-level. That'll scare them off.

The picture is Robert Goguen, M.P., smirking that awful smirk from a background of Autumn leaves.  Sure scared the hell out of me.



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Oct. 11: The cowboy singer and the Irving press...

Damn, damn, damn. I have finished a whole blog - and accidentally deleted it. Damn.

OK. Here goes again. But I'm not happy.
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The tradition of the the singing cowboy came to us in the early days of "talkies" with singing cowboy stars like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. But it's not just a piece of Hollywood hokum.

Back in the days when herds of cattle had to walk to market, driven by cowboys who kept them moving and on track, night was a dangerous time.  That's when the cattle, stopped in unfamiliar territory, were easily spooked, even by imaginary sounds. When that happened, the whole herd might stampede giving cowboys a hard day and more to get them back together. And quite possibly with many of them lost forever.

That's why, at nightfall, cowboys sang to the animals. Oh, nothing fancy, no yodelling, not even anything like a tune - just a drone with any old words at all. The whole idea was to be so boring as the keep the  animals calm. So the song would be something like "Git along, little dogies, git along, git along" - and so on for an hour more at a time. That point was not to entertain them, but to bore them out of their minds.

The Irving press uses the same tactic for us, the critters that it's driving to market. Today's edition is almost pure "git along, little dogies, git along, git along."
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Section A will send you into a stupor in no time at all. The lead story is about a pedophile. Okay, it is a story.  But we know all we need to know just from the headline - while the story goes on and on for over two pages, about a third of all the news space in the section.

The other big, big story is "New Flight connects Moncton and St. John's". This is one over a page with a total of five pictures, none of which tells us anything, and one of which (a pictures of a lighthouse in Newfoundland) really has nothing to do with the story. Teally, this full page effort that fills over a page has one a couple of sentences of useful information.

" Git along, little dogies..."

Then you're ready for the big snooze, "Maritime Greyhound Adoption celebrates tenth year".

The only story worth reading is on page one, "Resolve shale gas dispute, RCMP." It's an interview with the assistant commissioner of the RCMP discussing the talks between Alward and the protestors at Rexton.

The story isn't worth reading for anything it says - because it really doesn't say anything. It's interesting because the assistant commissioner had no business in talking to the press about what he thought of the talks. How the talks are conducted is none of his business at all.

In fairness, the commissioner did not quite say what the headline claims - and the editor should have caught that. But the commissioner is a civil servant. His job is to enforce the law when he is told to. It is not to pronounce on how the premier is handling things.
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Skippedy-doo on to NewsToday. There is not a word here that you  could not have read yesterday on Google News - for free. Nothing Zilch, Nada. Worse, the story on chemical weapons in Syria adds nothing to what we've known for a week or more.  "Git along, little dogies."  Wow! They sure are keeping us little dogies spaced out.

And they could easily have done something more useful. They could have put a reporter on a computer for just a half hour to get information that would help us to understand the whole story.
For example:

1. The world's largest user and biggest killer with chemical weapons is the United States. It has killed, at a minimum, many hundreds of thousands with everything from agent orange to white phosphorus to depleted uranium.

2. The hundreds of thousands of killed (almost all of them civilians) counts just those killed at the time of use. But the effects of those chemicals last, some for decades, some for centuries. Babies by the uncounted huncreds of thousands are still being born with horrible defects like organs that hang outside the body, missing eyes, ears, mouth, no arms or legs. Many are stillborn. None live very long. Those are the agent orange victims. They, alone, number over a million. And there are uncounted thousands more we don't know of because they are born at  home, and simply disposed of.

In Iraq, the big killer has been deleted uranium which has produced world record rates of cancer in babies and adults, as well as producing a high rate of still  borns. Nobody can even guess at the number.
But all we get is the message from The Canadian Press "Git along, little dogies..."

3. The US has many times promised to reduced its stockpile of such weapons, and has set itself deadlines. It has never met a single deadline or destroyed anything.

4. Canada used a chemical weapon, white phosphorous, in Afghanistan. It didn't use much. But it used it, though such use is forbiddn under Geneva conventions that we signed.

5. Into recent history one of the world's largest development and testing facilities for chemical weapons was in Alberta.

6. Israel has stockpiles of chemical weapons.

7. The US gave chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein when that dictator invaded Iran. And he used it.

8. Our foreign minister, Baird, was featured in the TandT when he condemned the use of chemical weapons by Syria. In fact, and though the TandT has ignored it, there is no evidence that Syria has used chemical weapons. There is ome evidence it was used by the"rebels" - who are NOT the Syrian government and, for the most part, are NOT even Syrians.

Mr. Baird said he was outraged. I wonder whether he is at all annoyed at the US for using chemical weapons on millions.

Either Mr. Baird is a fool or he is a lying hypocrite. I'm open to discussion of both points. But whatever the choice, the fac remains that the TandT has not made the slightest effort to gather information that is easily available.

So NewsToday is mostly "git along, little dogies..."
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The editorial, a deep-thinking one for a TandT editorial writer, is about the need to fix up a wharf to attract tourists. On balance, I'd prefer to read another chorus of "Git along, little dogies.."

Alec Bruce is solid. Norbert has a useful column on the question of "combat sports" as a commercial sport.  Cole Hobson has a (much) less useful one. I  had a pretty close exposure to the fighting world since my uncle was a commissioner of amateur boxing, and coached at least two Olympic boxing teams.

Boxing, alone, is bad enough for the long term damage it causes. But at least there is some skill in boxing. But the farce of  "combat sports" has no such excuse for existing. Essentially, you get your opponent down on the canvas, then punch his head into it until he suffers a concussion. The chances of damage are even greater than in boxing.

This is a sport for the kind of people who just like to see somebody get pounded. There used to be quite a few people like that in ancient Rome..  On balance, I'd rather watch columnists being thrown to the lions.

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Today's light touch is an (accidentally)  amusing letter. Someone had written a letter saying that 20 to 40% of water left in the ground by fracking eventually rises to the surface to form pools of highly toxic waste.

The reply is in today as "Shaky facts in anti-has letter". In reference to the danger of toxic water rising to form toxic pools rising to the surface,  the response says, "The regulations adopted by the government of the province would forbid this."

Damn right, baby. Any of that water rises to the top, and we'll send the RCMP to club it back down.

Nope. You can't escape it. Most of today's edition is designed to keep us cattle dozey, and not to think about anything at all.

"Git along, little dogies, git along, git a..."

 

Oct. 10: the enemy is us...

I am beginning this post on Wednesday evening because I shall be busy tomorrow, starting the first of a series of six classes (How to Understand the News) for Tantramar Seniors. I can start early because there is a huge story breaking - and I feel confident it will not be in any adequate way covered in the Irving Press.

That Candian government and its agencies and your tax money have  become simply an agency for big business. The bits like cracking down on crime - that sort thing - is all the play for the moron vote. Ther reality is that Harper has decided which side  he's on.  And it isn't ours.

What we've heard so far about government spying is barely the tip of a very big wedge. More, much more, is coming. And I have little confidence that the Canadian press will give much more than a hint of what this is all about. My information here comes from The Guardian, arguably the world's best newspaper in the English language - and certainly superior to anything in North American.

To read it for yourself, go to http:www. theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/09/canadianspies-met-energy-firms-documents

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Harper's only focus is establishing Canadian big business in foreign markets.  Our embassies around the world are essentially service offices for big business. Most Canadian foreign aid is directly connected to deals for contracts or favours from the receiving countries.

Despite his little display of walking out on a conference because he disapproves of Sri Lanka's human right abuses, Harper doesn't give a damn about human rights. If there's a deal to be made, Harper has been happy to deal with the worst human rights abusers in the world - and to supply their rulers with a share of our tax money. He chose to display his virtue at the expense of Sri Lanka because it was a commonwealth conference - and the commonwealth has little value to him for business purposes. So that little show of his indignation was another trick for the moron vote.

We are in a spying circle called Five Eyes, with the US, Britain, Canada, Australia  and New Zealand combining their resources and sharing what they learn. So why were we spying on Brazil? Is Brazil a threat to Canada? A haven for terrorists? Well, no. But we had at least two reasons for targeting Brazil.

One is that there are forty Canadian companies involved in mining in Brazil. Our spies have been meeting regularly with those companies to give them stolen information, stolen from Brazilian resource companies, and from the government of Brazil, itself.

Does'nt it make you feel good to know our tax dollars are going to help those nice, Canadian mining executives so they can make even more money they won't have to pay taxes on?  A government source says this is no big deal because Canada has little trade with Brazil. And that is dodging the truth.

It doesn't matter how much trade we have with Brazil. Some big, Canadian company can mine the stuff in Brazil and sell it in Botswanaland. Whether it benefits Canada is irrelevant. What counts is that it makes some very rich people much richer.

The spying might also have been to produce information for the US which is trying hard to destabilize a number of Latin American countries because they are getting cheeky and refusing to take American orders any more. And if Obama thinks Brazil is a threat to American power, well, then, Harper thinks it's a threat, too.

We have no idea yet how much our spies are doing in how many countries. But, as the documents come out, indications are they are operating all over the world.

Then there's the enemy within our own borders. Yes, make no mistake about it. In the view of Harper and his big business friends, native peoples and environmentalists are the enemy. We don't yet know how far the spying goes - whether it includes phone taps, mail, computers - and whether it goes far beyond native peoples and environmentalists.  But we do know how it is used.

Regularly, our domestic gestapo meet with Canadian   big business leaders to tell them what's going on among these native people and environmentalists so they can take appropriate action. Your tax dollars at work.

This has been going on for at least eight years, and all of it based on legislation framed by Harper to set up our two, high budget  spy agencies. Quite apart from illegality of all this, quite apart apart from the contempt it shows for international law; quite apart from its assault on human rights, this has set up a spy system within Canada that look disturbingly similar to the American National Security Agency - with which it works closely.

No wonder Harper had his party draw up that pamphlet that is a racist attack on narive peoples. (Be sure to ask Robert Goguen for your copy.) No wonder he is preparing to take control of native education. This is a declaration of war on native peoples, a war to put and end not only to native rights, but to the very idea there are such beings as native peoples.                          

Similarly, turning loose the spies on environmentalists is a first step in declaring war on anybody who disagrees with the government. Harper has done more to destroy this country than separatists ever did. We have never had a government with such utter contempt for law and for our rights.

The evidence also suggests very strongly that Harper lied and is still lying about what he knows. He claims he wasn't aware of the work  his spy agencies are doing. That was never believable simply because Harper is such a control freak. Of course, he has known and has known in detail.

He set up the legilsation. He approved the skyrocketing budgets to set up this spying racket. He is the one who has specified that the spies are to report regularly to big business.

We have a prime minister who is in politics only to serve big business. Only big business has the right to know about our spying apparatus and to be briefed regularly. As for  the rest of us, we  had better shut up or we get added to the list of enemies.

I had never expected to see anything as corrupt and as abusive of human rights as this in Canada, not even under a Harper. We exist only to make profits for big business. Big business exists only to make profits for itself.

As for the Canadian people - screw them.

Canada is in the most serious danger it has faced. We've been rocked into unconciousness by private journalism so that, I fear, we'll look on all this with a stunned silence.  Come on, Norbert.

You're the guy who's always grouching that government is too big. I've never felt that you really knew what you were talking about when you wrote that. But, if you meant it at all, this is a time when I would agree with you. A government that spends our taxes to break international law, to make us all subject to the greeds of big business, to throw our human rights into the dustbin is certainly too damn big.

But you won't have either the courage or the integrity to write that now, will you? No. You and your wretched Brunswick News won't even notice what is happening and, if I guess correctly, most of editors wouldn't understand it even if they did notice it.

We are within inches of throwing democracy and this country away.

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Bastards.
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To nobody's surprise, none of the above story appeared in today's TandT. Indeed, the news sections were really stinking, highlighted by a must know story about why icicles have ridges on them.

However, for the first time to my knowledge, both editorial and op ed pages were decent.
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Oh, another story floating around is that Swiss bankers report that Russia today has the biggest wage gap in the world, with 110 people holding 35% of all the nation's wealth. (No, there are not daring men who worked their way up. These are political insiders who were given resources and money when Russia switched from capitalism to communism.)

Result? Russian society is now back where it was under the   Tsars and aristocracy of a centuty ago. And we all know how stable that was.