May 12: Damn!

 I have just spent over five hours working on today's blog. And it just disappeared. Damn!

I want to go to bed soon. And I don't think that gives me the time to rewrite the whole blog I started with. So I'll try this. I'll write a longish bit explaining some general ideas. I think they're needed. Then, given the hour, I'll go back to at least some of the usual newspaper references.

First, for New Brunswickers - I realize that you are a frightened people, that you are terrified of having an opinion. But you have no choice. There is no future for this province ruled by one man who tells the Liberal and Conservative  mob of lawyers on the make what to do. I know this goes back for well over a century. But you really can't afford it any more. You have to show a little bit of courage and common sense - not to mention human decency.

The Green Party, much as I respect it, is not enough. This province needs a serious change in its political structures and its  economic and social values. In fact, you don't  have a party in this province that has anything like a political and social programme adequate to the job.

The NDP was such a party. But that was sixty years ago. It needs a tremendous shaking up after the farce of a leader who decided he was Conservative, and so just another drop of the sludge that dominates this province's politics. And if the NDP won't shake itself up, you're sunk.

You can't change this province without taking on the people who have been abusing it and you and your children.

Nor can your expect leadership to come from the U.S. It is a country that is smothered from the cradle to the grave in myths about the imagined glories of its history,  in a dreadfully smarmy patriotism, and a belief (as in Hitler's Germany)  that Americans are a superior race. I hope it can get over the mess it is. But collapse seems more likely.

And that takes us to the observation that Canada's Stanley Cup for hockey and its Grey Cup for football   both carry the words "amateur championship". But both are really for pro teams. That helps to explain why Canada, the U.S., Britain and much of the western world exist under so many delusions. That's why news media in the west are so inclined to admire wealthy businessmen as great and wise leaders. (Read the Brunswick News. You'll never find a criticism of anything said by anbody in this province who's rich.)

This all goes back centuries to the days when Europe was forming itself out of chaos. The leading figures in this were warriors who seized power, named themselves kings and earls and dukes, and named all the rest as their servants and  underlings. They justified this by declaring themselves to be superior beings (just as leaders of big business do today.)

Their power rested on skill as warriors, so they invested much time in sports such as hunting and jousting. And those sports were restricted to the aristocrat/warrior set. it was notice of their social and intellectual superiority.

Actually, the first generation might have been  reasonably bright. But very often subsequent generations were not. That was  (and still is) notorious in royal families. It was also true of the aristocrats. Over the years,  they developed many of today's modern sports - like rugby. But only the aristocracy were permitted to play these sports. After all, it was believed that sports were what gave them their perceived intellectual superiority. So, in the British army, for example, common soldiers could engage in the sports of the poor - like wrestling. But only the officers were allowed to play cricket.

(Generally, the officers, almost all of whom  came from the upper social classes, showed declining intelligence over the generations. That's why the British army was so frequently led by numbskulls to the end of World War One. By that time it was so obvious that the aristocrats were such a loopy lot that a writer like P.G.Wodehouse could make a fortune writing  humorous stories about them.
(Oh, women, all women, were excluded from almost all sports. After all,  the belief was that sports trained leaders. And women, of course, were no to be allowed to be leaders. Until well into the twentieth century it was common for women to be excluded from golf clubs, or were permitted only for one ladies' day a year.)

By the nineteenth century, a rising business class was making claims on leadership. Like the old aristocracy, they accepted the idea that sports trained leaders. So they copied the sports club philosophy of the aritocracy. And, like the aristocrats, they saw their rise as being due to their high intelligence and leadership qualities, and they saw it as denoting their superiority. Accordingly, the scum of the middle class and the working class were kept out.  Nor were paid players admitted. After all, if

a person had to be paid to play, he was really not of the better sort, was he?
That's why the Olympics were for amateurs only. That's why the Stanley Cup and  the Grey Cup were originally for amateurs only. Sports trained people for leadership. And it was now only the business class who were blessed with intelligence and leadership.

That sort of thinking runs very deep to this day in some very shallow minds. That's why the wealthy delude themselves that because they are wealthy they are wise. And that spirit, encouraged by greed, is why they have contempt for the common voters, and see themselves as the only ones fit to rule - using puppet politicians. (If you read your local newspapers carefully, you are like to see many examples of this.)

The reality is that the wealthy quite frequently are not very bright. (Take a good look at the confusion of Donald Trump's thinking, and his profound ignorance of most topics. Obviously, high intelligence is not required to become a billionaire. And the result is that much of our western world is actually run by people with no social values, few moral values, and no brains at all.)

And they are murdering and starving millions all over the world.

I know New Brunswickers are afraid to discuss politics. But we're about to learn that it's a lot more dangerous not to talk about them. As it is, our province is actually run by wealthy people who constantly sponge our tax dollars,  by at least some people who pay no taxes whatever thereby hurting education, health and other essential services. The situation is now reminiscent of the worst years leading up to World War 1. We have to pay attention.

And no. Switching from Liberals to Conservatives or going the other way won't help.
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I really don't know what to make of t his story. But it caught my attention because I grew up in the east end of a big city - Montreal. And, if you were ever at east ender, it's intriguing.

http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/21119
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This is a very unusual take on Comey, the fired head of the FBI.

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2017/05/james-comey-debacle-reveals-nation-addicted-self-dramatization-and-myth
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It's a war of most of the richest people in the world against some of the poorest. It's worse because it's killing with starvation. It's worse because it began with an attack by Saudi Arabia, one of the world's worst human rights offenders. It's worse because the US is supplying the Saudis, and helping them in the bombing. It's worse because our western aristocracy of wealth is fully behind it. It's worse because Canada is selling Saudi some of the weapons it's using. And -
has anybody bothered to tell you what it's about?

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/05/12/dangerous-trifecta-crises-yemen-hit-cholera-outbreak
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The next column is no exaggeration. Western leaders have been guilty of knowingly committing war crimes that resulted in millions of deaths. And it's not just Americans. It's also the British. And it was deliberate war crimes. How come most of our news media never noticed that?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47031.htm
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And this next one represents typical American behaviour in South America for a century and more.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuela-Govt-Accuses-US-of-Bankrolling-Right-Wing-Violence-20170511-0007.html

Funny how our press forgets what Cuba was like before Castro kicked out the U.S. and its hired torturers and killers. There was probably no hell-hole on earth to match the horror of U.S. domination in Cuba.
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And now - there's more but - damn - I  have to go to sleep. Sorry for all the confusion.

May 10:The frightened people of New Brunswick.

Our truthful Bunswick News press has announced that the provincial government will clean up two of its worst-polluted beaches. I am touched and moved by this gesture. But it makes no mention of any examination of who is resposible for the life and health-threatening condition of those beaches. This has been going on for at least a decade in which there were provincial beach inspectors and septic system inspectors. And nobody noticed?

Is it possible there were bribes?  (Almost certainly not in a God-fearing province like New Brunswick.) But shouldn't Brunswick News be asking that question? Just to make sure? Nah.

On good side, de Adder, the paper's cartoonist, has an excellent cartoon. It's a picture of reporters ignoring a starving women and child in South Sudan as they run to hear Trump say something stupid.

I wonder if he realized that this is the way Brunswick news covers the real stories. (How many Brunswick News reports have you seen of the starvation in places like South Sudan and Yemen?)
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Many years ago, when the world and I were young, I belonged to the nuclear disarmament movement. Our concern was that, inevitably, we would be victims of a world, nuclear war. However, governments assured us that the wide possession of nuclear weapons was good because any government which used them would be afraid to use them for fear of retaliation. Yes. The wide, ownership of nuclear weapons would deter war. Yes.

But the reality is they don't. We are, at this moment, closer to world nuclear war than we have ever been. And the most dangerous offender has been the U.S.
After all, if nuclear weapons were a deterrent to nuclear war, we should be encouraging North Korea to develp them. Instead, the U.S. has pursused a policy of using nuclear weapons as a threat.

For example, iti has moved  large numbers of its weapons to Italy, and to other countries closer to the Russian border. It patrols Chinese waters with nuclear-armed submarines. That's not deterrence. That's threat.

And if Trump carries out his threat to attack North Korea, what will China do? Can it possibly allow the U.S. to drop nukes on its border? Can it allow the U.S. to plant nuclear bases on its border?  (What would the U.S. do if China nuked Mexcio, and planted nuclear bases on the American border?)

Far from opening an era of peace, World War Two opened the way to an orgy of war and greed spearheaded by American big business, supported by a Europe and a Canada that now had to kiss up to the U.S.

Worse, the U.S. has proven hopelessly incapable of conquering the world. Despite the most brutal bombing campaign in history, one that killed a third of all the people in North Korea, it failed to conquer that country. (Is North Korea today heavily militarized and led by a dictator? Gee. I wonder why.)
Despite killing some 8 million in Vietnam (and an uncounted number in Laos and Cambodia - almost all of them civilians, it lost that war, too.). It lost to tiny Cuba. It did win in Grenada, thanks to Clint Eastwood. But it has been man handled by just a section of the people of Afghanistan and, after 16 years and trillions of dollars, is nowhere close to defeating them. it won in Iraq by killing   one and a half million people, mostly civilians. in a war whose purpose the American and British governments lied about. It is now arming Saudi Arabia, one of the worst human rights offenders in the world, to kill and starve the people of Yemen -with American help. (Bless Canada for supplying armoured cars to help kill those starving people who are a threat to, to...you know...)

American foreign policy has created a shambles in the middle east - and watch for the shambles coming up in South America.

In 1945, the U.S. was perhaps the most admired and respected country in the world. Today, it is one of the most hated. And it is, in its internal policies and foreign policy, taking on much of the appearance of Hitler's Germany.

Unable to get soldiers for its army, it has to rely on hired mercenaries. We are watching a dying empire whose people and government have lost any sense of direction.

Can you seriously believe nuclear weapons in such hands would deter a war?
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This story is a reminder of a much bigger one that gets little attention. The U.S. is, by far, the world's largest supplier of weapons - as well it is the world's buyer  weapons. Indeed, the weapons industry has become the mainstay of the U.S. economy. If all war were to end tomorrow, the U.S. would crash into poverty and chaos.

President Eisenhower saw this coming seventy years ago. But with its tangle of government and big business, the arms industry is a vast swamp of corruption and graft. And it needs fear and it needs hatred to justify its existence. If the world were to find peace tomorrow, the U.S. economy and many a tax-free corporation would collapse.

That's why American must live in  fear of Muslims - or anybody who looks different. That's why Trump recently demanded that Canada increase its defence spending. It would mean contracts for the American defence industry - and Canada could easily cut spending on health and education to pay for it. After all, we never know when the starving children of Yemen might invade Canada to get hot dogs.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/10/ankara-calls-us-arming-of-kurds-fighting-isis-in-syria-a-threat-to-turkey
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This one could turn into a very serious issue, indeed. And one with a major effect on a declining democracy.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/10/firing-comey-trump-flames-russia-scandal
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This is a reminder. You seldom hear or see anything of this in our commercial news media.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/05/cia-long-history-kill-leaders-around-the-world-north-korea
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Our news media went close to hysteria in its reporting that Russian bombers killed civilians in Aleppo. But they have never, ever told the truth about the massive and deliberate slaughter of civilians by western airforces. So here's a bit of a corrective.

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/05/09/the-silent-slaughter-of-the-us-air-war/

The deliberate targeting of helpless civilians really dates to 1920 when a British Colonial Secretary ordered the systematic and sustained bombing of Kurd civilians living in undefended towns. He also ordered the use of chemicals and poison gas against them.

In World War Two, all major powers were deliberately bombing civilians in terror raids. When a film revealed that, The Canadian Legion had a fit, and demanded and got a full Conservative government committee of a hundred or so to carry out a phony investigation. It returned a unanimous verdict that Canada had never taken part in such a thing. I attended those hearings, and testifed at them - so I know the committee was either lying or stupid - possibly both.
Since then, indiscriminate bombing of civilians has become standard pracrice in every war. That's why an American general meant when he announced he would "bomb Laos and Cambodia back to the stone age."

http://rense.com/general81/germm.htm

Oh, the name of the British colonial secretary who ordered the bombing along with chemical and poison gas attacks on Kurd civilians?

That was Winston Churchill.

All of this is at least understandable in the context of World War Two. The continued, deliberate targeting of civilians in coutries that are not world threats- as in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq, Syria, is not.
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Brunswick News long ago dropped its commentaries by David Suzuki. They needed the space for people who had nothing to say.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david-suzuki/2017/05/long-work-hours-dont-work-people-or-planet
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For many years, the Brunswick News carried commentaries by Gwynne Dyer. But he is the one of the best military correspondents in the world. So they had to fire him.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20170509/gwynne-dyer-korean-crisis-why-now
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Largely unnoticed by Brunswick News, Venezuela is tumbling into a civil war almost certainly created by the U.S. This has been the history of South America for over a century. U.S.and Canadian business sees it as a place to loot resources and to abuse workers with no controls whatever on how these businesses behave.

. And if the locals object, the American news meda brand them as hot-headed Latins. And if the people are foolish enough to elect a leader who will govern for them rather than for American corporations, the U.S. will sponsor armies that suddently spring up from nowhere.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-sponsored-regime-change-in-venezuela-is-official-us-national-security-advisor-mcmaster-calls-for-a-quick-peaceful-solution/5589364
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The world's greatest power with the world's largest military budget has not been able, despite sixteen years of military intervention, to defeat a fraction Afghan's population. It's the Afghan opposition that's now singing, "Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light...?"

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/09/donald-trump-may-escalate-the-afghanistan-war-he-spent-years-calling-a-terrible-mistake/
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Another story missed by the eagle-eyed editors of Brunswick News.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47010.htm

Gee. where would the world be wirhout all us Christian nations?_______________________________________________________________________________
Not just Americans, but all us humans have short memories for things we prefer not to know, and long ones for those that propagandize us. Canadians have long since forgotten, for example, their history of  anti-semitism. And of abuse of oriental immigrants in general - not to mention our history of African slavery followed ever since by mistreatment of African Canadians
.
And, in the U.S., its many sins and mass murders have been forgotten, covered by the 9/11 attack which has become the excuse for murdering millions.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47008.htm
_________________________________________________________________The following is an opinion. I don't know how accurate it is. I do know that the writer is usually pretty reliable. It's a dismaying report about the French election. I do know that I have been surprised by the rise of a very young man with no political background. The only parallel I can think of is Justin Trudeau who will prove, I am quite sure, to be a bad choice.

It costs money to fight a national campaign. How did this young unknown in France do it without money - big, big money? Or are there things we haven't yet heard about him?

http://www.voltairenet.org/article196311.html
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Another story missed by Brunswick News.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/05/10/told-you-so-everyone-was-dreading-first-dapl-spill-reported
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Gee! How odd that Brunswick press should have missed this story. I mean, it was huge story when the local chamber of commerce went clap, clap, clap for Mr. Irving. But this much bigger event got no attention at all.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/29/photos-peoples-climate-march-draws-one-hell-lot-people
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But the big, local story that Brunswick News is telling us nothing about the one of pollution on our beaches. This  has been going on for ten years or more - and nobody in our government of civil service or extensive inspection staff noticed it? And nobody's being investigated for this ten year threat to human life? And, in fact, no investigation at all is happening?

There are lots of people in government, in inspection services, in the campground/trailer park business who should be asked lots of questions. And any newspaper of integrity and even moderate intelligence would know that.
Luckily, Brunswick News serves a province whose people are afraid to ask questions or to discuss their masters in any way. It's been like that from the days of timber barons to the days of oil barons.

But think about something else that's happening. The proportion of eligible people who vote at election time in this province is dropping steadily. That suggests a growing disillusionment which can take many forms, some of them dangerous. That's not to anyone's benefit.

New Brunswickers desperately need to develop some courage. And they don't have much time to do it.

May 8: More greed. More stupidity bred with greed.

Briefly, there is a stunning error in today's Brunswick news. The headline is "Historian says Russian spies may have stolen Mackenzie King's diary".
Now, the newspaper's editors write the headlines on stories. They read the story - then write the headline that tells what it's about. But Brunswick News editors suffer reading deficiencies - and their headline is NOT what the story says.
The story begins with hints that Russians stole a volume of King's diary. But there is not the slightest evidence they did. Toward the end, the story suggests it is more likely it was stolen by an employee of the Canadian government.
 So how could an editor make such a blunder?

Probably because he or she didn't bother to read to the whole story. This is really bush league journalism.

For a sample of the diaries, try this. They're fascinating, and sometimes hilarious.
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/mackenzie-kings-diaries-go-online
I was taught by Professor Fred Gibson at Queen's University who had been secretary to Mackinzie King (and the best Professor I ever met.)
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Today, I'll take a little time to give a background on what's happening in North Korea. We need it because we may be rushing to nuclear war - and our news media have never told the story of what this is really about. It's a story that goes way back to 1945 - to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

President Truman nuked those cities because, he says,  Invading Japan would have cost hundreds of thousands of American lives. But president Truman was lying.

Japan was beaten. And Japan knew it. It's military forces had virtually ceased to exist. It had no fuel for its aircraft, ships and land vehicles. (American news media spread stories that Japanese men, women and children would have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans using bamboo spears  - seriously).

In 1945, the U.S. was on the edge of world domination. It already controlled Latin America and, increasingly, the oil of the middle east. It had a foothold of Asia with its conquest of The Philipines and the annexation of Hawaii. The Soviet Union was no competition. It had lost 50 to 80 million people during the war - perhaps the greatest death list in the history of warfare. China was a shambles after a century of British exploitation of it - and because of a long civil war. The European empires were all in terminal collapse. And the U.S. had just established a puppet dictatorship in South Korea. That, with the addition of North Korea, would give the U.S. a launching pad for its long-wished-for conquest of China.

The U.S. was set to conquer the world. For respectability, it could depend on the UN which, in those early days was a puppet for American diplomacy. (Contrary to stories in our press, the Korean war did NOT start with a North Korea invasion of South Korea. That was the UN version of the story. The reality is that north and south had been attacking each other from the start.)

With a near absolute control of the UN, it was a cinch for the U.S. to get its approval for a holy war. (Since then, the U.S. has been losing control of the UN. That's why it has been cutting its financial support for the UN. That's why Canada, once a golden boy of the UN, is now having trouble winning a council seat. Everybody knows that Canada is a U.S. puppet.)

It went well at first with the heaviest bombing campaign in history that killed at least a third of the population of North Korea. (yes, that includes women and sweet little children while the folks back home sang God Bless America.  Apparently, the churches didn't notice.)

  North Korea was a walk-over. But if we didn't know what this war was really about, China did. It intervened, and threw the U.N. forces back into South Korea.
Yes. We had saved South Korea. But that was never the point of the war. The point of it was to threaten China, and to launch a war against it.

In short, we lost the Korean war. More, the U.S. lost its opportunity to rule the world, and it loses more ground with every day that passes. Russia is no longer the shattered nation it was. China is now a world power, and growing in power every day. The U.S. is in deep trouble trying to hold on to its middle east oil.  Increasingly, members of the UN are distrustful of the U.S.

But many American business leaders still think that America can rule the world - and they own most of the politicians. And our news media daily tell us how evil foreigners pick on the U.S. - a U.S. which has just tried so hard to bring peace and joy to the world by invading some seventy countries since 1945.
Oh, there's a lot of evil people out there.

All of this has to be known to make any sense out of Trump's threats to North Korea. But our news media have never told us any of the above.
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One and a half centuries ago, the European powers handed over  piece of Africa to the king of Belgium, What has followed is millions of murders, of torture, of degradation, starvation and terror which still go on though Congo is officially a free country. The reality is that it is still controlled by world capitalists
 (including Canadians) as it once was by Belgian capitalists. The classic novel about the early days of this horror is 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad.
A friend who was a missionary there for 35 years assured me that nothing has changed in the miserable country.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/08/congo-government-un-investigator-murders-scrutiny
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Think Hitler's racism was an oddity? Here's a sample of it at the White House. And you can find lots of it all over the U.S. and Canada. Hitler was  not a horrible deviation for the western world. He was, pretty much, mainstream. And he still would be.

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/07/white-fear-in-the-white-house-young-bannon-disciple-julia-hahn-is-a-case-study-in-extremism/
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Brunswick News has not mentioned the rise of violence and severe disorder in South America - another part of the American empire that is in disarray.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/05/07/death-toll-rises-to-37-amid-continuing-clashes-in-venezuela/
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Here's another source for Americans killed by police thiis year. Only 7 days into May, there have already been 21 killings. (All of them have newspaper sources.)

http://killedbypolice.net/#top
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Here's another topic the Brunswick News hasn't paid much attention to.  (It needed the space for a big, world news story on traffic in Montreal. In fairness, Montreal traffic is a disaster. I have driven in China where (at that time) cars drove at night with lights off except for a quick flash every minute or so. It was a courtesy to other drivers, horses, cattle, pedestrians on the road - so that the lights wouldn't get in their eyes.)

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/05/06/climate-change-proof-to-convince-even-the-most-irrational/
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I  thought this an interesting article on the failure of war as an instrument of policy. However, I was less impressed by its proposed alternative.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/05/05/avoiding-another-war-in-north-korea/
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In a flurry of self-congratulation, Trump announced he had settled the Israel/Palestine conflict. Yes. In his dreams.

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/05/05/trumps-amateur-hour-on-israel/
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All too true.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47004.htm
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There are no limits to the horrors that the greedy and stupid will inflict on us - if we let them.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47006.htm

And there is no political party in Canada (or the U.S.) that will stand up to them. The old CCF did. But now, as the NDP, it's an onlooker. We need to make it the party it was. Or New Brunswick can just go on as it has - electing lawyers on the make.
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Here's a story I haven't seen in our local papers.

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2017/05/rcmps-admission-it-spies-our-cellphones-long-overdue-leaves-important-questions
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Canadians are slow, very slow, to catch on to Trudeau.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/17/dont-be-fooled-mckibben-says-climate-trudeaus-no-better-trump
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Another story our news media have ignored.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/sauron-rules-in-washington-neocons-firmly-believe-they-can-win-a-nuclear-war-against-russia-and-china/5588846
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There are so many sites to go through - Counterpunch, the Off-Guardian, Voltaire.net, Black Agenda Report, Wikileaks, and many, many more. Here's a general look at Wikileaks.

https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/

Remember, these leaks come straight from U.S. government agencies. So ya gotta believe  them. Right? I mean, if you believe Trump - then you have to believe wikileaks, too. In fact, you have to believe it a lot more than anyone can believe Trump.
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May 6: The Hard Truth

The very hard truth.

Since 1945, the U.S. has killed - nobody knows how many -15 million? more? It has created at least eighty million refugees - civilians, mostly. They drown, starve to death, are sold into slavery in their flight. The survivors have just spent a winter in the filthy and dangerous refugee camps created by Europeans who don't want them. (The U.S. won't help them at all.) Most of those children will never see school for any significant time. And what will happen to all those wretched people is anybody's guess.

Why is the U.S. behaving like this?

Part of this is the old belief in manifest destiny - the belief that God wants America to rule and 'police' the world. That, of course, carries an implication.  American are superior to other peoples. Those other peoples? Well, they kill; and that's  not Christian. No. These are inferior peoples.

Check out "Project for the New American Century" on the web. It was drawn up by very, very prominent people with names like Bush. It calls for America to rule the world. And the implication is clear. Americans, as God's chosen people, are a superior people. The rest need either control or  elimination.

It's not a new concept. Another prominent Christian once shouted a similar message to his superior people - and the people cheered and shouted "Heil".

Of course, and just like American billionaires, that prominent Christian invaded and murdered to get the resources of other nations - the oil wells of Russia, for example. And it was okay because, like Muslims in the US, the Russians were untermensch - inferior people. Hitler was the spokesman for those Germans who were very, very wealthy, and wanted more.

And it's not just the U.S. or just Hitler's Germany.

I watched a documentary on the contribution of valiant British farmers and how they helped to win the war - and  how cruel it was of Germany to try to starve the British. It was all very uplifting and very true. But -

Britain in its own glory days murderered, enslaved, looted Africans, Asians, native Americans by the millions to make the rich even richer. And it was all justified as the will of God, "Land of hope and glory, mother of the free. How can we extol them, who are born of thee. Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set. GOD WHO MADE THEE MIGHTY MAKE THEE MIGHTIER YET....."

That could have been written for Donald Trump.

The same can be said for every empire in history. That superiority is what Trump implied when he said, "Make America Great Again." Heil. Heil Heil. And those who oppose us are racially inferior. Of course they are. If they weren't, we of the superior race would not be killing them.

And the billionaires tell young people to kill. But they don't say it's to make the billionaires richer. No. It's says that the young people are "serving their country" (Whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.) Just like the Hitler Jugend.
Hitler was, of course, a monster. We see that easily. What we don't see is that Hitler was a common example of the leaders our world has been producing to serve the privileged for thousands of years for the empires of Rome and Spain and Portugal and France and Britain and the U.S.

Beware of patriots. Too many of them are either fools or Hitlers. For examples, check the styles of Bush, Obama and Trump   (and Clinton). And check their puppets in the Canadian government.
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Here's a story you won't find in Brunswick News papers. They need all their space for big stories like "Woman sneezes on Main St." South America is seething. And it's not because Latins are hot-headed. It's because they are victims of the American empire, dominated by the demands of American and Canadian resource companies so that they are kept poor.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/03/venezuela-crisis-protests-nicolas-maduro-caracas

Expect much more - and in more countries. Watch for Canada to be asked to send troops. Yeah. We'll call them peacekeepers, like the ones we sent to Haiti to help overthrow the elected government.
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The use of American agents to murder political leaders is common - but seldom reported. And it's bigger than that. In South America, for example, the U.S. often uses hired killers to kill, for example, environmentalists. (Mining companies don't like environmentalists.)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/05/cia-long-history-kill-leaders-around-the-world-north-korea
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The U.S. has interfered, often violently and murderously, in just about every country in South America. Name me one that is better off as a result.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/05/puerto-rico-files-for-bankruptcy-in-last-ditch-attempt-to-sustain-public-services
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Here is a stunning account of what happened, what really happened, the last time we went to war with North Korea. Get ready for some shocks.

The old brother of a friend was just old enough to join up; and he clicked his heels with pride all the way home from the recruiting office. Badly crippled in the war, he returned to wear his blue beret with pride every November 11. He had fought for his country.

In fact, his country and his news media had lied to him every step of the way. The Korean War had nothing to do with Canada. It was a war to make American billionaires even richer. We should, most certainly, remember our veterans every November 11. We should be grateful to them. But we should also make that day an occasion to make sure that it is essential for them to fight - and that the war really does have something to do with Canada. And is not just another Korean or Afghan war to fatten  the wealthy.

(Incidentally, the Afghan War was planned long before 9/11 - and had nothing to do with the attack on the world trade center.)

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/04/26/endless-atrocities-the-us-role-in-creating-the-north-korean-fortress-state/
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Another look at the real world.

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/05/the-forgotten-history-of-cinco-de-mayo-its-not-about-beer-its-about-rich-countries-strangling-poor-ones/
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Some ten American states are making it illegal to stage protests. This is mostly in response to protests against fracking and oil pipelines. So that awful behaviour will have to be stopped. But, ot course, oil companies will remain free to pollute and destroy lands, waterways and lives.

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/06/oklahoma-governor-signs-anti-protest-law-imposing-huge-fines-on-conspirator-organizations/
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There are no limits to the greed of the very greedy.

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/04/house-gop-just-voted-to-slash-medicaid-which-pays-for-60-percent-of-people-in-nursing-homes/

What's that Mr. Billionaire? You don't want to pay 200 million in property taxes? No sweat. We'll cancel it.
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Tell me how this next story is not at all like what  Hitler did.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46980.htm
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Trump's talks with Israel and Palestine have achieved nothing. The tragedy of Jews in Europe in World War 2 continues, this time with the tragedy of Palestinians under Israeli control. When Hitler murdered millions of Jews, one of the products was a severe decay in the principles of Judaism.

Incidentally, our government knew about the extermination camps run by the Naziis from the start. And we still didn't lift a finger to help even those Jews who escaped. In fact, we sent them back to Germany. In reaction to that betrayal, Judaism has fallen a long way. And we caused that fall.

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/05/05/trumps-amateur-hour-on-israel/
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Americans suffer from the worst medical care in the developed world. That's because major capitalists insist that everything must be for personal profit only. We are deeply into an economic system which preaches a growing separation of the  very rich from everybody else. And they very much want that separation to include health, education, opportunity.

Politically, we are pretty much back in the middle ages when nations were run by a tiny number of the wealthy by birth. And it's getting worse.

Our financial dukes and earls and barons are muscling in on our health care and on education. (They already control the universities.) In their eyes, we are not real people. We exist only for their convenience.

Oh, occasionally they'll toss us a few bucks - and Brunswick News will get all mushy in its own slobber, and the brain-dead of the chamber of commerce will go 'clap, clap, clap'.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/trumpcare-social-devastation-denial-of-health-care-bonanza-for-insurance-companies/5588597

Of course, New Brunswick is not yet at the stage the U.S. is in this respect. We're still at the stage of just kicking the chief medical officer out of the province when she said things some people don't want her to say.
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We're at a dangerous point. Most of our governments have long since ceased to be democratic in any real sense.  To make it worse, we are operating, for the most part, with political parties that have no values at all. They simply do what the wealthy tell them to do. And that goes all the way to Ottawa.

There is now open talk of a 'preventive' nuclear war. (Having piles of money does not necessarily indicate a brain of any size.)

Christianity, never in very good shape, has ceased to exist in any real terms - not unless there are secret commandments that say "Ye shall be greedy", "Ye shall kill people who are in your way." Christianity, never as healthy as it should have been, has virtually ceased to exist. For a sample, read any of the wimpy Faith Page columns of Brunswick News.

Is it right for us to commit mass murder? Is it right to cut off some people from health care? Is it right for CEOs to get millions of dollars a year (and to avoid paying taxes. Yes. I know the CEOs work for their money. So do the underpaid people who have to suffer under them.)

Do we really believe that people of other religions or languages are so different from us it is okay to kill them?

We defeated Hitler in 1945. But I'm very much afraid that Naziism still thrives.
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As I read this, it's pretty alarmist. But I don't see an alternative to alarm. We have to start doing some serious thinking about what our values are, what the values of our political parties should be - and how we can rebuild to that standard.

May 5: A brief note....

I'm  just back (three days late,  thanks to Air Canada) from a trip to Montreal. I'm just recovering from the horror of that return trip - and I'll do a regular blog tomorrow.

Incidentally, one of the saddest aspects of the trip to Montreal was to read what was, just ten years ago, a decent paper by the admittedly loose standards of the North American press. The Montreal Gazette has since, probably due to the decline of anglo population in Montreal, fallen almost to the level of the Moncton Times and Transcript. Very sad.

And that takes us to the May 3 column in the TandT news of May 3. - today's blog topic.

In a typical 'bend over Mr. Irving so I can give you a nicer kiss column", he attacks the provincial government for going over budget. How irresponsible!
They should balance the budget, not spend over their means. No. The next day has a political cartoon on the same note. ("Norbert isn't the only kisser on that page.)

The purpose of government is it ensure that the needs of all of us are met. If we cut health budgets, people suffer and die. They also, in large numbers, suffer from malnutrition, bad housing, no housing at all. But with all their spending, our governments do a poor job of that.

Tiny and poor Cuba can provide free university tuition for its people. Big and rich us can't.

But just recently, we were able to forgive Mr. Irving a 200 million dollar tax for some of his St. John property. Wasn't that Christian of us?  I'm sure he cried with gratitude on behalf of his starving family.

Norbert, when are you going to have the courage and integrity to write a column on WHY it is government's go over budget? Why don't you tell us what the wealthy pay (or don't pay) in taxes? And why don't you tell us about the wonderful gifts they get from our governments?

Across Canada, that comes to many, many billions of dollars - and that is probably understating it. It's all perfectly legal, of course. Our governments, which are paid for by the wealthy, passed laws making it legal to escape taxes - if you're rich. The rest of us are systematically being bled.

Have the guts to say so, Norbert. It's happening in the U.S., too. For decades there has been a steady drop in the size of the American middle class - as the middle class falls into the working class. And there's been a steady rise in the incomes of the very wealthy - the ones who don't pay taxes.

Take a look, take a serious look, at what is happening in the U.S. as a result. While we all shiver at the prospect of Trump, he's not the problem. He's a product of the collapse of the American social and political system. Remember - the people elected him. And when that many people vote for a Donald Trump, we're in trouble.
Nor would it make a difference if they had voted for Clinton. It doesn't matter which party Americans vote for. They're both awash in corruption, especially in the quite terrible corruption of feeding billionaires - and the hell with everybody else.
Trump is, of course, a cartoon figure. But people voted for him. A healthy society, well informed by its news media, would not have done that. In fact, in a healthy society, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans would exist.
What we are watching is the collapse of the American empire. (The U.S. itself is an empire of lands stolen from others. It also controls most of South America, a large part of Asia and, of course, of African and the Middle east. That control is used to keep those people poor and wide open to exploitation, especially by American and Canadian mining, food farming, and oil industries. If they don't, well, then there are assassinations,  sponsored rebellions, invasions.

The American empire is collapsing. The American people are getting poorer and more abused. The same thing is happening in Canada. Both countries are governed not for the people but for a tiny group of the very wealthy, a tiny group who are too greedy to see the inevitable consequences of their behaviour.

Norbert also says that the Liberals and Conservatives are moribund. Brilliant insight kid, but that been true since colonial days. And your and your newspaper have consistently supported only those parties.

Your newspaper, instead of informing voters, is a constant diet of propaganda and trivia. Your (lack of) reporting on the fouled waters of Shediac and Murray Park, is a prime example of trivia. So far, the paper has told us almost nothing.
Think hard, Norbert. Use every foot pound of brain power. This pollution has been going on for 15 years, at least. We can't even guess how many have been sickened (or killed)  in this.
Norbert, somewhere here is a story of greed, indifference to human life, corruption. We  should be witnessing fact-finding, correction, and (probably) criminal charges.
And we aren't seeing anything.

For the last  seventy years we have fought wars - almost all of them to make profits for billionaires while everyone else got poorer. It's a good deal for the billionaires. The wars give them countries to loot for minerals and cheap labour.

And the sweetest part is that the very wealthy don't have to pay a cent for those wars because they don't pay taxes. In fact, they even make extra fortunes out of an increasingly corrupt war industry which doesn't pay taxes, either.

Norbert,  this province has been looted since it was founded. (There are really interesting stories about the timber barons of New Brunswick.) The U.S. is collapsing under the weight of greed.- quite seriously mislabled as 'free enterprise'.

So is Canada.

Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives are an answer to these problems. Indeed, they never have been. The greens are too narrow in their focus. The NDP badly needs a high voltage charge up its collective rear end.

We are living through a major change in social structure that is highly destructive. We need to change that - and soon.

April 24: Praise the Lord - and pass the ammunition....

Tomorrow (Tuesday), I am off for a week in Montreal. There are at least a couple of stories to watch. One is the national election in France. This has some similarity to the recent U.S. election in that large numbers of voters in both countries are fed up with the political establishment. They are prepared to do something rash - though France doesn't seem to have a Donald Trump to fully tap into that. And that has implications for all of us.

At the end of World War Two, the U.S. effectively made western Europe and Canada a part of the American empire. One of the major devices for that was NATO. That, with trade treaties, tied Canada and western Europe to U.S. leadership. That's why, to this day, a Trump can tell a Trudeau that Canada MUST spend more on its military. After all, the purpose of its military is to help fight U.S. wars. As well, NATO spending is an important source of profits for the U.S. war industries. If there were no wars, the American war capitalists would have to invent them - and they do.

There is a possibility that the French election  (like the British vote for Brexit) may weaken that. And, if that happens, it could lead to a general European questioning of European ties to the U.S_____________________________________________________________
The other story to watch is the situation with North Korea. Think of how the U.S. would react if China decided to invade Mexico.

However much China might have doubts about North Korea, it cannot possibly permit a U.S. invasion on its own border. Yes, I know North Korea has nuclear weapons. So, one might notice, does the U.S. - and Israel and China and Russia and Britain and France and India and Pakistan. A nuclear war started by any of them could very well tip the balance to a general, nuclear war. If the U.S. wanted to avoid that, it shoud have begun nuclear disarmament negotiations in 1945. But it didn't. Instead, it chose to use the nuclear threat as a device to conquer the world. If you want a villain in all this, start with President Truman.

You think demolishing North Korea would solve the problem? Sixty years ago, North Korea was demolished as no nation before had ever been demolished. There was nothing left to bomb, and very few left to kill.

That's what gave us Kim Jong Un.

It also gave us a Chinese intervention which made the war, at best, a draw. And this time, three nations with nuclear arsenals would be involved.

North Korea needs a solution, not another war. (Oh, I know. I know. Kim Jong Un is a terrible man. He's not a reasonable and thoughtful man who gives his heart to his people -  like Donald Trump.)
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16 years into the longest war in American history......

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/23/afghanistan-reels-from-talibans-deadliest-attack-on-army-since-2001
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food for thought.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/24/north-korea-wont-bow-donald-trumps-threats-needs-assurances

But it depends on what Trump is thinking about. If he really wants peace with North Korea, it makes sense to talk. But - if he wants North Korea as an American military base on the border of China? Just like the U.S. now has Ukraine as a military base on the border of Russia?
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This story is attracting a lot of attention because tourists are flooding a Newfoundland town to see the  icebergs off its coast. You have to read the last line to get the important point. There is a tremember rise in the number of icebergs breaking off and drifting south - and it may have something to do with climate change.

My goodness. Who would have guessed?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/19/ferryland-iceberg-newfoundland-canada
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There is nothing to learn from this one. It is just Trump at his most unintelligible.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/24/trumps-ap-interview-unhinged-bombastic-and-unintelligible

Now - think.  Trump  is a  very, very successful businessman. But, except for a faithful few, he is an utterly incompetent political leader. Then read the Brunswick News. In it, politicians are terrible political leaders But businessmen are routinely quoted for their wisdom in how to run the world.
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This next one doesn't have much in the way of answers. But it  has questions most of our news media haven't asked. How could a president make a public statement about a powerful fleet heading to North Korea when, in fact, it was a long way off and going in a different direction.

How could a president, in such a delicate situation, not have been informed about where his fleet was, and where it was going?

And - who is really running the show?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46931.htm
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Quelle surprise!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-dangerous-mental-illness-yale-psychiatrist-conference-us-president-unfit-james-gartner-a7694316.html
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Let me digress here for a moment. We are routinely assured by our news media here in New Brunswick that the wealthy are a superior lot - characterized by a skill for competition. That competition is what gives us a rising standard of living. By contrast, government controlled services, since they don't have the competition element, are inefficient.

Well... actually, the standard of living has been dropping for almost fifty years. (The U.S. middle class, for example, has gone from 61% of the population to 51% in that time.  And that just happens to correspond with the financial rise of the 1%.
And efficiency? There's no evidence whatever that private business is efficient. If it were, we wouldn't have to serve out tax rebates to the Irvings, would we? And, in the case of medical care, the private system has routinely been unaffordable.
No. The success of the wealthy  (like Trump) is not due to any skills. It's more commonly, as in the case of Trump, the result of inheriting wealth, being greedy for more, and being indifferent to the needs of the whole population, and all of that  justified by a sense of social superiority - something common to every scoundrel I have ever met. If there's a skill, it's the skill of the shoplifter, the thief, the thug.

Recently, our local chamber of commerce had a dinner in celebration and honour of a leading businessman for a donation he had made to charity. What were they thinking of?

This is a man who lives well off our forgiveness of taxes and our outright gifts - far more than he gives to charity. Why would the chamber of commerce honour such piddling 'philanthropy'.

And why would a person of any integrity accept being 'honoured' for that?
And why wouldn't the local papers mention that?

I am not an admirer of our Christian churches. But I do read The Bible from time to time. Funny thing. I cannot find a passage in which Jesus speaks of the value of competition. He speaks of cooperation and caring. Not of competition.

Nor does he speak of the glories of making money. Or of the superior powers of the wealthy.

I wonder if our chamber of commerce had a clergyman at its celebrity dinner. I'll bet it did.

As nearly as I can tell, Jesus never speaks of the glory of wealth. In fact, the Christianity of The Bible seems to be a full rejection of modern capitalism, and of most of the behaviours embraced by our political leaders.

I'm still checking to find a section that says we should hate Muslims and kill them -men, women, and children. Hallelujah!

But don't blame Trump for all this. He, like Hillary Clinton and George Bush and Obama, is the corrupt product of a thoroughly corrupting political/economic system. That U.S. has been going down this road almost from the start. And a population steeped in propaganda and historical myth voted for all of them.
These are the last days of Rome. It's not just pride that goeth for a fall. It's also greed.
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The Christian world at work.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/04/22/climate-change-as-genocide/
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Things don't look better for Canada. Trudeau's Liberals are wimps and servants of Trump. The Conservatives, like the U.S. Republicans, should have been stuffed and mounted long ago. And Canada doesn't even have a Bernie Sanders.
We have an NDP and a Green Party. But both have spent too much time sleeping in front of the fireplace.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/canada-chooses-the-wrong-path-contempt-for-peace-de-facto-support-for-terrorism-in-syria/5586652
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And the struggle for peace goes on.

http://www.voltairenet.org/article196052.html

For some reason, I remember  Sunday School hymn,   "God sees the little sparrow fall..." If God likes little sparrown,  He must just love big, nuclear bombs. I mean, if He didn't, our churches would mention it...right?
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What can I say?

http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/1.785405
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This picture reminded me of a terrible truth about modern  war. It became standard practice in World War 2, on both sides, to kill civilians. Jews, or course, became the group for intense and complete slaughter. We've now gone further. We don't really see it from here, but in countries where the U.S.  (and others) have troops, the whole country  becomes one, great death camp.

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/1.785411

April 21: It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Oh, it's an exciting day in the Brunswick News. In the world section, throbbing with excitement, there's a big story on the outbreak of whooping cough at a local school. And on the front page is a story that the FBI in Philadelphia has arrested a bank robber. And sure, enough, there's a picture of a man who looks like a bank robber if ever I saw one.

There is no mention of Yemen or Libya or Syria or North Korea. I mean, why get people all upset?

On the lead story on p. 1 of world news is the shooting of a policeman in Paris. He was shot by a foreigner, of course. And that will anger many people because France has never killed anybody - well, except one of two million or so Vietnamese and Chinese, and Morrocans. But there were all foreigners.

The editorial cartoon is another knee-slapper about how only one person is running for the New Brunswick NDP leadership. (I don't believe the paper has ever run a cartoon about anybody named Irving.)

That cartoon is probably the only coverage the NDP will get. There will be lots of coverage for the Liberals and the Conservatives,  but almost nothing for the NDP or the Greens. (The Brunswick Press doesn't think it's good for New Brunswick to know too much. Too much information just confuses people.)

The only item worth reading in the whole paper is a column by Ammar Al Asmi, one of New Brunswick's refugees from Syria. (He is kind enough - or knowledgable enough about Brunswick News - not to mention that the U.S. is the major cause of the suffering in Syria.)

But, of course, none of us humans ever sees suffering when we are the cause of it. As a grade five student in Montreal, I was taught of the heroism of Dollard des Ormeaux who valiantly set out to intercept hordes of Mohawk native people who were on their way to destroy Montreal.

His force paddled up the Ottawa River, encountering a small band of Mohawk - which they attacked. Then they realized this small band of Mohawk was really the advance party of a large band of Mohawk. All the French were killed, martyrs to save Montreal.

So why didn't the Mohawk go on to destroy Montreal?

Because they weren't going there in the first place.  That whole story was made up years later by a priest/historian, and is widely believed to this day.

The truth is the Mohawk were never headed for Montreal. They were carrying a load of furs from the west to British traders at New York. Dollard des Ormeaux knew that. That's why he intercepted them - to steal their furs.

Luckily, Jean Decarie could not join des Ormeaux and the boys. He had to water the ducks that day.

The news of our time carries lies like the story of Dollard Des Ormeaux every day.
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The big story today is that a policeman in Paris was killed.  Yes. It's a sad story. But we have been killing innocent people by the millions for many years now. Just in the last 50 years, the U.S. has killed millions of innocent South Americans, Vietnamese, Afghanis, Yemenis, Libyans, Iraqis and others. France has been a big killer of innocent people in North Africa. Britain has killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places.How come we don't get indignant news stories about those?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/21/paris-shooting-police-search-property-as-isis-claims-responsibility
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Here's a stor that has been little noticed in Canada - demonstrations, violence, and death in Venezuela.

For over a century, most of South America has been, in effect, under American control. More accurately, it has been under the control of American billionaires who have used that control to get richer by making South Americans poorer.
We may be approaching a breaking point.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/20/venezuela-protests-nicolas-maduro-deaths
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Meanwhile, Texas continues to display the lowest IQs ever achieved by humans.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/21/texas-kelcy-warren-environment-dakota-access-pipeline-ceo
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And here's a reminder we should never confuse indignation with intelligent thought.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/21/overreact-paris-attack-terrorism-just-never-end

Incidentally, what are all the illegal invasions, bombings, starvations and refugees created by  by the U.S? Aren't they terrorism?
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The U.S. no longer even pretends to stand for what it used to call "American values".  Just since World War 2, it has gone to war illegally at least 70 times. So much for the values it says its soldiers fought for. The American government is openly for sale. The helping hand for starving nations was always overstated. Now, it doesn't exist. In fact, The U.S. more commonly makes the starvation worse. The U.N.? That was long since destroyed by the U.S. rejection of any international body for peace and cooperation.

Nor has any of that done the U.S. much good. What he are watching is the breath-gasping of a dying empire and, probably, of a dying nation.

https://theintercept.com/2017/04/20/staff-for-sale/
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The killing of a policeman in Paris made headlines all over the western world. This story didn't even make the back pages.

https://theintercept.com/2017/04/19/u-s-bombed-mosque-syria-killing-dozens-civilians-investigators-conclude/
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We're not getting much information on this. But it has the potential be not only a Venezuelan crisis but, possibly, a latin-American one.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Has-Given-Green-Light-to-Coup-in-Venezuela-Maduro-20170418-0042.html
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I was shocked to learn U.S. police killings for 2017 have already reached almost 1100. So far, that's a doubling of the older rate. If you're in the U.S., don't worry about terrorists. You are far more likely to be killed by police.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/series/counted-us-police-killings

For years, we have been watching the steady decline of the U.S. as a democracy and as a land for the future. It's not just Trump. He is a product, not a cause, of the fall of the U.S. empire. It is being brought down by a corrupting capitalism led by the greediest and least useful of the American people.
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Americans got all excited about the dropping of the Mother Of All Bombs in Afghanistan. 70% approve it. But they have no information about it. So - what really happened?

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/20/whats-worse-trump-dropping-mother-all-bombs-or-70-americans-approve
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I can't guarantee the accuracy of the following story. By it's nature, we shall never know the truth because the perpetrators are most unlikely to tell us the truth - or to tell us anyhing. And, certainly, our news media aren't going to tell us.

https://off-guardian.org/2017/04/21/google-now-threatening-alt-news-sites/
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And for all those dear (if deluded) souls who think our climate isn't changing...

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-crystal-serenity-northwest-passage-cruise/

But don't worry. I'm sure Justin Trudeau has a secret plan he's worked out, and that scientists are too slow to figure out. I mean, If you can't believe a man who chooses suits with taste and has curly hair, who can you believe?
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This is one of the news sources that the Washington Post says is 'fake news'. Well, you'ld think a paper that lies as much as the Washington Post would be an expert on the subject. But I don't see any lying in here. I did, though, see a story the Washington Post never mentioned.

To justify the Iraqi war, both Tony Blair of Britain and George Bush Jr. of the U.S. lied. They announced that had impeccable evidence that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction".  (We'll pass lightly over that as a piece of idiocy. Almost all weapons are weapons of mass destruction. But Blair and Bush had to give the impression these were particularly evil.)

At the end of the war, no weapons to match that were found. In fact, nobody ever even said what a "weapons of mass destruction" was. And nobody in our brainwashed part of the world even asked what a weapon of mass destruction was.

Those two, very evil, men murdered over a million people, mostly civilians, and destroyed a nation. And nobody said boo. I can't help wondering where the hell our massive Christian population and its churches were through all that. (I can't help wondering where it's been for the last 2,000 years.) The leading figures in our world are greedy and murderous. But this doesn't come up in church or in our faith pages. And it seldom has in 2,000 years.

What a pack of hypocrites!
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It's encouraging to see that some Jews, if not many Christians, believe in the principles of their faith.

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.784892
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The U.S. has been attacked only once in its history - by Japan in 1941. But it has found it necessary to attack other countries hundreds of times - usually picking very small countries that cannot possibly attack the U.S.

It has routinely been treacherous to its friends. In 1940, the British had lost the war to Hitler. Churchill, despite his "we will fight them on the beaches" speech, knew the war was lost. Its great friend, the U.S., refused to lift a finger to help Britain. And, at the end of World War Two, it made every attempt to steal the colonies of Britain and France - especially in China, Vietnam, and North Africa. It did steal much of the British power in the Middle East.

This stunningly overarmed and aggressive country now tells the world it feels threatened by Syrria, Libya, Cuba, Guatemala, probably Venezuela - and North Korea which(maybe) has a missile that might reach California - maybe. And the poor, little US has only a few thousand missiles to defend itself - and that can reach all of North Korea with ease.

The U.S. fears attack from a China which has never attacked the U.S.  (but has been attacked by U.S. troops back in the good,  old days.) It fears attack from Russia because Putin is evil - unlike Trump and Bush and Obama who follow the loving ways of Jesus.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is spending billions to track down terrorists in the U.S. who don't seen much to be there - while it allows its police to murder Americans at a record rate.

And them there native savages better watch out the next time they upset another God-fearing oil pipeline. Trump will go right to the brave mercenaries of the U.S. army. And Justin Trudeau will blow him kisses all the way.

This, all of this, is insane. American leadership is insane. The American people, wrapped in an absurd phantasy about their own history and fed a steady stream of lies by their own news media, are acting insanely.

If you think this is sane, please write in and tell me the happy outcome you expect to see from all this. And, if  you're a Christian who thinks this is all very Christian, please write in and share that wisdom.

We aren't dealing with argument here. Or debate. This is all an insanity bred by greed and stupidity, both of which drool richly from the lips of our political and business leaders. In Canada, it's a betrayal of all that thousands of Canadians died to protect.

(Had to let that off. I'll be away for a week or so visiting relatives, and seeking something in this racist, greedy and stupid world to feel good about. Alas! I shall not have access to the Brunswick News to guide me.)
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Oh - could Trump settle his dispute with North Korea easily? He probably could. A peaceful approach with an offer of help for North Korea would probably do it.
(Yes. I know Kim Jun is evil and crazy while Trump is good and Christian. It could still be done peacefully.

But Trump doesn't want a peaceful settlement. He wants North Korea as a base to attack China. (In fairness, I'm not sure Trump wants it. It may be that the Pentagon wants it - and Trump is showing a profound weakness in dealing with power groups like the Pentagon.