Jan. 14:Not a good day.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/13/pictures-world-fire-australia-bushfire-climate-emergency

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/13/ocean-temperatures-hit-record-high-as-rate-of-heating-accelerates

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/13/why-record-ocean-temperatures-matter

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jan/14/safety-first-as-australian-open-qualifying-delayed-due-to-poor-air-quality
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-air-disaster-iran-canada-1.5421028

Oh, give me a break or, since the professor lives in Quebec, donne-moi un break.
Canada has NOT been welcoming to Muslims. In particular, a professor living in Quebec should know that. This is a province that has not been   welcoming. Quite the contrary.
_________________________________________________________________

Here's a nice change - Justin Trudeau telling the truth....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/14/justin-trudeau-us-escalation-partly-to-blame-for-iran-plane-deaths
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/07/yemen-heads-list-of-countries-facing-worst-humanitarian-disasters-in-2020

This report is too kind. It doesn't mention that all of these countries have been pauperized to please western capitalists.
_______________________________________________________________

And here is the first intelligent analysis I have seen of the Iranian shooting down of a passenger plane.

https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-ps752-shootdown-a-human-error-driven-by-paranoid-politics-time-pressure
_________________________________________________________________

Wanna be leader of the Conservative party? Save money, lots of it to be allowed to run. It's not for poor folks.

https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/01/conservatives-make-their-leadership-contest-pay-play
_________________________________________________________________

Is Canada racist? You can bet on it. When I was studying to qualify as a school teacher back in 1956, all my class mates were white. Quebec would not accept Black teachers until about 1960.
And Canada is still racist.

https://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/talking-radical-radio/2020/01/black-post-sec-struggles-and-strategies-black-students
______________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/01/about-150-people-make-it-frigid-wexit-rally-alberta-legislature
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.thenation.com/article/australia-fires-climate-morrison/
________________________________________________________________

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/09/full-scale-war-avoided-trump-goes-right-back-to-warmongering/
________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/air-pollution-could-kill-160000-people-in-the-next-decade-through-strokes-and-heart-attacks
________________________________________________________________

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/14/the-deadly-failures-of-conservative-government-in-australia-in-the-face-of-ferocious-fires/
_______________________________________________________________

For some two thousand years, Christian churches have abandoned the message of Christ, and have joined happily in supporting the murders and abuse inflicted by aristocrats, kings, queens, and democratically elected killers.

Here's a welcome change.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/13/a-call-to-catholics-let-us-end-our-complicity-in-war/
________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/01/14/BC-Child-Poverty-Rates-Stagnant-Some-Solutions/

Can Canada help the children of the poor?  Of course not. To feed the poor, we would have to tax the very rich who need all their money to - you know - do things.
________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/01/13/Conservatives-Harper-Era-Trap/

Are Canadians dumb enough to vote for the Conservatives? Of course, just as they've always been dumb enough to vote for the Liberals.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/world-must-end-us-illegal-economic-war/5700594

The U.S. empire is very much like it's predecessor, the murderous and thieving British Empire.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/west-run-barbarians/5700435
________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52845.htm
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52844.htm
_______________________________________________________________
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/02/opinion/albertas-30-million-bonfire
________________________________________________________________
This is a factor in why the U.S. doesn't have enough money for it's public schools or for those in need of medical care or for the homeless and the barely fed...

https://off-guardian.org/2020/01/14/us-military-spending-trillions-of-dollars-unaccounted-for/
________________________________________________________________

https://off-guardian.org/2020/01/13/world-war-iii/

Far-fetched? No. We're very close.
_________________________________________________________________

https://theantimedia.com/israel-helped-us-assassinate-general-soleimani/

Israel's Jews are as faithful to the teachings of their religion as Christians are to theirs.
_________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/as-tensions-with-iran-escalate-it-is-time-to-challenge-empire-in-the-classroom/

It would be nice to have schools that tell the truth. Alas! The education authorities, and    governments (and us) have always insisted that the schools teach respect for the status quo.
________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/fascism-expert-trump-has-laid-the-groundwork-for-full-on-authoritarian-rule/

Alas, the same is true of most of the Democrats - and it always has been.
________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-us-is-a-rogue-state-and-suleimanis-assassination-confirms-it/

The U.S. has been a rogue state from the start. It's imperialism. mass murder and plundering was always based on the model of the British Empire.
_________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/deadly-super-pollution-events-are-on-the-rise/

And we have done virtually nothing in thirty years of knowing what is happening and what it means to this Earth.
________________________________________________________________

This has been the most discouraging day since I began writing this blog.

Jan. 11: We've Won the War! Now, we've got to win the peace...

I begin today's blog with a long and possibly tedious criticism of the U.S. and its Canadian and British puppets. If it is boring, feel free to skip past this to the more conventional entries.
_________________________________________________________________

Following the news daily is a profoundly depressing experience. A main reason it's so depressing is that our news media don't really report war. No. Almost invariably their view is one of our good guys against bad guys.  And the good guys are always right. The current conflict in Iran is an example of this.

Iran was a nation plundered by the British from 1918 to 1948. Iran was forced to GIVE free of charge all the oil requested by the whole British navy. Iran was crushed into poverty. But, in 1948, Iran elected, quite democratically, it's own leadership, and set it's own terms for selling it's own oil.

So, in 1948, the British and Americans invaded it, killed hundreds of its people, and installed a dictatorship. (The Americans later squeezed out the British and became the big thief. For billionaires, sharing of conquests has never been a factor in war.)

There was not a word of criticism from any of the western news media. The good guys, in their view, had won. And the Shah became the front man for American plunderers.

When the Iranians, some years later, kicked out the Shah, the U.S. began a long series of attacks against it. People were murdered. But none of the western media had a peep of complaint.

More recently, the U.S. has, quite illegally, imposed 'sanctions' on Iran for it's sin of daring to run it's own country. It has also sent warships into Iranian waters. No comment from our news media. In all this, particularly with sanctions, Iranians are on the edge of starvation. But, of course, there was not a whimper from the Trudeaus of this world.

Meanwhile, the U.S. had killed over a million people in an invasion of Iraq  - a quite illegal invasion. A high proportion of the killed (and horribly wounded and orphaned) were children. But our news media didn't give a damn.

There was nothing accidental about the killing of children. This was, and is, quite deliberate policy. Heavy bombing of residential targets, of schools and hospitals had became the standard practice of American war. It was also heavily used against Laos and Cambodia. In Vietnam, they added the delight of poison gas to spread death and starvation without discrimination. The U.S. also assisted in the starvation of babies and young children in Lebanon. Our news media hasn't bothered to tell us how many died. Nor can I recall a Canadian prime minister denouncing this.

With the invasion of Afghanistan, (another illegal one) the U.S. again concentrated on murdering civilians with mass bombing. To this it added mass torture that went beyond even the worst of Hitler's Germany. And it still does. Read much about that in your news?

(In the course of this, Britain and the U.S. have both inflicted torture on their own citizens. As I write this, an American journalist who did nothing illegal is in many years of prison as Britain and the U.S. prefer to keep him in solitary confinement until it kills him. (That's so much nicer than a messy trial for which they have no evidence.)

I must have missed Mr. Trudeau's courageous rebuke of that.

Oh, Canada also sent troops (quite illegally) to help our American friends in Afghanistan. In the course of that they, naturally, handed their prisoners (including a young Canadian) over to the U.S. for torture.

Since then, we have been good Americans on may occasions, with Canadian ships interfering with other countries, with the Canadian air force bombing Libya to make Americans happy - I wonder if they followed the American practice of bombing civilians..... And Canada's army is helping the U.S. to train Syrians to kill each other.

And Canada's prime minister has now condemned Iranians for not being Americans.

As I write this, I think I can hear beer bottles crashing to the floor in the rooms of The Canadian Legion. However, I am not in any way criticizing Canada's military.  They have been terribly abused, but not by me. They have been abused by our government in being offered up as killers (and victims) for the U.S. in  the illegal wars it has been fighting since 1950. And they have been abused by Canadian governments who simply hand them over to kill for America.

The difficulty with The Canadian Legion is that it has unquestioningly supported our selling Canadians to fight American wars. The legion is supposed to support and defend those who serve Canada. In fact though, it routinely simply hands over Canadian service men and women to fight and die for American and Canadian billionaires.

And the trouble with our news media is that they don't tell the truth.

The world's biggest killer since 1945 has been the United States. It has killed something over 20 million people in that time, most of them civilians and children. (Actually, counting starvations, nobody knows how many the U.S. has murdered.) And it's all to please weapons billionaires who make money out of killing. That's why the U.S. has soaring rates of poverty. Those are inflicted by governments which, from the start back in 1776, have abused the poor to enrich the wealthy. That's why education is underfunded, university out of reach for millions - why Americans die because they can't afford medical care.....

And Trudeau gets headlines for saying the 63 Canadians were killed by Iran.  More, far more, Canadians have been killed fighting wars for the U.S.  But Trudeau thinks that killing for the profit of U.S. billionaires is just great.

Hitler was not the creator of horror in the twentieth century. That began in 1900 when the British invaded South Africa (with Canadian help) to steal its gold mines. the British people got nothing out of that.  Most of them lived in the poverty they had always known. It was the very rich who got the gold. That's still true today.

World War One was not a war of evil Germans against Godly French and English. It was a war of capitalists against capitalists to see which side could  push aside the capitalists on the other side.

World War Two was largely a copy of World War One. But World War Two knocked out the capitalists of Europe and handed over to American capitalists the dream that they would now rule all the nations of the world. Thus the almost unbroken string of U.S. wars all over the world. Thus the mass murder of millions of civilians.

Yes, of course we should investigate the causes of death in a war. But we should investigate the causes on both sides. To forget U.S. killings while condemning those of other countries is hypocrisy The U.S. is the world's biggest killer. It's the biggest enemy of the whole world - including the biggest enemy of itself.

One might have expected a Canadian prime minister to recognize that. (Well, no. One might not have expected. Neither Canada nor the U.S. has ever noticed how murderous the U.S. has always been, and how that murderous behaviour, largely by the wealthy. has always been a feature of American life.)

Watch this one. It is very likely Canada will be asked to send troops to fight for the most vicious nation in today's world. And our news media will once again pretend this is good guys against bad guys.

The U.S. bombing fleets, for over 70 years, have been the most murderous in the world - and with a heavy emphasis on the bombing of civilians and children.

But don't wait from any criticism of that from Trudeau.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iran-jetliner-unintentionally-shot-down-1.5423608

Well,  we now have a villain. Note the use of quotation marks in this headline. Iran said it 'unintentionally' shot down the airliner. But that is not what Iran said.
Iran said it shot it down unintentionally. But the use of quotation marks is, quite clearly, to express doubt that Iran is telling the truth. And that is dishonest reporting.

And so we have the desirable good guys, bad guys scenario. Forget that the U.S.  quite illegally murdered an Iranian leader. Forget that the U.S. has been illegally destroying the whole Iranian economy for some time. Forget that the U.S. has illegally murdered well over a million people, most of them   civilians, in neighbouring Iraq. Forget that it has recently destroyed the elected government of Bolivia in a deliberate attack on it's indigenous people. Forget that Trudeau has supported  the U.S. in this as well as in other tragic assaults in Latin America. Forget that Canada was so in favour of U.S. illegal mass murder that it sent troops to help out the U.S. in Afghanistan and Syria.

The message of this 'report' is that the U.S., which daily  kills innocent people every day just with it's drone bombers is good, and Iran is evil. How come our news media rarely report this? How come we have few reports of the dozens of illegal wars fought by the U.S. since 1950?  When the U.S. murdered some 200,000 innocent people of Guatemala, the CBC, like all other North American news media didn't even cover the story. A New Brunswick graveyard near the church of the reigning dictator of New Brunswick holds the body of a Canadian missionary who was murdered by CIA thugs in Guatemala. But even the local news media have never carried that story. And, most certainly, Trudeau has never mentioned it - with or without quotation marks.

Will the U.S. now invade Iran? That would be unwise - but possible. And, if so, it will expect Canada to send troops. And Trudeau will salute, while singing a chorus of God Bless America.

Yes, I still think that CBC is the best news medium in North America. But, oh, it could be much, much better.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ps752-flight-iran-missile-1.5422912
________________________________________________________________

The future of the middle east is a terribly complex matter. Much of that complexity was caused by British and, more recently, American interventions.
But, alas, what was done is done - and there is no easy solution in sight.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/11/why-instinct-and-ideology-tell-trump-to-get-out-of-the-middle-east-suleimani-iran
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/01/america-exists-today-make-war-says-col-lawrence-wilkerson

And this is the openion of a man who can reasonably be called an American right-winger.
________________________________________________________________
https://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/radiolabour/2020/01/striking-back-students

Billionaires in Canada - and other places - demand billions in gifts from the rest of us - and they get them. But for ordinary children? We don't give a damn.
Public schools have always been forced to run on peanuts - even as we hand out grants to private schools for rich kids.

For many, especially the poor, this means ignorance for life. In my grade one class, only one of the students got to complete high school - and it wasn't me.

For the added touch, university education has always been  difficult to attain. After my years of education, I had to pay 15 years of debt for the cost of my education. And it's now much, much worse.

The rise of public educaton for all in the nineteenth century was a tremendous gain for all. But for some years now we've been destroying it.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/australia-fires-climate-morrison/

And Canadians await their turn - soon. And Canada has guaranteed it's own disaster as in every province Canadians voted for the Conservative party that will do nothing and for The Liberals who will, occasionally, talk about doing something but have done nothing for 30  years.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/foundation-defense-democracies-iran/

Yes, in the U.S.(and Canada and Britain and other 'democracies') the wealthy buy politicians.
_________________________________________________________________
https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-u-s-hit-on-general-hands-iran-two-big-long-game-wins
_______________________________________________________________

https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-hong-kong-chaos-has-taiwans-tsai-poised-to-win-saturday-election
________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/10/tens-thousands-join-sack-scomo-protests-against-government-climate-inaction
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/10/usaid-arriving-bolivia-monitor-elections-raising-fears-us-meddling-may-3-vote

Of course, the US is going to meddle on the side of those who illegally overthrew the elected government of Bolivia. And Canada's own Justin Trudeau has, from the beginning, been on the side of those who are destroying Bolivia's large, indigenous populaton. Trudeau has chosen his side. And his side, with the U.S., is the support of Bolivia's racists.
________________________________________________________________

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/10/the-war-in-afghanistan-is-a-fraud-and-now-we-have-
_________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/iraq-why-doesnt-the-us-move-out-despite-the-iraqi-parliaments-decision
________________________________________________________________

The government of India has fallen a long way since the years of Ghandi. It is now thoroughly racist in matters or religion - a change that it is not much noticed by the western news media.

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/jnu-violence-must-be-investigated-by-a-judicial-commission
________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/mega-droughts-engulf-countries

Yes. It's happening.
________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52834.htm

Information clearing house is a little weak this time. It jumped too quickly at the conclusion that Iran was innocent in it's shooting down of a passenger plane in Iran. And Canadian news media went wild in the other direction.

What we know now is that we really don't have a clear picture of that downing of a passenger plane. Iran has said it was a terrible and unplanned blunder. Canadian news media have jumped to a conclusion that this was a deliberate attack on Canada, though with no evidence to support this claim. Nor is it at all clear what Iran would gain from this attack.

Our news media forever blame somebody else for the murder of civilians. In fact, as this article shows, the U.S. has been murdering civilians on a world scale for over a hundred years. And that's exactly what Hitler did. And what the British Empire did. (in fact, it's also what Canadan did to it's indigenous people - and it's what Canada almost did to them just days ago when the RCMP planned to use snipers against them for their opposition to an oil pipeline on their territory.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/02/opinion/albertas-30-million-bonfire
________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/11/news/banks-arent-backing-their-climate-message-rainforest-action-network
______________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/07/news/australias-bushfires-offer-heated-view-longstanding-misinformation-climate-change

In Canada and it's provinces, all the government parties (Liberal and Conservative) have done nothing. Meanwhile, evidence is growing all over the world that we face the ultimate crisis - and have very little time to deal with it. And the reaction of the Canadian people?

As the recent election shows, most of the Canadian people stand around with their faces hanging out.
_________________________________________________________________

https://theantimedia.com/ukraine-airliner-tragedy-evokes-memories-iran-air-flight-655/

Don't remember it? Of course not. Who cares when it's the U.S. that shoots down a civil  airliner?
________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/the-faces-of-extinction-the-species-we-lost-in-2019/
_________________________________________________________________

https://theintercept.com/2020/01/10/joe-biden-super-pac-iowa-tv-ads/
_________________________________________________________________

https://theintercept.com/2020/01/09/donald-trump-iran-suleimani-murder/

Well, this is different. An American president has the right to murder people anywhere in the world. Possibly even Americans. Anyway, the righteous indigantion of our media at the killing, accidentally or not, of Canadians will distract the attention of our news media.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/outraged-trudeau-says-iran-must-take-full-responsibility-after-admitting-it-shot-down-ps752-1.5423764

In fact, Iran HAS taken full reponsibility. And I note that Canadian governments have never been crirical of mass murder by Americans - not in Afghanistan, not in Bolivia, not in Venezuela;  and, in Guatemala, Canadian news media didn't even report the murder of a Canadian missionary by the CIA, a gang of international murderers created by the U.S.

I note , too, that Canada never criticized the illegal murder of an Iranian general by the U.S.

Think hard. What was the last time that Trudeau criticized the U.S. for anything significant?

In the past 60 years, the U.S. has murdered tens of millions of people all over the world. That includes over 70 official wars and also the unofficial ones, as with drone bombings of children, ever day. Before that, Canadians in general praised Britain for it's mass murder of of hundreds of millions - perhaps a world record.

I cannot think of any prime minister in Canadian history who has been critical of the mass murder by our imperial masters. And Canadian news media? Forget it.
_________________________________________________________________

https://theintercept.com/2020/01/09/republican-reporters-want-democrats-stop-saying-qassim-suleimani-assassinated/
________________________________________________________________

https://theintercept.com/2020/01/06/border-iranian-american-iran/

And you can bet that Trudeau didn't - and won't - say a word in defence of those Canadian Iranians.
_________________________________________________________________

https://thesaker.is/trumps-sanctions-threat-reveal-us-plan-all-these-decades-total-colonization-of-iraq/
_________________________________________________________________

A week or so ago, it looked as if a world war was inevitable. It was. And it still is. The U.S. is, in effect, ruled by its billionaires who may be the greediest and most murderous people in history. Canada and Britain are on board with them.

I don't believe it would be possible for anyone to win this war.

I often, these days, remember the posters that mesmerized me on D-Day. "We've won the war. Now we've go to win the peace."

But we didn't win the peace. We never even tried to.
_________________________________________________________________

Jan: 09: Our world clock is at midnight.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/09/iran-plane-crash-terrorism-and-drone-collision-being-explored-ukraine

Just a couple of days ago, the world was on the edge of nuclear war created by the U.S. Then came the Iranian attack on an American airbase in Iraq. Amazingly, Donald Trump, who had been beating the drums for a war with Iran, had no initial response to the attack. He was all gentleness. Why?

Almost certainly, it was because there was enormous pressure, even from the Pentagon, not to start a war with Iran. NATO was very vocal on the issue. And, almost certainly, Russia and China warned Trump that they would respond. In particular, this sudden and dramatic change of Trump's thinking seems to reflect the quiet skills of  Putin who is one of the cleverest leaders in the game.

Then came the news of the destruction of a civilian airliner with many passengers who were Iranians now residents of Canada. That has led a militant Trudeau to demand an investigation. That, of course, might happen. But before us Canadians get all indignant, we might - (we should but won't) - remember that a great many Canadians have never been enthusiastic about middle east immigrants. We might also remember that most Canadians have never even heard (or cared) about the millions of innocent people all over the world killed by Americans - sometimes with Canadian help as in Afghanistan, Libya, and Iraq.

If the shooting down of that passenger plane was a deliberate act then, of course, we should be concerned. But we should also be concerned that the U.S. and Britain have happily killed millions of civilians all over the world, sometimes with Canadian help. The U.S. has also been using drones to kill civilians all over the world on a daily basis.

This world is in terrible danger of mass destruction - soon And Canada has contributed to that. Let's hope the Canadian news media understand that.
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/09/donald-trump-rant-iran-dying-empire-nato
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/jan/09/its-unimaginable-the-australian-bushfires

Offhand, I cannot recall that the world has never seen the destruction the destruction caused by Australia's fires. This is what thousands of scientists have warned us about. And this is what will destroy us and our planet.

And the oil industry tell us it isn't happening - even after the Texas oil industry is demanding billions of dollars from the government to protect it from climate change. The prime minister of Australia refuses, even as he breathes in the smoke, to believe that climate change is happening. So does every provincial premier in Canada. In the U.S., the Republicans and, probably, a majority of the Democrats insist it's not happening - even as they vote lavish grants to oil companies to protect them from climate change.
_________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/01/alberta-government-criticizes-un-discrimination-report
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david-suzuki/2020/01/2020-vision-climate-action

We are getting very close to the deadline for taking any useful action. The Conservatives will not, under any conditions, take action to meet that deadline.
Nor will the Liberals. Without a radical wakening of the Canadian people, we will not make that deadline.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/haiti-earthquake-corruption-protests/

Haiti had an elected an honest government. But American capitalists don't much like governments that are elected and honest. So they overthrew it, and imposed a corrupt,  dictatorial and dishonest one. Then they looked around for a wimpy nation that would assign troops there who would keep things corrupt, dictatorial and dishonest. They would be called "peacekeepers". The country with the obvious wimpiness was Canada.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/sanctions-iraq-economic-warfare/

The U.S. uses economic sanctions to force countries to obey American wishes.
Cubans want to run their own country. So the U.S. gets all its puppet countries, like Canada, to obey trade sanctions against Cuba. It has done the same to Iran, to Venezuela, to Guatemala.

This isn't legal. It's really an act of war. And like other acts of war, it starves millions - and yes - even to death. No country has any right to attack other countries in this way.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/gabriel-zucman-triumph-of-injustice-interview/

Canada, the U.S., Britain - and others - spend so much of the nation's money to stuff the pockets of the super rich that we are failing our own children in education, for example, to give money to the super rich who don't pay income taxes. (Around the world, estimates are that the super rich now have, hidden away, at least 71 TRILLION dollars. This is insane.

When a Trump talks about incomes rising under him, he's right. But the incomes that are rising are those of the super rich. For the rest, the only rise has been in homelesness. Has this ever happened before?  Oh, yes. It was true in most of the empires of the past. These days, Americans die for their inability to afford medical care. The children of the poor in the U.S. and Canada and Britain
have very little chance of higher education.

Why do we accept this?
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/09/fresh-calls-raisethewage-after-study-shows-1-increase-could-prevent-thousands

Well,  yes, it could. But the business world can't possibly allow a $1 increase in wages. I mean, they need ever cent they can get to maintain their multi-trillion dollar lives.

We have made very little progress since the Egyptians used slaves.
_________________________________________________________________

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/09/assassination-and-international-law/
_________________________________________________________________

School history books are commonly full of lies. In the U.S., a sample of this lying is about how Americans rebelled because they wished to be free. In fact, the American revolution had nothing to do with freedom. (And, in the U.S., this false history extends even to university courses.)

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/the-origins-of-the-united-states-of-america-the-joker-and-the-end-of-white-supremacy
________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52826.htm
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/09/news/ontario-ndp-calls-investigation-ford-governments-wind-farm-cancellation
_________________________________________________________________
https://truthout.org/articles/after-68-days-hunger-strikers-in-ice-custody-are-on-the-brink-of-death/
________________________________________________________________

https://theintercept.com/2020/01/08/imperial-oil-climate-change-exxon/
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/champagne-iran-plane-crash-1.5420398

Brilliant, kid.

Now think hard. Does the evidence show that the U.S. murdered a leading Iranian. And isn't that what's called murder? Does the evidence show that the U.S. murdered at least 200,000 innocent people in Guatemala? (And how come no Canadian government has ever questioned that or even told us about it?)
And isn't it true that Canada killed Afghans to please the U.S. in an illegal war?
And how about Canada's bombing of Libya to please the U.S.? And the 500 Canadians now in Syria to train the locals there to kill other Syrians?

It's quite possible an Iranian missile hit that plane. But shouldn't you wait until study is complete on exactly what happened? Oh, of course. You know it must be true because an American source said it might be.

Tell you what, Trudeau. I'll send a note to Trump telling him to drop his pants and bend over so you can kiss him better.
________________________________________________________________

The dozen or so years I've been writing this blog,   this is my worst day. The U.S. is as murderous as it can possibly be. It is ruled, not by elections, but governments back by billionaires who are some of the most evil and greedy people in world history. This is a nation that won't help it's own people , leaving them to the filth and hunger of the street, and depriving them of even basic health care.

Today, it was worsened by a CBC photo of Justin Trudeau  who looks the miserable wretch he is, knowing he is the puppet of the U.S. (The Conservatives are worse. They enjoy being puppets. And they just love making Canada an even bigger victim of the greed of a small number of hateful and murderous American billionaires --- And with some Canadian billionaires happily donning Nazi black.)

The U.S., no exaggeration, is now the child of Hitler's Germany, starving people all over the world and preparing it's own people, as well as the rest of us, for the destruction of organized society.

Sadly, I still think of the day I was sent home from school for being late - and ended up in the D-Day crowds of downtown Montreal, and thrilling at the signs that said, We've won the war. Now we've got to win the peace."

But it didn't happen. And today, the biggest threats to Canada, by far, are the United States and the Canadian billionaires who would happily   join American ones in plundering this country.

And that may happen much, much sooner than anyone suspects.

No. I'm not exaggerating. And we may have less time, much less, to get real.

Jan. 7: for today, a very unfinished blog....

I am adding this note as I have almost finished today's blog.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2020/jan/07/trump-news-today-live-impeachment-articles-iran-latest-updates-democrats

_______________________________________________________________
There's a great deal of confusion about what is happening in Iran. Crowds in Baghdad are so great that over 50 people have died in the crush. It is so great that the funeral of Iran's military leader has been postponed. There is great unrest in Iraq which has had quite enough of the American presence.

Watch for retaliation against the U.S. (Incidentally, note that the U.S. press invariably refers to nations that have had enough of U.S. interference and the U.S. presence are referred to as 'terrorists'. Americans, who have done most of the killing in the middle east, who have made special targets out of civilians and children, are never referred to as terrorists.)

Even the British government, America's greatest lap-dog, while it supports the U.S. is looking nervous.

Canadians should be nervous, too. For no good reason, Canada has 500 soldiers serving in Iraq as trainers. (Canadians, too, are lap dogs for U.S. aggressions.) And that sets Canada up as an American stooge.)

The Middle East has had enough of U.S. interference and plundering. For much of the region, China and Russia are more attractive trade partners.

The American murder of Iran's most loved military leader (who has far more right to be in the region than the U.S. has) could well trigger World War three.
And Canada will wimp right into it.
_________________________________________________________________
This would be funny if it weren't so tragic.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4406997/u-s-big-oil-storm-protection-climate-change/

These are, of course, the companies that have insisted climate change is not happening. They are also among the richest companies in the world. So why should taxpayers (which the oil billionaires aren't) have to  pay them - so they can do even more damage to all of us?

In the same way, the billionaires of Canada's oil  fields expect Canadians to put up the many billions of dollars to build them a pipeline and, someday soon, to pay for cleaning up the environmental mess that is Alberta.

Expect nothing useful on this from either Canada's Conservatives or Liberals.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iran-general-airstrike-death-funeral-1.5415115

Donald Trump, the man evangelical Christians have chosen as the man sent by God. Yep. No more of that wimpy Jesus. They have a real man in a Trump who has a great wig, a man who hired a media prostitute for a huge sum to play with him while he was married to his third wife. And they actually touch him to feel the magic of his divinity.

And there's none of this wimpy stuff about this Jesus serving the poor. No. He serves the super rich - including himself - by not paying taxes. And by taxing the poor to give monster weapons contracts to the very rich.

It is quite possible that the evangelical vote  will bring Trump back for a second term. Praise the Lord!
_________________________________________________________________

By   coincidence (not) the countries suffering below are the victims of leading Christian nations. In the long run, they are causing more horror than Hitler did. Of course, Hitler was a Christian, too.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/07/yemen-heads-list-of-countries-facing-worst-humanitarian-disasters-in-2020

In general, the traditional Christian churches are in decline - which may have something to do with their failure for the last 2,000 years to have a Christian message.  Alas! As they fail, their place in being taken by the even less Christian Evangelicals.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/jan/07/freedom-without-constraints-how-the-us-squandered-its-cold-war-victory

I'm not at all sure that U.S. was ever a believer in freedom and concern for others. In fact, it has been at war for centuries - against it's indigenous people, against Latin America, and now against  the middle east and a good deal of Europe.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/07/americans-healthcare-medical-costs

Caring about people all over the world? American governments don't even give a damn about the American people.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/07/republicans-climate-crisis-wars-spending

Much the same could be said for Canada's Liberals and Conservatives. Canada has billions to hand out to billionaires. But there's nowhere near enough for public education, access to universities; even health care (which was created by the old CCF party, not by Liberals or Conservatives) is being short changed.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/07/australia-fires-warning

Yes. we are killing our own children.
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/07/australian-bushfire-smoke-drifts-to-south-america-un-reports
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/08/twitter-bots-trolls-australian-bushfires-social-media-disinformation-campaign-false-claims

Wow! Just like Alberta.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/un-racism-committee-trans-mountain-site-c-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-1.5417343

In what must be the lowest point in Canadian savagery since the killing of metis and indigenous peoples the west, RCMP were prepared to use snipers to kill indigenous people who were protesting the building of an oil pipeline across their land - as they have every right to to.

Some years ago, I was at a similar event in New Brunswick. As I stood with the front of the demonstrators, I could see the line of RCMP snipers just a hundred metres ahead of us.  And, yes, they were there to protect the 'rights' of oil billionaires.
_________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/01/get-used-it-alberta-world-learning-how-talk-about-climate
_________________________________________________________________

India has not recently attracted the attention of most of our news media. But it, in recent years, has become an echo of Donald Trump's U.S.

https://www.thenation.com/article/arundhati-roy-assam-modi/
________________________________________________________________

https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-u-s-hit-on-general-hands-iran-two-big-long-game-wins

Dyer is usually right. I hope he is this time.
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/07/more-one-billion-animals-killed-australia-wildfires-called-very-conservative
________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/06/because-insects-are-key-our-own-survival-73-scientists-unveil-global-roadmap-battle

Bad news for  Irving, the billionaire who owns New Brunswick. He's one of this world's leading poison sprayers for his forestry business. When the province's chief medical officer pointed out the huge danger of this, Irving told the provincial government to fire her. And, as always, it did as it was told. New Brunswick news papers largely ignored the story. Of course. Irving owned all the papers.
________________________________________________________________

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/06/the-economic-risks-of-trumps-reckless-assassination/
_________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/on-the-brink-of-war
________________________________________________________________
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/07/the-politics-of-australias-bushfires/

________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/01/07/Trans-Mountain-deal-bleeds-billions/

Canada has lots of money for billionaires of all stripes. Of course, that means Canada has much less money for education, for health care.......
_________________________________________________________________
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2019/01/10/Unistoten-Movement-Law-Its-Side/

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/01/17/Indigenous-Rights-Canada-Militarized-Police/

The RCMP was prepared to murder people.  But the lawbreakers were the RCMP officers. That's one hell of a dangerous development. So how come our news media have not taken the trouble to find out exactly who was behind all this?
________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/uk-nuclear-sub-position-strike-iran-amid-tensions-soleimani-killing/5699815

The American empire is, essentially, an outgrowth of the old British Empire. It made the final blend with Britain as it used the decline of the British Empire to take over the horror the British had created, especially in the middle east. (The U.S. lost out in trying to replace Britain as the plunderer of China).
________________________________________________________________

And Canada, too, is a U.S. lapdog.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/canadian-diplomatic-complicity-assassination-qasem-soleimani/5699741

Canada is making a big mistake by leaving it's 'military trainers' in Iraq. And there's a real danger that Canada will take a role, if a wimpy one, in Iran.

Funny that our news media have been silent on this.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.asia-pacificresearch.com/devastating-facts-australian-bushfires/5628992

This is also our future in North America. And don't count on your friendly local oil billionaires to help you out.
_______________________________________________________________

The U.S. always talks a virtuous game when it explains it's role in the middle east and the surrounding regions. The reality is that all of its intrusions in that region have been illegal. There was no legal reason to attack Afghanistan. It did not, in any way, endanger the U.S. The same was true of Iraq. It was also true of the American/British destruction of Iran's new democracy back in the 1940s when it helped put the Shah back in power. It has supported the Israeli destruction of Palestine every step of the way (even on that terrible day when Israeli aircraft carried out hours of attacks on an American communications ship, killing large number of the crew by bombs and machine guns.)

The country it most favours, besides a murderous and thieving Israel, is Saudi Arabia, one of the most undemocratic and murderous countries in the world. And it is Canada's only neighbour. That does not make me feel more secure. Only three countries have ever invaded Canada -    France, Britain, - and  the U.S. (several times).

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52812.htm

From the start, the U.S. was a murderer and plunderer on a grand scale. Just like it's British ancestors.
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52801.htm
_________________________________________________________________

I have often felt that Paul Craig Roberts goes too far in his statements. But this one has a lot of truth to it.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52808.htm
________________________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52796.htm
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/
________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/07/analysis/co2-jet-fuel-soaring-4-times-faster-what-can-save-day
________________________________________________________________

Even as I write this, more reports are coming in at a steady pace. So far, both Russia and China have been remarkably quiet and low-key about the whole thing. That's not fear. It's more likely an intelligent view of what could be a collapse of American power or, worse,  a desperate, final display of it.

The U.S. is, today, perhaps the most vicious and brutal empire in world history which has now taken us to the edge of earth's final war. But I see no signs of this dawning in the behaviour of Republicans - or a majority of Democrats.

As for the Christian churches, in their 2,000 years of existence, they have always placed their allegiance not to Christ but to their earthly masters. The ultimate expression of this is, perhaps, the evangelicals who see God and Jesus as Americans and, almost certainly, the guardians of oil and weapons billionaires with Donald Trump as their (more of less) human representative.

This is the most dangerous time the earth has ever seen. And who will give us the leadership to survive this? Certainly, it won't be the U.S. or Britain or Canada.
Probably the outstanding leader in today's world is, remarkably, Putin of Russia.
(Oh, I know Russians are evil. But Putin has been a very effective leader now for many, many years. And he doesn't use bluster or threats.)

Jan. 4: On the edge of the greatest war......

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/04/australias-bushfires-politics-has-to-change-forever-when-your-own-citizens-cannot-sleep-or-breathe

Who, now, can possibly doubt that all the warnings about climate change?

Who? Well, oil companies, for a start, and Canada's Liberals and Conservatives who are servants of the oil companies. The same is true of U.S. Republicans and a majority of Democrats. And Canadian and American voters just sit around with their faces hanging out.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/03/trump-florida-evangelical-rally-king-jesus

What are evangelical Christians? I've had some experience with them over the years. These are, nominally, Christians. But they're grasp of faith is limited to self-interest, and with no recognition of the teaching of Jesus.

Essentially, there only interest is getting themselves into heaven, an ambition which has solidified itself that all others won't make it. In national terms, as in the U.S., evangelicals see themselves as God's chosen people. And so Billy Graham, a popular evangelical preacher, became intimate with national leaders in the U.S. even as they were plundering and murdering millions all over the world.
And so they have identified themselves with the greed of capitalism, with the indifference of the wealthy to the needs of most Americans, with the century-old slaughter of Latin Americans - including the mass murder of real Christians in Guatemala.

Their obsession is entirely with themselves. Jesus healed. The U.S. doesn't. Jesus attacked the money lenders. The U.S. doesn't.  Evangelicals, far from caring about others, are obsessed with their own 'virtue', and their only interest is in getting themselves into heaven.

And these self-worshipping evangelicals are a very large and very dangerous part of the American population. They are the ones who voted for Trump and who see Trump as being the chosen one of God.

Evangelical Christians are profoundly anti-Christ. In this, they resemble a similar movement - Hitler's Nazi party of the 1930s and 40s. (Yes. Most of Germany's Nazis saw themselves as Christians, and saw Hitler as the messenger of the Christian God. Actually, Hitler, too, saw it that way.)
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/04/tears-mix-with-vows-of-vengeance-at-suleimani-funeral-march-baghdad

Yep. Murder them all. That's what Jesus would have done.

Surprisingly, The Guardian does not examine possible China and  Russia reactions to this.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/04/suleimani-assassination-fears-grow-bloody-reprisal-funeral-baghdad-tehran
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2019/dec/24/violent-clashes-in-hong-kong-on-christmas-eve-video

It's easy for us to get all moral about this. I mean those awful Chinese who are putting Muslim Chinese into "reform" camps. Let's get real, shall we?

Who do you think murdered and plundered Chinese in the millions. That was God's chosen killer - Britain.

Who was it that slaughtered millions of indigenous people in the U.S. - with a special emphasis on women and children? Oh, yeah. That would be the U.S. In fact, this slaughter was far, far worse than China's use of  camps to 'reform' Muslims.

And what country slaughtered and  beggared Muslims in the Middle East until World War Two? Oh, yes, that would be Britain. And who kicked out the British to take over the killing and plundering? That would be God bless America.

Of course, that's not the way our news media report it. No. All those Muslims are evil, and have to be killed.

Is China wrong  in it's treatment Muslim Chinese? Yes. Of course it is. But we of the west are scarcely the ones to point fingers.n
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/03/we-are-seeing-the-very-worst-of-our-scientific-predictions-come-to-pass-in-these-bushfires
________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/congress-iran-trump-war/
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/03/groundbreaking-study-finds-fingerprint-human-caused-climate-change-global-daily

Take a look at who Canadians have recently elected. What a gang of corrupt and/or stupid hacks!
________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/is-the-us-a-civilized-nation

Are there civilized nations? The British Empire at it's height was as savage and murderous as any empire in history. The same has been true of the American empire.
________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/attacks-on-iran-past-and-present
________________________________________________________________
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/01/01/Alberta-Jason-Kenney-Candian-Energy-Centre/
Conservative prostitution.
_________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/01/02/Maintain-Your-Rage/
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-davos-blind-eye-how-the-rich-eat-the-poor-and-the-world/5503273
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/canada-israel-un-security-council/5699389

Gee! I'm so proud to be a Canadian.

Sometimes.

But not often.
____________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52799.htm
______________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52800.htm
______________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/12/18/news/climate-crisis-looms-large-canadas-top-weather-stories-2019
_______________________________________________________________

https://themindunleashed.com/2020/01/australia-fires-create-apocalyptic-smoke-plumes-wider-than-europe.html
________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/members-of-congress-own-up-to-93-million-in-fossil-fuel-stocks/

Government OF the people, By the corrupt, FOR for the super rich.
________________________________________________________________

https://theintercept.com/2020/01/01/banality-apocalypse-australian-fire/

Don't be jealous. Wherever you live on this planet, you too will soon be enjoying fires.
________________________________________________________________

Strangely, western news media have had little to say about Chinese treatment of Muslims in China.  But that might be because western treatment of Muslims has been even worse.

https://theintercept.com/2019/12/29/why-dont-we-care-about-chinas-uighur-muslims/
_________________________________________________________________

This is a late item that just came to me.

https://berniepost.com/2020/01/sanders-to-introduce-legislation-blocking-iran-war-funding/?fbclid=IwAR2GYtF910D5OpSkCBJ2Pe7gIpdOq4R8e7gnkCwh4WuhyWNAgxRZQSZceZ8

Bernie Sanders is probably the first presidential candidate in American history who actually wants to serve the American people.
_________________________________________________________________

Jan. 2: It could be a very ugly year. Correction. It will be...

https://www.sciencealert.com/stanford-researchers-have-a-plan-to-tackle-the-climate-emergency?
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/02/australia-bushfires-tens-of-thousands-stranded-while-attempting-to-flee

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/02/australian-bushfire-crisis-global-figures-and-media-react-to-climate-emergency

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/02/a-warm-welcome-the-wildlife-visitors-warning-of-climate-disaster-aoe

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/australia-burns-fireworks-bush-fires-and-denial

Not to worry. Premier Ford of Ontario and Premier Cheney of Alberta say it's not happening. And they're real smart.

And this is the future, the real future, the near future for all of us unless we act very, very quickly.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/01/refugee-crisis-europe-mediterranean-racism-incarceration
_________________________________________________________________

President Bolsonaro of Brazil is one of the few national leaders that the U.S. approves of.  Here's why.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/02/bolsonaro-brazil-government-oddball-officials
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/02/israel-supreme-court-dismisses-premature-netanyahu-petition-indicted

The rulers of Saudi Arabia and Israel are best friends in the Middle East of American capitalism. And that tells you all you need to know about the morality of American capitalism.
______________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/britain-zero-carbon-energy-source-fossil-fuels-1.5412150

So why don't Canada and the U.S. do this?

Because it would destroy the profits of oil billionaires.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/02/netanyahu-knows-hes-guilty-israeli-prime-minister-asks-parliament-immunity
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/02/entire-species-are-being-wiped-out-ecologists-say-half-billion-animals-may-have-been

And, yes, this will happen to us, too. All of us.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/02/sanders-announces-staggering-345-million-fourth-quarter-haul-average-donation-just

This is unheard of in American (and Canadian) politics where, always in the past, politicians have won on enormous pay-offs from billionaires. The U.S. is approaching a radical upheaval in it's history of corruption. An ordinary person who is intensely disliked by billionaires is raising big money with small donations from millions of ordinary people. It's an amazing accomplishment never before seen in American politics.
_________________________________________________________________
https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/warming-ocean-currents-affect-weather-and-environment
_________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/01/01/Alberta-Jason-Kenney-Candian-Energy-Centre/
________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/canada-israel-un-security-council/5699389
________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52781.htm
-
We, in the western part of the world, have very little (if any) sense of our murderous history since 1492. We have mass murdered and plundered all over the world. In this, we were driven by the demands of that form of greed called capitalism. The master nation, and the most murderous one, through most of those years. was Britain.

The U.S. had it's apprenticeship of murder and greed, eventually becoming as evil and as contemptuous of it's own lower class people as Britain had been.Americans were told they fought the American revolution to establish democracy.  Like hell they did. George Washington was, probably, the biggest landowner in the early U.S. He led the fight against British control because Britain would not allow him to conquer and occupy what is now the American west.

Of course, that's not the story as told by American schools. So it is that Americans graduate from schools - and even from universities - with delusions they have been taught as history. (The same sort of 'patriotic' nonsense is pounded in Canadian heads in   their schools. For a sample, take a look at Canadian military history texts. Find much criticism of Canada's wars in South Africa? Afghanistan? Syria? of our 'peacekeepers' in Haiti, of our participation in the Korean war, of our blind support of British wars, and now of American wars?)

Of course, the U.S. and Britain - like their fellow murderers and thieves of the French and Belgian and Dutch and Italian Empires, were just as bad. And, as was the case with Britain, they all referred to God and Christ as their models.

Interestingly, most of those countries that murdered and plundered taught their people that they were doing God's work - as in God Bless America, Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition, Rule, Britannia, Britannia Rule the Waves for Briton's Never, Never, Never Shall be Slaves. (In fact, of course, nobody even tried to make Briton's slaves. It was, rather, Britons who murdered hundreds of millions and enslaved the survivors.)

Ever wonder why the U.S. entered World War Two - taking it's own sweet time to do it? Do you think it was done to help Britain?  Or because Hitler was evil?
Forget it. The U.S. and Britain both had more brutal records than Hitler did. And, anyway, American and British capitalists had long supported Hitler. He was seen as the wall against the 'communism' of Russia's Stalin.

No. The U.S. wanted a war with Japan. It didn't expect the attack on Pearl Harbour. But it clearly wanted a war with Japan. The British empire in China, a horribly brutal one, had collapsed. It had been a major source of British wealth and power.  And the U.S. wanted to get control of that to join China to the American empire of Latin America and The Philippines.

Then, it suddenly - and late - decided to join the war in Europe, too.  To help Britain? No. American capitalists wanted to take over the British Empire in places like the middle east. And that is why the U.S. today is the murderer and plunderer of so much of the middle east.

(Oh, yeah. According to our news media, they did that because Muslims are evil. I guess some are. One can get pretty evil when being attacked and murdered by American troops who are there to plunder. To make it worse, the U.S., since 1944, specialized the murder of civilians and children. Such targeting is, in.fact, illegal. Indeed, theNuremberg Trials which sent Nazi leaders to the gallows were based on international law that found them guilty of the deliberate murder of civilians and children. So check out the death figures for American wars like Iraq, Vietnam, Korea - all have been war crimes based on the deliberate use of  bombing, starvation, poison gas, mines on civilians and children.)
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52783.htm
_______________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52778.htm
________________________________________________________________

Take this next one VERY seriously. What is happening  in Canada and the U.S. is the decline of what were our major Christian churches, and the rapid rise of what are called Evangelical Christians.

These are people dominated by a belief that they are God's chosen people. They are therefore, superior to all others, including all other Christians. They thrive on spectacular preachers - (not intelligent, not so far as I know, particularly Christian.)  Their obsession, as I have seen it, is that they are the chosen of God..

The rest of us are not to be taken seriously and, most certainly, not ever going to enter Heaven. It is, therefore, perfectly correct for them to murder those of other religions - including those who take the teaching of Jesus rather more seriously than they do.

In the U.S., of course, they are far the most significant group in political life. And that's is why it is still possible for Donald Trump to win an election. It also make it possible for a defeat of Trump to trigger extreme violence in American society.

I don't know how powerful they are in Canadian politics. My guess, only a guess, is that they are more prominent among Conservatives.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52782.htm
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/inside-the-us-military-raid-against-its-own-security-guards-that-left-dozens-of-afghan-children-dead/ar-BBYrLD4
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/12/31/news/7-numbers-show-how-dire-climate-change-got-decade
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/investigates/canadian-law-can-t-punish-some-peacekeepers-for-sex-misconduct-abroad-and-the-un-isn-t-happy-about-it-1.5273216

When the U.S. overthrew the elected government of Haiti to install a dictatorship, Canada was among the nations to provide 'peacekeepers'. And those Canadians became part of a dreadful story of sexual abuse of women and girls as young as eleven. Canadians and other 'peacekeepers' left behind hundreds of pregnant women and young girls - most of whom exchanged sex for a meal.

This was a brutal and unnecessary operation enforced the U.S. in it's standard, Nazi, treatment of Latin America. Most Canadian news media never even reported this violation. And the Canadian government, of course, did nothing.
_________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/against-lunch-shaming-provide-universal-free-school-meals-to-all-students/

This is also true for Canada.

I remember, as a child, going to school with minimal lunches, and often none. My parents weren't cruel. There simply wasn't any money. And I saw it all over again in my teaching days.

We throw billions of dollars at oil billionaires so they can get oil pipelines that they should pay for (and  that shouldn't be permitted in the first place.) And to hell with the children.
_________________________________________________________________


Alas! There's nothing new about this. We humans have always produced a small number of people of greed and arrogance  who rule whole societies for their own benefit. They, historically, have been called emperors, kings, surrounded by their own thugs whom they call dukes; earls - and so on. That's been the history of humanity for several thousand years.

They murder and plunder while the rest of their people do the dirty work for little or no reward.  That's what the British Empire was all about. That's what the American empire is all about today.Until a century ago, the children of the rich and powerful went elite private schools while the children of the rest of us went to work in factories at age 5 or 6. The U.S. (and Canada) are  moving in that direction again as we subsidize private schools for the children of the rich while cutting budgets for the public schools.

And, as the very rich now hold trillions of dollars - on which  they pay no taxes - we hammer the rest. And no gifts of taxes or subsidies for the rest of us. Hey! After we hand over our taxes to give non-tax paying oil barons many billions of dollars  in, say, oil pipelines, there's no money left to feed the hungry or house the homeless.

As we enter 2020, we have not advanced at all in thousands of years. Indeed, we have become worse. We could, after 1945, have created a world of sharing and mutual aid. But the super rich would not allow that. For them, the only purpose of nations for them was to serve them in enslaving smaller and weaker countries.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The news today has been pretty slow, and with many sites still, it seems, on holiday.

The U.S. could be in for difficult times - and dangerous ones. The evangelicals who support Trump are not an intelligent lot. I have known too many of them for too long to think otherwise. They are panting for the great war that will raise them, but nobody else into heaven where they and only they will stand on clouds to praise the Lord forever and ever. They are crashingly self-righteous, and would be quite willing to turn their hatred into a violence against Americans who don't share their religious views.

It is also likely that their American allies - the super-rich - will buy the coming elections with a spending greater than any in the whole, corrupt history of American 'democracy'. And all that money will be directed to  Donald Trump and the equally corrupt Joe Biden.

The U.S. is divided as never before. Watch for a level of violence as never before.

And, if climate change continues (as it certainly will) watch for an American push to annex Canada for it's increasingly livable land spaces and for it's increasingly available Arctic resources.

When will we wake up?
_____________________________________________________________




_

Dec. 31. We have to change - soon - because our eonomic masters won't - not ever.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/29/moscow-resorts-to-fake-snow-in-warmest-december-since-1886

Don't worry.   Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario himself, says there is no such thing as climate change. And he  knows, you know, things.

Thirty years ago, we were warned about climate change. We have since been warned we have only ten years or so - until 2030 to take action.

And since then, we have done worse than nothing. We have actually lost ground. Canada has been particularly disgraceful as neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives have lifted a finger. Quite the contrary. The federal liberals have actually promised to build a pipeline for Alberta oil. (What kind of scam is this? Since when do taxpayers have to pay big money to provide facilities for corporations. Aren't corporations supposed to build their own facilities?)

Worse, the Liberals plan to build it over indigenous land - which is not ours to give away. And they have indicated a willingness to kill to make the oil barons happy.

At the present (backward) pace, I can see no possibility of our reaching the 2030 deadline.

And the response of most Canadians? Check the last federal election. Canada is a nation of wimps - as is most of the U.S.  Canadians are also, thanks to their propaganda news media, ignorant of what is happening.

You think we will get our act together in the next ten years? I see not the slightest sign of it. Our governments and the majority of our voters have, in thirty years, only made things worse. And, if we are going to wake up in the next ten years, there is so far no sign of it  among the Liberals or the Conservatives.

( l live in a province that was dumb enough to elect a Doug Ford as premier - and that's the sort of ignorance that has characterized our recent federal election.)
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2019/dec/30/australia-victoria-bushfires-evacuated-east-gippsland-fires-news-live-latest-updates

And so the prime minister of Australia yawned, and cut his Hawaii holiday short.

Since 1945, western Europe led by the U.S., has created a hell on earth with endless wars - and all of them fought to benefit the west's leading capitalists in what has been an orgy of mass murder and plunder. Now, the end of the planet is getting close. And our billionaires don't care because there is no end to their greed and to their control of what used to be (at least sort of) our western democracies.

If you (or our veterans' organizations) have any sense at all of what our soldiers, sailors and airmen fought for in World War Two, it was surely not for a world driven to a terminal collapse by mass murder and unending greed.

The time is short. Indeed, it may already be too late. Already, all over the world, we are watching the collapse of agriculture and a resulting hundreds of millions fleeing the horror of destruction and hunger and poverty that we have created. And while we stuff them into horror camps or just push them back out to drown at sea, we spend money we could usefully spend on help and food - and give it out, with much corruption, to our industries that manufacture weapons for the final war that nobody will win.

This is why we fought Hitler? This is why Hitler was evil and we were good? No. This is an insanity of power, greed, and slaughter that the world has never before seen. And there is not the slightest chance that any of us can survive it. If  climate change does not kill us, it will be because our own weapons and the mindless greed of capitalism had already done it.

Why don't our news media tell us this obvious truth? That's because most of our news comes from media owned the most brutal and greedy people this world has ever known.

And we have very little time to wake up.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-child-welfare-1.5367654

Tough luck for millions of children. but we need all the money we have to make weapons manufacturers rich so our billionaires can kill and starve more children. And we need that money to build wire cages on the Mexican border where starving children can be separated from their parents. We need that money to bomb schools in Yemen, and to steal oil from Syria, and to murder more civilians in Afghanistan- oh, and to build an oil pipeline from Alberta costing tens of billions of dollars to make billionaires happy.

How can we be so ignorant as to not realize how evil we are?  (Okay. We aren't evil. We're just submissive wimps.--- No. We aren't. We're evil.)
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/climate-change-failure-1.5400663

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2019/dec/31/australia-fires-live-news-nsw-victoria-bushfires-latest-updates

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/31/what-we-know-so-far-about-the-australian-bushfires-crisis-on-new-years-eve

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/31/australia-bushfires-towns-devastated-and-lives-lost-as-blazes-turn-the-sky-red

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/31/the-bushfires-are-a-national-catastrophe-for-the-city-and-country-how-are-we-going-to-live-like-this

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/30/australian-bushfires-coming-near-you/

Yes. It's happening.  Yes. It's real. Yes. It's going to happen to all of us.

In 1945, we had the chance to create a world of opportunity for all. But instead we allowed  the politics of economic greed and empire to continue as they had for thousands of years. Britain and America, in particular - but along with others - have allowed a hidden upper class to rule
Capitalism has not worked. It never has. And it's not going to work. But still we vote for the failed policies of the Liberals and Conservatives, the Republicans and large numbers of Democrats. These are the policies that worked for the super wealthy and nations like Britain, France, Belgium, the U.S., the policies that have meant poverty and death for billions over the centuries. And all of it cloaked in a travesty of religious values.
I hope we have time. But, at best  we don't have much.
_______________________________________________________________
The quality of North American news media is appalling. And that lack of quality is a large part of the reason that both Canadians and Americans suffer from a dangerous ignorance of all  that information we need to make intelligent electoral decisions.

So, yes, I have been pledging monthly help for the news media like rabble.ca and Information Clearing House.

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabblecas-staff-blog/2019/12/make-resolution-strengthen-canadian-independent-media
_________________________________________________________________

Many years ago, when the world and I and Gwynne Dyer were all young, I used to see him and hear him when he and I used the same studio (CBC Montreal) for our weekly broadcasts. It was obvious then he was a commentator of the highest quality. And he's still that today (and even better).

https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-russias-hypersonic-missile-doesnt-change-current-nuclear-strategy
________________________________________________________________

Are there Naziis in power today?

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/31/un-expert-calls-detention-chelsea-manning-open-ended-progressively-severe-coercive

Of course there are. Americans routinely choose them for president to rule and plunder the American people and the American empire. Earlier, for several centuries, the world's Nazis were to be found in the British Empire - and the Dutch and the Belgian and the French empires.

Let's not kid ourselves that we are good and whoever we are killing at the time is evil.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/30/wake-hanukkah-attack-sanders-calls-us-stand-together-defeat-bigotry-violence-and

While I am no admirer of Israel, my experience of Jewish communities in North America (mostly in Montreal but also in other parts of Canada and the U.S.) is that they are informed, charitable, and caring - all those things Christians are supposed to be but, usually, aren't. And, most certainly, North American Christians have a long if unacknowledged history of racism and anti-semitism.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/12/27/heart-darkness-trumpian-fascism
________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2019/12/hypersonic-putin-and-gonzo-weaponry
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-uses-false-flag-op-legitimize-bombing-iraq-syria/5699153
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-has-killed-more-than-20-million-people-in-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/5492051
________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/global-war-on-humanity-americas-unceasing-pursuit-of-hegemony/5698569

The U.S., taking it's lead from the British Empire, is now looking at an American empire to rule the world. The American people will get no benefit from this of course. After all the American people got no benefit from the slaughter of indigenous people in the U.S. or from the misery and poverty inflicted on the people of Latin America.

The   American people - like the victims in Latin America, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and so on - are themselves the victims of the greed and inhumanity of their tiny ruling class of multi-billionaires         - you know, the ones who clap hands for the soldiers who kill innocent people to make the billionaires rich even as they make sure their own sons and daughters don't take any risks.

Donald Trump is an example. He's always prominent to praise his troops, routinely tweeting them as splendid young people, so splendid  that he went out of this way to pardon one who was found guilty by a court of war crimes involving torture and murder.

But you'll notice that Donald Trump never served. Nor has anybody else in his family.
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52771.htm

Most of our news media are a lying disgrace. And that frequently includes even the venerated New York Times.  For Canada, the only major news medium that even tries to be honest is CBC - and it's always under pressure from the top to lie.

I don't know of any commercial Canadian newspaper that's worth reading. (I still remember my years in New Brunswick reading the dreadful Irving newspapers.)

 I still remember the day I was on air in a radio studio when there was a news flash that the body of a Canadian missionary killed in Guatemala in the 1950s had been brought to Montreal for study. That was it - and there was no further story. So I had to track down the doctor who was conducting the autopsy.

I seems there was a brutal invasion of Guatemala by the CIA - an American operated army of hired mercenaries from all over the world. Led by that saintly Christian, George Bush Sr., they slaughtered Guatemalans, torturing and killing at least 200,000 innocent people - with a special emphasis on Christian missionaries and priests and nuns. One of them was the Canadian missionary from New Brunswick that was in Montreal to be examined for torture. He was then sent home to New Brunswick for burial. But the New Brunswick news media never mentioned it. In fact, none of that story of the horror inflicted on Guatemala has ever appeared in any western news medium.

But the funeral of George Bush sr. was a marvelously Christian ceremony for this saintly man who, with his son, George jr., was an ardent Christian. Christianity has one hell of a lot to answer for.
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52774.htm

Seen anything about this slow torture and murder of a journalist who told the truth?  Anything about it in your local news media?  Probably not. And you probably won't  ever see it.

We are the Nazis of our time. And that is not what Canadians and Americans died for. Perhaps the Canadian Legion might give that some thought.

But it probably won't.
_________________________________________________________________
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52773.htm
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52772.htm
_____________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/12/18/news/climate-crisis-looms-large-canadas-top-weather-stories-2019
________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/12/31/news/7-numbers-show-how-dire-climate-change-got-decade
_________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/worlds-500-richest-people-gained-1-2-trillion-in-wealth-in-2019/?
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.voltairenet.org/article208612.html
_________________________________________________________________

Alas! There's nothing new about this. We humans have always produced a small number of people of greed and arrogance  who rule whole societies for their own benefit. They, historically, have been called emperors, kings, surrounded by their own thugs whom they call dukes; earls - and so on. That's been the history of humanity for several thousand years.

They murder and plunder while the rest of their people do the dirty work for little or no reward.  That's what the British Empire was all about. That's what the American empire is all about today.Until a century ago, the children of the rich and powerful went elite private schools while the children of the rest of us went to work in factories at age 5 or 6. The U.S. (and Canada) are  moving in that direction again as we subsidize private schools for the children of the rich while cutting budgets for the public schools.

And, as the very rich now hold trillions of dollars - on which  they pay no taxes - we hammer the rest. And no gifts of taxes or subsidies for the rest of us. Hey! After we hand over our taxes to give non-tax paying oil barons many billions of dollars  in, say, oil pipelines, there's no money left to feed the hungry or house the homeless.

As we enter 2020, we have not advanced at all in thousands of years. Indeed, we have become worse. We could, after 1945, have created a world of sharing and mutual aid. But the super rich would not allow that. For them, the only purpose of nations for them was to serve them in enslaving smaller and weaker countries.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_____________________________________________________________