Feb. 11:: Down and downer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tatfeb

________________________________________________________________
Wow! I made youtube. This must be some twenty years ago in which I appeared twice in a movie- once sitting with my back to a window, and once beside a plaque of some sort. Fame at last!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD8UOwJJ4D4&t=48s
_______________________________________________________________
The is far the most extreme fear of coronavirus I have seen. As you read, remember this is  extreme and, I hope, wrong.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/11/coronavirus-expert-warns-infection-could-reach-60-of-worlds-population
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/feb/11/life-on-lesbos-whats-happening-to-the-refugees-there-podcast

We humans are going to have to learn to live with each other - and to forget the nonsense that those of differing languages and religions and races cannot live with each other.

The idea that nations like Canada and the U.S. must preserve their Christianity by keeping out Jews, for example, existed until well after World War Two. And Blacks? It was only possible to preserve our white values by keeping Blacks as slaves. Catholics and Protestants have long remained separate, and often taught to hate each other. How many U.S. presidents have been Catholics? Or Jews? In Canada, Chinese were often forced to live in ghettos. So were Blacks until VERY recently.

As I write this, the U.S. is being taught to hate Latins. Both Canada and the U.S. see Muslims as being destructive of their values.

Let's get over it, shall we? We live in a world that cannot afford bigotry. And most of us are defending values we really don't have. Indeed, the world's greatest killers and plunderers over the last several  hundred years have been white Christians. And I really don't think killing and plundering was what Jesus had in mind.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/11/migrants-fleeing-central-america-guatemala-honduras-el-

Another sample of American 'values' in action.
And why the migrants fleeing their homes? Obviously, it's because their home countries have been made unlivable by American 'values'.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/11/trump-economy-poor-americans-vulnerability
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/canadian-police-arrest-activists-blocking-gas-pipeline-indigenous-land-wetsuweten
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/10/the-guardian-view-on-climate-anxiety-we-live-in-frightening-times
________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/anti-pipeline-protest-vancouver-ports-1.5457912

Canadian governments talk a good game about indigenous rights. But it has never honoured them.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/philippines-usa-military-pact-1.5459303

Over 120 years ago,  the U.S. conquered The Phillipines for the American empire. It killed 20,000 at least of the Phillipine army, and and even larger number of civilians. Estimates run as high as a million for deaths by starvation.
From then until now, it has controlled The Phillipines. But no more.
________________________________________________________________
https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2020/02/wetsuweten-land-defenders-face-risks-experienced
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/talking-radical-radio/2020/02/climate-change-priority-issue-cupw
_________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/02/former-us-ambassador-canada-unaware-any-conversation-plot
________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/trump-budget-economy-military/

The biggest enemies we face are not Chinese or Russians. The biggest and most ruthless are our very own billionaires.
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/health-care-universal-buttigieg/
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.straight.com/news/518106/gwynne-dyer-global-economy-faces-financial-crisis-perfect-storm
________________________________________________________________

Dresden - where the deliberate killing of civilians became the new form of war.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/02/10/beasts-and-bombings-reflecting-dresden-february-1945
_______________________________________________________________

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/10/world-war-iiis-newest-battlefield/
_______________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/02/10/Emotions-High-Unistoten-Arrests/
_______________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/02/11/Canada-Arbitrarily-Detains-Migrants/
________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/01/17/Indigenous-Rights-Canada-Militarized-Police/
_________________________________________________________________
Ontario has become a leader in the war against public education. Teachers are paid as little as possible. There is as little spending on public schools as possible.
Universities can be attended only at such a cost that graduates have to pay it back for 15 years and more. (An added problem is that universities are not really educational institutions since their professors, almost all of them, have no training whatever in education. I pointed that out in an article of 20 years ago that I shall never be forgiven for.)

The public school, going back to the early 19th century, for the first time gave opportunity to the poor as well as to the rich. But it hasn't done that for a century and more. I was born poor, and almost all of my friends and classmates would never have a chance for much education. For the most part, the poor stay poor because that's the way the rich like it while they can send their children to private schools partially subidized by our tax money.

(In my teaching experience in public school and university, I did not find the graduates of private schools all that good. But their access to private education made them aware of their  "superiority".) Most of the kids I knew as a public school students had an experience that convinced them of their own inferiority so that they (including me) dropped out early to get low-paying jobs.

Governments are now making things worse, and destroying the role of public education in producing an intelligent population. Instead, they prefer the rich kids of the private schools as an elite class. Public education was one of the great triumphs of this world. And servants of the rich, like the premier of Ontario, are destroying it.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/ford-fight-educators/5703371

(Our masters also force on the public schools' history books that encourage the mythology of how  God created Britain (and now the U.S.), to murder and plunder all over the world.
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/west-virginia-oil-gas-critical-infrastructure-anti-protest-bills/5703279
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/gulf-alaska-fishery-close-first-time-ever-no-more-cod-salmon/5697199
________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/bankers-shape-canadian-policy-latin-america/5703148
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52965.htm
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52970.htm
________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52971.htm
_________________________________________________________________

https://theantimedia.com/iraq-and-russia-prepare-to-boost-military-ties-as-us-threatens-sanctions/
_______________________________________________________________

I'm not at all sure about the optimism for Sanders in this item. Nor am I sure that Sanders is nearly so radical as is needed - nor do I think he could carry the elected Democrats with him if did win the presidency. But it's a nice thought.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/democrats-panic-bernie-sanders-predicted-win-all-50-states/264716/
_________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-homelessness-czar-seeks-to-further-criminalize-the-homeless/
________________________________________________________________

As I read the next item, I was reminded of the horror of driving through the ruined  and filthy streets of Detroit.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/418572-us-decline-poverty-un/
_________________________________________________________________

Feb. 8: A bad year.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/antarctica-logs-hottest-temperature-on-record-with-a-reading-of-183c

The headline above is a little misleading. It should read 18.3 centigrade (65 fahrenheit.) That's warm enough to lie out in the sun wearing a bathing suit.

Not to worry. Canada's Liberals and Conservatives are on the job. They and Donald Trump  will quickly fix things - mostly by ignoring the news.  And the Ottawa newspapers will follow this closely - perhaps some day when there is no hockey game to report.
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/cathy-crowes-blog/2020/02/there-no-winterlicious-festival-torontos-homeless-people

All of Canada does virtually nothing for the poor and the homeless. Oil billionaires want a pipeline, and they want the federal government to pay for it. And our federal government jumps at it. The poor and homeless on the streets? The hell with them. The story above is about Toronto, the home of Ontario's premier.
But worry not. Check out photos of premier Doug Ford on the web. He has been eating (very) regularly.
______________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/07/guatemala-hunger-famine-flee-north

Contrary to American perceptions as formed by Trump, Latin Americans are not criminals fleeing to the U.S. Millions live below starvations levels - partly because of climate change, partly because of starvation enforced by the U.S. (as in low salaries for those employed by U.S. and Canadian corporations.)

Where have the West's Christian churches been for the last several hundred years on issues like this?
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/brazil-bolsonaro-commercial-mining-indigenous-land-bill

Bolsonaro. Now, there's a good friend of the U.S. and Canada in Latin America.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/canadian-police-arrest-activists-blocking-gas-pipeline-indigenous-land-wetsuweten

I have been in such a situation several times with an angry crowd facing RCMP backed by snipers. With a crowd so large, it is impossible to prevent some people (usually very few) in the crowd from bringing in knives or pistols. Then the lid is off.
________________________________________________________________

The government of India has so abandoned all the principles that Ghandi spoke of that it now resembles the bad old days of British rule.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/feed-them-bullets-not-biriyani-bjp-uses-delhi-elections-to-stoke-religious-hatred

It's now more like Donald Trump than Ghandi.
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/council-canadians-blog/2020/02/canadians-should-not-be-lulled-ratifying-new-nafta
________________________________________________________________

http://gwynnedyer.com/2020/time-to-start-shredding/
________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/07/consistent-mass-extinction-new-study-warns-climate-chaos-driving-rapid-decline
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/06/trumps-final-plan-open-treasured-public-lands-utah-called-sellout-big-oil

Do our oil barons realize that climate change is real? Of course they do. They may be liars, but they aren't idiots. What they're doing is keeping their  profits as high as possible and as long as possible. Is that dangerous?  You bet.

But yes. Of course they know the risk we are all taking.
_________________________________________________________________

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/06/ray-mcgovern-german-tv-exposes-the-lies-that-entrapped-julian-assange/

The treatment of Julian Assange by Britain, the U.S., Sweden..reminds me of Hitler's methods. Isn't it odd that our commercial news media have ignored it?

No. It's not odd.

Our commercial news media starting with the mass press about 1870 have always been propaganda agents for their wealthy owners. Perhaps the best known was an American man named Kane. He lied constantly in his papers to, for example, provoke a war in Cuba, lying that Cubans had sunk an American ship while it was in a Cuba port.

He did it because wealthy Americans wanted Guantanamo as an American naval base to control the Caribbean. Linked to that, he wanted a part of Colombia to build a canal. Colombia didn't want to hand it over. So President Theodore Roosevelt staged a phony rebellion to take it. And this gave American business control of a major world passage.

The greed of the wealthy has been the reason for almost all American wars from the days of the Pilgrim fathers. (And that includes at least four American invasions of Canada.)

That billionaire use of most of our news media is why most of our commercial news media are simply propaganda and lies. And that's why I write a blog - to find some honest sources. And, among the honest media are The Guardian, Haaretz (of Israel) and CBC (though the latter can suffer from government interference.)

There's film about Kane the 'journalist'. It's called Citizen Kane, and it's one of the best films ever made.
_________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/the-rama-of-gandhi

Amazing how our religions have always been used to attack other people's religions.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/07/the-game-is-rigged/
________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/02/07/Second-Raid-Wetsuweten/
_________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/02/06/Wetsuweten-Raids-Canada-Chooses-Colonialism-Again/
_________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/02/07/Fake-News-Coronavirus-Sows-Division/
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/vassy-trans-mountain-pipeline-1.5455387

So Canada is now in the hole for 16 billion dollars - for which the billionaire recipients have to pay nothing, not even in income tax, - and for which we'll have to cut back on trivial spending like public education.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/china-iran-north-korea-almost-encircled-500-us-military-bases/5702990

To plan for a war on that scale in this age of nuclear and biological weapons is insane. It's only virtue is that it would destroy all of us even before the oil industry will.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/canada-palestine-deal-century-four-statements/5702985

For many years, I spoke to many Jewish groups in Montreal - as well as Christian ones. Jewush groups were always my best audiences. They were  tough and they insisted on a serious lecture. (I noticed that Christian ones were more interested just in getting laughs.)

But now I'm in Ottawa and, oh, I miss Montreal's Jews.
_________________________________________________________________

I really don't know enough about the subject to comment on this one or even to guess at it's accuracy. So I include it hoping it's dead wrong.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52959.htm
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52957.htm

I recently heard a Canadian politicians say, angrily, that Putin has ruthlessly murdered hundreds of his political opponents. Well, for a start, killing political opponents is a pastime all over the world -  though U.S. presidents have specialized in murdering polical opponents in the U.S. empire - like Latin America. I'm not aware of any such massive political killings by Putin.

But since 1945, the U.S. has been far the world's biggest killer.

Can the U.S. defeat Russia? The U.S. record in Korea and Afghanistan and Vietnam is not impressive. No, a war with Russia would have to be massive and nuclear and chemical on both sides.
________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52956.htm

Somehow, I don't think that Jesus would have given such a speech of hatred at a National Prayer Breakfast. But that kind of hatred has long been common among Christians.
________________________________________________________________
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/08/news/climate-movement-readies-battle-trump-keystone-xl
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/07/news/humanity-under-threat-perfect-storm-crises
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/06/opinion/why-canada-must-not-approve-teck-frontier-mine
________________________________________________________________

https://off-guardian.org/2020/02/07/why-food-systems-are-breaking-down-across-the-world/
________________________________________________________________

https://theantimedia.com/iraq-and-russia-prepare-to-boost-military-ties-as-us-threatens-sanctions/

We, all of us on this planet, cannot survive any more wars - especially nuclear ones.  So why are we creating them?
________________________________________________________________

The U.S. tomorrow?

https://truthout.org/articles/we-cant-take-our-eyes-off-right-wing-militias-as-election-approaches/

The divisions in the U.S. are deep and with a high likelihood  of real, national disorder.
______________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-sotu-speech-bristled-with-fascist-politics/
_________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/trump-administration-reintroduces-catastrophic-reagan-era-disability-cuts/
________________________________________________________________

https://pressprogress.ca/group-behind-mysterious-anti-teacher-attack-ads-is-chaired-by-a-well-connected-conservative-millionaire/?fbclid=IwAR21YFN1ItMBRalKYbwyFxZQCG8XMDHmRrs_dwe6Rt74cWVG-yXFmTNiFN4

Greed, corruption, bullying - a specialty of the Conservative party of Ontario.
_________________________________________________________________

https://thesaker.is/putin-marks-75th-anniversary-of-wwii-with-speech-warning-about-looming-global-conflict/

Oh, I know. I know. Putin is evil with no trace of the Christian values that Trump represents.
_________________________________________________________________Time is running short. We have betrayed all that we said we were fighting for in World War Two. And we have become a far, far greater threat than Hitler ever was. We have allowed our governments to be controlled puppets working in the interest of some of greediest and most dangerous people in history. And we have allowed ourselves to become their victims.

This year may well be the most vicious and dangerous in the history of this planet. There is every possibility of a world, nuclear war that all would suffer. There is a wide, if inarticulate, disillusion with democracy. Indeed, there is even a hatred of democracy on the part of our very wealthy. There is widespread destruction of agriculture in much of the world, much of it the result of climate change, That has meant millions, particularly Africans, fleeing their countries only to be blocked, perhaps kicked out to drown at sea, or perhaps  confined to vile and shabby camps where they are allowed to die.

The Christian churches have been largely indifferent to the suffering. (They almost always have been indifferent for almost 2,000 years.) In particular, evangelical Christians in the U.S. (and Canada) rejoice for a year that could
 send them to heaven and all others to hell.

The Canadian and American people, like most of the rest of the world, are horribly ill-informed and naive. And we accept that as normal. It is even possible - maybe likely - that the U.S. will be in a civil war in this year.

We are in for a very dangerous year. Here in Canada, the Liberals and Conservatives are a dead loss. The NDP is better but, oh, it needs to get much tougher. Alas, it's a weaker party than the CCF that we have before it. But the CCF weakened it's principles in the hope this would make it better funded. I know that from a supper I had with the CCF leader who organized the conversion of the CCF to the NDP.) Result - the CCF weakened it's principles - and gained nothing.

No. I'm not exaggerating about all this. I wish I were.
________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

Feb. 6: Our Last Chance

https://www.rt.com/news/480256-pope-francis-tax-cuts/

I wonder how many Canadians and Americans did NOT see this story in their local news media.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/06/bumblebees-decline-points-to-mass-extinction-study

This study comes from scientists here in Ontario. But the premier of Ontario is not what anyone would call smart. So he won't pay any attention to them.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/05/when-it-comes-to-climate-hypocrisy-canadas-leaders-have-reached-a-new-low

How can Canada even pretend to have a climate change policy when it approves of a new pipeline which, to be worthwhile, has to be producing even more oil for  many years to come?

How can Canada do it when it is running much of that pipeline through indigenous land? I can't imagine Canada, for example, running it through the home of an oil billionaire. But Canada is, quite likely, prepared to do some killing, if necessary.

And why on earth are we picking up the bill for the creation of that pipeline? Shouldn't billionaires be paying for their own projects?
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-teacher-strike-etfo-analysis-osstf-oecta-1.545344

Teacher strikes in North America used to be rare. Now they're becoming common. What's this about? Are teachers getting greedy?

When the world and I were  young, I became a grade seven teacher in Quebec. with a class of 32 students. The school boards and the governments assured us that this class crowding  would soon be dealt with. Since then, nothing has happened.

You can't properly teach a class of that size.

As well, the salary was pretty feeble at less than $150 a month. It was not possble to live in even a very cheap apartment at that salary. It was even less than my earlier salary as a mail boy. Oh, it got a little better. But not much. And so we had and still have a school system designed designed to fail us and our students.

So why is it still like that?

Most of our politicians in North America exist to serve the very rich. The very rich send their children to private schools (partially subsidized by our taxes.) They don't  care about schools for the rest of us. That's why most of our politicians have done nothing for the  public schools in all those years.

Most of our politicians do care about the very rich. That's why when they have gone into our taxes to give handouts in the billions to the very rich; and when they cut taxes for the very rich, the way they balance it is by cancelling services like education to the rest of us. The U.S. is going even   further with it's privatization of what used to be public schools. It's education for profit - which means it really isn't education at all.

Premier Doug Ford of Ontario is the fawning servant of the very rich. The price of  his fawning is the gutting of public education.

Oh? Are private kids schools better than public schools? In the years I taught university, I saw no evidence of that. There were lots of rich kids there. I  taught many of them. But most of them were quite ordinary as students. However, they had learned in their private schools day that they were superior to others.

In short, the Doug Fords of this world are robbing us and our children to serve the rich (and their children.)
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/state-of-the-union-highlights-1.5452391

I watched Trump's state of the union address. This CBC report is kind to him.
Trump constantly lies. His praise for American prosperity, for example, is full of lies. Anyone who disagrees with anything he says is branded as evil.

Whether he wins or loses the next election, the U.S. is savagely and dangerously divided - and that means the whole world is in the greatest danger it has ever known. Nor will the Democrats be much help. Apart from Sanders and his following, Democrats are not much different from Republicans.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/mideast-peace-proposal-trump-jordan-valley-reacts-1.5453418

The West - and Israel - are imitating Hitler's holocaust.
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/brazil-bolsonaro-commercial-mining-indigenous-land-bill
________________________________________________________________
https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-with-trumps-acquittal-democrats-turn-to-finding-candidate-for-election
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/02/trans-mountain-ruling-looks-win-alberta-world-drives-away
________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-palestine-trump-netanyahu/
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/02/06/forget-trumps-lies-heres-real-economic-state-union

The same sort of thing is happening in Canada. So how come our news media don't tell us more about it? For at least forty years, the West in general has been impoverishing hundreds of millions to fill the secret bank accounts of billionaires.
_________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/palestinians-have-no-choice-but-to-resist-injustice

It wasn't Palestinians who murdered Europe's Jews. That was Hitler. And it wasn't Britain or Canada or the U.S. that offered them shelter. (That was more likely to be China.) British, Canadians and Americans at all levels refused to help even those Jews who escaped. The truth is we were on Hitler's side on that issue. And when we did send Jews to Israel, it was to get rid of them, not to help them. In fact, Jews and Arabs had shared Israel in peace and cooperation for most of modern history

But ever since we created Israel, we have supported Israel in it's criminal abuse of Muslims in both Israel and Palestine.

Yes. The holocaust was terrible. But let's remember the holocaust was created by Christians - and it was us Christians who refused to help Europe's Jews throughout the war.

That 'Christian' attitude still exists. I shall never forget the day I was invited to play baseball at a lake that was the exclusive resort of Montreal's wealthiest.
That night there was an emerbency meeting of the lake association to find out who had invited the Jew up.  (The 'Jew' was me because, as the director of a YMHA camp, (Young Men's Hebrew Association), I was wearing a YMHA t-shirt that summer.
_______________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/02/06/RCMP-Move-to-Evict/

So much for the idea that Canada's indigenous people have a right to their own land. So much for the idea that Trudeau and the Liberals (like the Conservatives) have any intention of dealing with climate change.

This one could become dangerous - and dangerous all across Canada. And very, very ugly.
________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/02/05/Federal-Court-Trans-Mountain-Ruling-Betrays-Reconciliation/
________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52949.htm
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52947.htm

This is something that Canadians and Americans and many Europeans, especially including the British, have to learn.
______________________________________________________________

Similar to the site above - and also worth reading - is this one.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52951.htm
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52950.htm
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52943.ht
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/05/news/sea-level-rise-accelerating-us-coastline
________________________________________________________________

As I began this issue of The Decarie Report, I found the news was depressingly limited.  I felt that way for all of it. But -oh, it is dreadfully bad news. We are now close to the final war that will end human life on this planet. No-one will win the final war. It's insane to plan for such a war. But we are ruled, really, by the super greedy whose every thought is shaped by the intensity of their greed.

Democracy? It's largely just a word. Americans pride themselves on being democratic. The reality is that the U.S.  is not and never has been a democracy. And most of it's wars for democracy - as in Latin America - have been to destroy democracy.

What we have to do now is to cut back on our wars, and do what we said we would do in 1945, to establish peace with other countries.  That's what the UN was supposed to be about, with all humanity coming together - all religions, all races, to maintain peace in the world. Instead, we made it a tool for the super rich of the world.

In the conext of our society, to even think of using the UN for peace is idealistic, I know. But the alternative is universal destruction prompted by greed.

And to accomplish what needs to be done, we have to overcome the power of our greedy who use the excuse get massive contracts by diverting our interest from serving people to serving the greatest and most dangerous greed in human history, the greed for military spending.

















4150














4150.00 

Feb. 03: "We've won the war, now we've got to win the peace."

News media of most countries have always described enemy nations as evil and their own side as good. In the days of British Empire That was - or should have been obvious in the days when the British were killing hundreds of millions and enslaving hundreds of millions, Britain itself (in the British press) was always hailed as glorious. And all of the conquered people of India, China, etc. were treacherous.

The same press treatment has been common in American and Canadian news media. When Americans were slaughtering indigenous peoples, men, women, and children, and stealing their land, it was glorious. General Custer, whose killing missions made him a hero, was part of this. (In fact, think of all the western movies you've ever seen. In most, perhaps inc all, the American cavalry is always good and kind and heroic.) And when the American presidents, starting with Latin America and The Philippines, murdered and plundered on a grand scale, they were heroes- making America great - rather like Donald Trump is making it great.

Hitler? Oh, unlike British and Americans , Hitler was evil in our news media. He certainly was evil. But,  late in World War Two when British and American bombing started to specialize in the killing of German  civilians, the press never even mentioned it. (Actually, Churchill was a leader in the killing of civilians. As minister of the colonies in 1920, he ordered the RAF to bomb only civilians in their attacks on the Kurds.)

When the U.S. bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, it chose those cities because they were largely civilian. That was followed in Korea with the deliberate bombing of civilian targets, including children. And that was also done to neighbouring countries in the region. The killing of children was not accidental. They were prime targets, something the press did not notice, and has not noticed much in the starvation of babies and children in, for example, Yemen.

In Vietnam, the US freely dropped chemical poisons on   - everything - men, women- children. Babies were horribly poisoned, a great many of them born barely human, and dying after just a few years.  In general, there is no reliable record of the numbers of civilian and child deaths in American wars since 1945, It's just high. And, very often - almost always - these were wars against countries that in no way threatened the U.S. Afghanistan had nothing to do with  the 9/11 attack in New York. There is no legal reason for that war. The U.S. had no business poking into Vietnam - or Iraq - and it has none for it's hostile actions toward Iran.

As for it's 120 years of creating poverty in Latin America, those wars have killed not only soldiers but even greater numbers of civilians and children. In almost all wars, these have been fought only to satisfy the greed of American (and some Canadian} billionaires.

These wars have caused death for millions, and hunger and poverty for survivors. Thus the millions in this world dying of starvation. And thus the refusal of American and European governments to let migrants in.  No. Let them die to please our billionaires. Indeed, the similarity between Hitler's holocaust and the U.S. refusal to let starving migrants in is marked. And both were and are

 supported by civilians who followed the gospel of racism.

And Canada has, usually quietly, joined in with American troops as in Korea, Afghanistan, Libya, Haiti.... And how does our press phrase it?

We are fighting terrorists, yes. It's no longer enough to call them enemies.  No. our press now calls them terrorists. Most of those people who are now fighting against us are fighting to defend their countries against western aggression and plundering and worse, So they're terrorists, and  ours are brave lads.

There was nothing new about the viciousness of Hitler, and nothing new about the German acceptance of it, nothing new about the racism of it all. It has existed for centuries. We are still living in the age of Nazism and imperialism. If we want to see what a Nazi looks like, today, we have only  to  look in a mirror.

(Oh, is the government of Iran evil? It's certainly not popular, not even in Iran.
Iran once had a real democracy - just after World War Two. But the U.S. and Britain interfered to destroy it and impose a dictator so American billionaires could plunder it's oil. A generation later, Iran managed to kick out the dictator, but was less successful in re-establishing a popular democracy.)

All this  is what Trump calls making America great again. It's a term Hitler could have used - "make Germany great again." Yeah.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/iraq-iran-special-forces-isis-islamic-state-1.5450655

Why are Canadian troops in Iraq? It has nothing to do with us. In fact, it's a war that was illegal for Americans and British in the first place. They knew long before they started that war that the reasons they gave for the war were lies. Canada knew that. So why did we send troops?

Because Canada is a puppet to help America be great again.
________________________________________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/04/scottish-independence-survey-shows-brexit-has-put-union-at-risk

Good news for all my Scottish ancestors.
________________________________________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/04/global-heating-a-serious-threat-to-the-worlds-climate-refuges-study-finds

This is not a story likely to be found in most North American daily papers.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/04/what-happened-iowa-caucuses-quick-guide-democrats
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/talking-radical-radio/2020/02/sex-education-not-just-about-putting-condoms-bananas
_________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/change-gonna-come/2020/02/doug-fords-education-cuts-are-killing-our-future

All over North America, many political leaders, like Doug Ford of Ontario, are destroying public education. Commonly, they do so to turn public education back  200 years to the days when all education was for private profit and when most children could get no education at all.

Children's perceptions of life are formed by societies' treatment of them. In my grade school days, I lived in a district that was poor. And we didn't expect to have a chance. I well remember my first year class at a four room school. Only one person in that class (not me) would finish high school. Most dropped out by grade nine or earlier. (I flunked grade ten, and was  kicked out in grade 11.)

Parents and neighbours thought nothing of that. It was standard for our social class. My salvation actually began in late high school  when a large number of my classmates were Jewish boys. Jewish children were raised to believe in the importance of education, and most of my Jewish classmates went on to become lawyers, doctors, writers.... while I became a mail clerk. And when I started, some years later, to take evening courses at a university, our family friends (and much of my family)  disapproved of my attempt to "rise above my station."

Education is probably the most important period in our lives. But to politicians bankrolled by billionaires, it is not to be wasted on the great unwashed. No. Real education should be for the rich who can pay for it - with the help of government subsidies. Rich kids need education. And nobody gives a damn about the rest.

And so, for the rest of us, it's something to be run on the cheap. (After all, Canada needs people dumb enough to vote Conservative or Liberal.)
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/activist-toolkit-blog/2020/02/ways-support-ontarios-teachers
_______________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/02/what-brexit-and-ottawas-decision-teck-oil-sands-mine-have
_________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/02/encryption-backdoors-biggest-threat-our-privacy-no-one-talking-about
________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/its-time-to-leave-iraq-once-and-for-all/

And that means Canadian troops should not be in Iraq, either.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/coronavirus-pandemic-healthcare/
________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/04/majority-mine-victims-are-children-eu-condemns-trump-rollback-landmine-restrictions

Well, you can't let those children grow up and become terrorists. I'm sure our Christian churches would approve of this.
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/02/03/new-research-shows-frackings-grave-toll-climate
________________________________________________________________

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/04/buttigieg-backer-top-funder-of-group-behind-iowas-disastrous-voting-app/
_________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/scientists-sign-open-letter-to-australian-government-urging-action-on-climate-crisis

Will Australia take any serious action? Probably not - in line with the U.S. and part of Canada.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=373697047018228084#allposts
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/earth-heating-rate-equivalent-five-atomic-bombs-per-second-two-hurricane-sandy/5702632

This can't be true. If it were true, Ontario's premier Ford would know. He's real smart and has a high school leaving certificate. So he knows things.

Besides - Canadian voters are real dumb.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/united-states-america-vast-tapestry-lies-illusions/5702611

Most 'democratic' countries have delusions about their "democracies". U.S. government has always, from the start, been a tool of the wealthy. Ditto for Canadian democracy. British 'democracy' has largely meant government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, for the wealthy. I realized that long ago when I taught Canadian history in a high school. High school history books are mostly propaganda. And Canadian federal governments, from the start, have always been the servants of big money. That's why Justin Trudeau has done nothing useful about dealing with climate change.
______________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52941.htm

So much for Trump's bragging about American prosperity. Even Canada is better - but worse than it should be. For most people born into poverty, they stay in poverty. Poverty is their own and only world. And it's not because they're stupid or lazy. It's because that's the only world they ever learn about.

That's why Ontario's twit of a premier should give the children of his province a far, far better education than they're getting.
_______________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52943.htm

This is stunning. And what it means is profoundly dangerous and deep division among the American people. There is strong possibility of that being so deep it could lead to very dangerous divisions among the American people.
_______________________________________________________________

And here's another reason why the U.S. could be headed for very serious violence.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52935.htm

This is a country in which major capitalists are running wild - and running on a pure greed. That's very dangerous for a country with a high poverty rate and few (and meager) social programmes.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/nils-melzer-about-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange
________________________________________________________________

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOOkfVxkusc&list=PLKX-YBD4nIPc0N1-B7PkrKGYVhznPH4V9&index=108

The richest country in the world.....
______________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/04/news/court-dismisses-indigenous-challenges-trans-mountain-pipeline

Expect nothing from the Liberals or Conservatives.  They are - and always have been - bought by the wealthy.
______________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/23/news/everything-you-need-know-about-un-climate-refugee-ruling-and-canada

In fact, we are creating the horrors that climate refugees are fleeing.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/04/opinion/246-academics-call-government-act-now-avoid-global-collapse

Of course, they ain't real smart like premier Ford of Ontario is.
_______________________________________________________________
https://truthout.org/articles/the-us-military-has-a-legacy-of-wars-without-victory-and-weapons-without-end/
________________________________________________________________
After writing every one of these blogs, I think back to the day I was sent home from grade 6 for being late - and my mother simply scooped me up to go to downtown Montreal with her. And so I walked into huge mobs of happy people, and I saw the signs. The war was over. We had won! My father would be coming back soon! It was wonderful.

Then I saw the signs that said, "We've won the war!". We've won it. "Now we've got to win the peace."

But we didn't win the peace. We never even tried. Instead, U.S. billionaires set out to conquer the world. They
 took over the middle east oil fields that the British had plundered, and did their own plundering - as they are still doing. They even tried to take over Britain's greatest imperial holding - the China that the British had been plundering for over a century. That's what the Korean war was really all about. And so Canada became an American satellite as it had once been a British one.

(In effect, in World War 2 the British were big losers to the U.S. corporations. And Canada became an American puppet, largely because Canadian billionaires wanted to get in bed with American ones.)

This was all 75 years ago. 1945 didn't mark the end of war. It marked the beginning in all the years since then of the wars of billionaires. Those wars haven't worked. And they aren't going to.

We need a huge change - and it's not going to come from Republicans or most Democrats or Liberals or Conservatives.
_______________________________________________________________

The great promise of capitalism, going back perhaps 300 years, was that it would bring prosperty to all of us. But it has never, not in all these years, ever done so.
Those capitalists of the years of British empire became rich beyond belief. Most of the British people lived in filth and hunger. The American people, for all the wealth of the American capitalists have never escaped the clutches of capitalists. Indeed, the prosperity that seemed to be invitable after World War 2, has been going downhill for most Americans for the last 40 years. All of the wealth has been snatched up and kept by the very wealthy.

But these wealthy hold uncounted billions of dollars and still search for more. Why? They have more money than they can possible spend. Why do they try so hard to get more?

Psychiatrists have speculate that these are dreadfully insecure people who pile up more and more wealth in their search to become secure. Donald Trump shows many signs of that as he has spent years seeking publicity and admiration for himself. His speeches are full of self-praise. Donald Trump ran for president to assure himself that he is wonderful. But for those like himself who are greedy for praise, he will never be able to satisfy his doubts. And that shows in most of his speeches.

People like Donald Trump dominate power in the western world - and the whole world is suffering for it because they will never feel secure no matter how many billions they have. And unless we take action very soon, it will be too late for us.
________________________________________________________________





________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

Feb. 1: Reliving the Empires of the Past

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/01/australia-fires-bushfires-menace-homes-and-lives-and-firefight

No. It's not over. And it's very likely that we will soon share the pain.
_________________________________________________________________

It was inevitable, I guess. There is a widely circulated web site with a reputation for fake news. It is very, very right wing, is close friends with billionaires, and is now  pedalling a story  that the coronavirus is a human creation, probably created by Chinese scientists as a weapon of war. (I won't give the name of it because, despite a large circulation with help from big money, it is a lying rag, and I don't want to encourage anyone to read it.) It is now, with the help of it's wealthy supporters, sending out it's message to an unwary audience.)

Okay. Hint. It starts with a Z.
_________________________________________________________________

I include the following story mostly for the picture that leads it. Look at those apartment buildings.  That does not resemble the China I knew some 30+ years ago. The progress is amazing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/01/across-china-cities-turn-into-ghost-towns-as-coronavirus-infects-more-than-10000
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2020/feb/01/ads-fossil-fuels-extractors-guardian-ban

I don't know of any other commercial newspaper in the world that would have the integrity to do this. (Though Israel's Haaretz might have it.) But almost all commercial newspapers not only lack integrity. They actually lie to please their wealthy owners.)
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/01/evangelicals-trump-policy-defeat-us-election-2020-christians

Interestingly, these 'Christians' don't give a damn about people who have to live in the streets, children who are underfunded and underfed, a nation  that cannot get medical care.....and their idea of Jesus is that he would no doubt be proud of the U.S. for being the most vicious and plundering country in the world, and one that cannot serve it's own human needs because it has far, far  the biggest war spending of any nation in history.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/01/michael-bloomberg-oligarch-billionaire-democrats-20202
_________________________________________________________________

Canada - always a nation of racists.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/canada-chinese-community-battles-racist-backlash-amid-coronavirus-outbreak
________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-islamophobia-canada-1.5445229

Why do Canadian Christians dislike Muslims.? I mean, most Canadian Christians are as unChrstian as one can get.
_______________________________________________________________

Most Canadian radio stations are very weak on news reporters. And so are most Canadian TV stations. The best journalists, by far, are those at CBC. But they, too, often suffer from head office interference and from the failure of Canadian governments to provide adequate funding.

The following examination of this is by  Karl Nerenberg who was (and who still is) one of the best reporters in Canada.

https://rabble.ca/news/2020/01/trudeau-must-not-ignore-bold-report-media-internet-age
________________________________________________________________

https://www.journalpioneer.com/opinion/local-perspectives/gwynne-dyer-controlling-the-spread-of-coronavirus-405223/

I have always been amazed by the breadth and knowledge and common sense of Gwynne Dyer. This goes back almost fifty years to when we appeared on the same mornings though at different times on a CBC radio show - and I sat down the the mike as soon as he left. To this day, my only claim to fame is that. And It's still a claim I'm proud of.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/01/watch-news-anchor-shows-americans-real-size-wealth-gap-using-american-pie

The greatest danger we face today is not China or Russia or Iran......  The greatest danger to all of us, the danger that has killed way over 20 million people since 1945, plus large numbers of Canadians, Americans and British who have died while killing for them, is the relatively tiny number of billionaires. By avoiding taxes, they increasingly impoverish us even as we scramble to kill in their wars - that we, not they, have to pay for.
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/31/really-really-bad-scientists-raise-alarm-over-warm-ocean-water-beneath-doomsday

I'm not worried. I live in Ontario, a province governed by a high school graduate. And he, like, you know, knows things. And he doesn't believe climate change is happening.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/02/01/it-should-be-easy-defeat-trump-corporate-democrats-look-ready-and-willing-blow-it
________________________________________________________________

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/31/the-real-john-bolton/
________________________________________________________________

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/31/the-partys-over-bernies-last-dance-with-the-dems/
_________________________________________________________________
Alas! Deep down, Justin Trudeau is pretty shallow.

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/01/31/BC-Poses-Tests-Trudeau/
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.globalresearch.ca/netanyahu-formally-indicted/5702302
_________________________________________________________________

I've known a great many evangelicals. I've attended their services. They're shallow, self-serving; they follow only those parts of the Bible that suit their fantasies. For example, they're not interested in the Biblical injunction against killing. They believe that they and only they will go to heaven - and all the rest of us will forever burn in hell.

They're simple enough to believe that Donald Trump is God come back to earth for the final days - though how they can see a money-hungry, highly immoral, and egoist as Donald Trump to be God is not clear.

These people are fanatics who care only about themselves as the only people on earth to be true believers and Christian ones. George Bush Jr., is one of their true believers -  George Bush Jr., the mass murderer. And you may notice that no billionaires, busy plundering and murdering all over the world, ever criticize them.

Oh, evangelicals believe that  the end of the world is here, and is forecast in the scriptures of Jews,  Christians and Muslims. It is the tale of Gog and Magog, and it is said the mark the end of the world - and, therefore, that crucial time is now. And it will mark God accepting evangelicals (and only evangelicals) into  eternal heaven. (I'm not sure whether Muslims also will fit this grand scheme.)

That's why so many evangelicals think that trump is Gog (who, in the story, rules what is now Russia.)

What evangelicals cannot understand is that not all of the Bible is true. The story of Adam and Eve, for example, makes no sense at all - unless Adam was black and Eve white and the tempting serpent was a Chinese. Ditto for the ridiculous story of Noah's Ark.

Where the hell are the Protestant and Catholic churches who should be explaining that not all the Bible is true? Where are they when a country like the U.S. is swept up by the very dangerous ignorance of evangelical Christians? And when we are on the verge of this world's last war?

I would have been a Protestant clergyman. I attended preliminary meetings for that purpose - much to the despair of my parents who had a great respect for their church.  Luckily, I was saved from this only because I never finished high school.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52918.htm

________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52925.htm
________________________________________________________________

https://www.kgns.tv/content/news/AP-Exclusive-Woman-who-says-Trump-raped-her-seeks-his-DNA-567426601.html

I guess evangelicals are allowed to rape.
______________________________________________________________

And some good news.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/31/news/national-plastic-ban-track-next-year-canada
_______________________________________________________________

https://off-guardian.org/2020/01/31/split-hearings-the-assange-extradition-case-drags-on/
________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/canadas-battle-against-first-nations-shows-slide-toward-authoritarianism/

This sort of bullying has always been inflicted on indigenous peoples and, though they don't seem to notice it, on most of the rest of us. Indeed, in it's history, most Canadians have always voted for the bullies.
_________________________________________________________________
https://truthout.org/articles/bidens-flip-flop-on-free-higher-education-exposes-his-hypocrisy/

While the U.S., like Canada, not only let's the very wealthy run free of taxes but also throws our tax money at them; there's not enough money for education. So it's tough luck  for most of us. We don't have democracy. We never have had it.
And, given the time we have left, we probably won't ever have it.
________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/faced-with-climate-disaster-australian-prime-minister-plans-to-open-coal-mine/

Greed and stupidity go together. And voters stand around with their faces hanging out.
________________________________________________________________

https://thesaker.is/u-s-posture-in-the-middle-east-preparing-for-disaster/
________________________________________________________________

Let's get real. We are the Nazis of our time.  Canada and most of Europe have accepted the reality that our real leaders are capitalists who murder and plunder other countries.  Many western countries have played that game - France, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and, above all, Britain and the U.S.

For over two centuries, the wealthy of Britain were the world's greediest and most vicious people. In many colonies, it treated the native peoples as slaves, much as the U.S. now does - as in Latin America. In fact, Britain was perhaps the world's major slaver into the early 1800s with uncounted millions of Africans, many of whom died because of the conditions on the slave ships.

And like the U.S.,  all the benefit of this went to the pockets of the very, very rich including, of course, the royal families with their monstrous need for luxury and splendour. Like most Americans today, the wealthy British then and today have treated most of their nation's own people as less than dirt.

Canada is simply a follower under the heels of it's wealthy who plunder the rest of us to enrich themselves.

And in all of those years, we have learned nothing. We are actually allowing things to get worse, much worse. And the Christian churches are, again and as always, letting it happen.
________________________________________________________________

Jan 30: Is it too late?

Again, a reminder that we don't yet know much about coronavirus. It's not yet time to shoot elderly members of the family (like me) who develop a cough.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/30/what-is-coronavirus-symptoms-from-wuhan-china-and-how-worried-should-we-be-sars
_________________________________________________________________

Millions of people in Africa and Latin America are desperate to flee the hunger and violence that that was created, first, by Britain, and then by the U.S. (with Canadian help.) This is going to get worse, much worse. And our Christian response?....
Push them back to suffer more.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/30/greece-plans-to-build-sea-barrier-off-lesbos-to-deter-migrants
_________________________________________________________________
Yes. Many, many Canadians are racists. They always have been.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/canada-chinese-community-battles-racist-backlash-amid-coronavirus-outbreak
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/30/now-that-climate-change-is-irrefutable-denialists-like-andrew-bolt-insist-it-will-be-good-for-us
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/30/donald-trump-israel-palestinians-middle-east

And what will Canada's Justin Trudeau think of all this? In the past he has been a pretty consistent supporter of American interference in other countries - like Venezuela and Bolivia. Will he fall into line with Trump's absurd interference in Palestine?
_________________________________________________________________

Alberta - government of the polluters, by the polluters, for the polluters.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/alberta-taxes-oilpatch-1.5445116
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/u-s-chinese-communist-party-central-threat-1.5445631

Mr. Pompeo is too modest. The U.S. with the biggest war spending in the world and with it's constant invasions of other countries, it's deliberate starvation of who countries, it's economic exploitation, it's daily killings - specializing in mass murder of civilians and children - is far  the greatest threat in the world.

Oh, and the American farce of a democracy which is really ruled by billionaires....

Even allowing for these errors, Mr. Pompeo is simply ignorant (or a liar). China is not communist. It hasn't been for some time. There are capitalists in China. There are a great many of them. In fact, I taught a student who became one of them.  He was then in Hong Kong; but he settled into mainland China a long time ago.

As things are, China might be called a mixture of socialism and capitalism. But, of course,  Mr. Pompeo wouldn't understand what socialism is, either.

Oh, how many countries has China invaded? How many has the U.S. invaded?
_________________________________________________________________
And this is what our political leaders should have been thinking of on D-Day in 1945.

https://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2020/01/new-book-fights-neoliberal-consensus-climate-change

"We've won the war. Now we've got to win the peace."

But we didn't.     Instead, we opened up the world to massive war-mongering, killing tens of millions to benefit western capitalists.
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/01/support-trans-mountain-expansion-drops-under-jason-kenneys
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/01/why-canada-still-deporting-roma-people-persecution

________________________________________________________________
https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/01/why-canada-still-deporting-roma-people-persecution

The romani are what we more commonly call gypsies. Canada had some, though very, very few. As a child of six or so, I saw a family with its colourful wagon pulled by two horses in a field by my home. The wagon was their home.

The Romani were victims of the holocaust but they, like some other groups, had no significant presence in the revelations of the holocaust.
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/news/2020/01/do-not-reduce-lessons-auschwitz-pious-clich%C3%A9s

In my school days, one of my friends was Jewish, the only Jew in the school. One day, he was missing. I asked the principal about it.

"Oh. I transferred him to a school that is all Jews and only Jews. He'll be happier with his own kind."

Until that moment, I had thought he WAS our kind.
________________________________________________________________

https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-netanyahu-trump-and-the-mideast-peace-deals-two-state-illusion
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/30/absolutely-horrific-trump-preparing-roll-back-restrictions-us-military-use-landmines
______________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/30/new-poll-shows-sanders-trumps-most-formidable-foe-so-called-red-state-texas
________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/01/30/amnesty-international-demands-ngo-access-mexicos-migrant-detention-centers
________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/venezuela-january-2020-hardship-and-resistance
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/28/an-open-letter-to-justin-trudeau-on-venezuela/
_________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/01/28/Jason-Kenney-Betrayed-Rural-Albertans-Turned-To-Stone/
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-government-represents-lawless-billionaires/5702200
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52915.htm

Something is seriously wrong at information clearing house. It is now missing 2 full days of reporting. And, perhaps not coincidentally, these are two days that followed a severe attack on the site.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/28/analysis/americans-alarmed-about-climate-crisis-surges-good-reason
_________________________________________________________________

Here is a pretty good, if brief, summary of what has been happening in our world for several centuries as the British Empire committed mass murder and plunder all over the world. A characteristic of this evil is that only a small number of the British people got the benefit of all this mass murder and plundering. Most of the British got nothing but starvation, filth, poverty and early death from this. Oh, and they also got to die in the service of an aristocracy what would simply abandon them where their usefulness was over.

What is now the U.S. became what Britain was almost from the start as it murdered it's indigenous people to steal their land. Indeed, that was what the American revolution was all about.

By 1900, the U.S. had extended itself to mass murder and exploitation all over Latin America, Hawaii, and The Philippines. In World War Two, it entered the war in order to steal the British Empire. It did so in much of the world; but it missed what would have been it's greatest, murderous opportunity - the conquest of China. That's why, to this day, Americans are taught to see China as evil.

Americans probably cannot conquer the world as they hoped to in 1945. But American capitalists have succeeded in plundering the American people, especially over the last  40 or  50 years.  One of their great successes has been the increasing theft of national wealth by encouraging war spending which all goes into the pockets of the very rich, which destroys essential needs like education, and health care, and basic living standards, and which makes a nuclear war increasingly likely.  And we will all suffer a holocaust.

https://off-guardian.org/2020/01/29/how-washington-liberates-free-countries/
_________________________________________________________________

https://theantimedia.com/20000-us-troops-have-surged-into-middle-east-since-last-spring-to-counter-iran/

Why are these troops necessary? Is it because these countries have threatened to attack the U.S.? Is it because the U.S. wants to stop them from illegal acts?

No. It's because U.S. capitalists want to keep plundering their old victims, and to add new ones like Iran.  Will this mean some Americans will get killed in carrying out these attacks? Well, yeah. But who cares?  Anyway, when their dirty work for billionaires has been done, some will get to go home to parade in American streets where the locals will clap hands for their courage. That's what happened in Canada when it's dead came back from a war in Afghanistan, a war that had nothing to do with Afghanistan, and where the U.S., too, had no right to be.
_________________________________________________________________

And, yes, the commercial news media lie.

https://theantimedia.com/20000-us-troops-have-surged-into-middle-east-since-last-spring-to-counter-iran/
________________________________________________________________

Capitalism has wildly corrupted democracy, especially over the western world.

https://theintercept.com/2020/01/30/does-joe-biden-have-a-corruption-problem/
_________________________________________________________________

The last couple of blogs have been extremely depressing. Democracy in most countries, especially in the U.S. and Canada, simply does not exist. Thinking is controlled by commercial news media that are simply propaganda agencies for their wealthy owners. Political parties, for the most part, are creations of the billionaires who pay politicians to be dishonest. That's blindingly true of Canada's Liberals and Conservatives. It's even truer of the U.S. Republicans and Democrats.

That is the setting in which the very wealthy buy governments that will make them even more wealthy. That, not defence, is why the U.S. is spending  wildly on weapons. That is simply stealing the nation's money, impoverishing the nation's people, adding to the masses of street outcasts, letting millions starve in much of Africa and Latin America, fight wars as in the days of knighthood- except that knights weren't nearly as greedy and as destructive as our very wealthy are.

We are well into this planet's greatest and most destructive period in history as, to the tens of millions murdered in wars of greed, we have to add the millions more killed by deliberate starvation and poverty.

That poverty will also come to us. Indeed, it has been spreading to us for at least forty years. The greedy want everything. They have no sense of limits, no sense of the rest of us.

This could well be the final chapter in the life of humanity.

In this final chapter, note the disorder almost everywhere in the world. In the U.S., it is quite possible, even likely, that the next election will be the beginning of internal violence. The difference between Republicans  and Democrats will be a major factor. More accurately, the difference between some Democrats and all Republicans - and between Bernie Sanders Democrats and a large number of the old Democrats - could well mean serious violence. (The American people seem to be moving more quickly toward the idea of a livable world than their elected representatives are.)

There has been no reason for wars from the start. All wars throughout history have been triggered by the wealthy and greedy. The only difference today is that the wealthy and greedy control the weapons for the final war.
______________________________________________________________

Oh, in the meantime, it might be useful for most of our politicians and for us to find out what the words Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism mean. And then we could demand that most of our commercial news media be taught what they mean.
________________________________________________________________

Jan. 28: A quiet - but very deceptive - few days.

This has been a very unpleasant time to write today's blog.  Not all that much is happening right now. But, oh, the years of insanity, of greed, of confusion, of wild disorder are very much in evidence. As things are developing, we are inflicting on the whole world a greed that has shot out of sight just in the past 40 years. We are fighting wars to please the most murderous people in history. We have watched American history - which was never the wonder it claimed - descend into insanity. We are watching and taking part in the greed and destruction of all that is civilized.

We are almost certainly on the edge of the final war, a nuclear one.

And the promise of 1945 to create a new world with a universal world order was broken almost before it was made. The Nazism we once fought is alive and well,
with Americans, British, and Canadians,  plundering and murdering all over Latin America and the middle east to please our billionaires.

No. The worst has not begun. But it's close. Very close.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/donald-trump-middle-east-peace-plan-israel-netanyahu-palestinians

In effect, this would simply legalize Israel's massive theft of Palestinian land.
________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/27/jared-kushner-israel-palestine-peace-plan
________________________________________________________________
And, for those worried about the latest health threat from China.....

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/27/what-is-coronavirus-symptoms-sars-china-wuhan
_________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/01/ideology-trumps-expertise-when-conservatives-meddle-health-care

It is the determination of Canada's Conservatives (and, to a lesser degree) it's Liberals to suck all the wealth of this country into the pockets of the super-rich, showering them with billions in tax breaks and hand-outs while increasing the rate of poverty for the rest of us.
________________________________________________________________
https://rabble.ca/news/2020/01/activists-focus-rcmp-fears-police-raid-wetsuweten-territory-escalate

Canada's indigenous people have rights. One of those is a right to control their own land. To attack that right is illegal. It betrays the promises we have made - but rarely honoured - to indigenous peoples. And the use of the RCMP? That dishonours all we have ever thought of that police force.

And we're doing all this to please oil billionaires who are the most greedy and destructive people in our society.
_________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2020/01/rcmp-blocks-human-rights-lawyers-accessing-wetsuweten
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/news/2020/01/labour-unites-regina-carepartners-reaches-deal-seiu-and-canadian-teachers-take-action

For some years now, the super wealthy of Canada and the U.S. (and some other countries) have been running wild, creating increasing poverty among millions in the nations. It's even worse, of course, in the American empire which closely resembles the  poverty inflicted in older days by it's British ancestor.

The enemies of Canada and the American people are not the Chinese or the Russians. The most destructive and greedy people are our very own billionaires and the governments they buy.
________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/journalism-doctor/2020/01/case-study-sinister-war-media
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/the-doomsday-clock-ticks-closer-to-midnight/
________________________________________________________________

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/the-doomsday-clock-ticks-closer-to-midnight/
________________________________________________________________

https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-facing-new-coronavirus-chinese-medics-did-their-job-politicians-did-not
________________________________________________________________

https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-putin-bids-for-post-retirement-influence-but-not-for-immortality

In the western press, Putin is a murderer and plunderer for his own benefit.
Well, maybe. But many a western nation has worse leadership. (The U.S. and Britain spring to mind. And Canada helps them.)

Putin is also perhaps the most intelligent national leader of all the major powers.
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/28/41-senators-urge-trump-administration-end-cruel-and-dangerous-effort-cut-social

But, in the U.S. as in Canada, it's necessary to give less to the millions of the poor in order to give more to the very small number of very rich.
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/28/we-will-resist-it-every-way-palestinians-call-world-reject-anti-peace-deal-put-forth
________________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/28/admission-colossal-failure-us-dropped-record-number-bombs-afghanistan-2019

Exactly what is this war about? The people being bombed had nothing to do with any attack on the U.S.   It was Americans great friends, the Saudis, who were behind the 9/11 attacks.  So wouldn't it help if some American leaders announced why this killing is going on?
_________________________________________________________________

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/28/why-the-new-silk-roads-are-threat-to-us-bloc/
_________________________________________________________________

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/27/dnc-leader-stacks-nominating-committee-against-bernie-sanders/
_________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/climate-change-means-lifestyle-change
_________________________________________________________________

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/how-is-washington-liberating-free-countries
_________________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/01/27/RCMP-Letter-Confusion-Helicopter-Flights-Wetsuweten-Camps/

...so much for my childhood worship of the 'mounties'.....
_______________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/01/27/Talk-Cheap-Capitalism-Bell-Mental-Health/
______________________________________________________________

https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/01/21/Trudeau-Government-To-Choose-Climate-Side/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52906.htm
_____________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52913.htm
_______________________________________________________________

https://boingboing.net/2020/01/27/james-mitchell-war-criminal.html

How is the U.S. different from Nazi Germany? From the old British Empire? And from all the empires going back 2000 years and beyond?
_________________________________________________________________

https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1221959823547387904

Venezuela has no free and fair elections and no democracy of any sort. Trudeau is weak - and most Canadians are at least as weak as he is.
________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52915.htm

Forget the "brave young lads' stuff.  War is really all about murder.
____________________________________________________________

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=373697047018228084#allposts
_________________________________________________________________

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/27/news/carletons-new-election-integrity-scholar-comes-facebook-ndp-says-thats-dracula

Carleton University is just a short distance from where I live. And such a bad decision is common in universities.  The real powers in universities are the Boards of Governors. These boards are made up of the very wealthy and/or of the servants of the wealthy. So university administrators do what they are told to do.
________________________________________________________________

https://off-guardian.org/2020/01/28/ignoring-the-elephant-at-gitmo-yet-another-9-11-crime/

This is the reality of war. It was the reality for the British Empire, for Hitler's Germany, and now for the U.S.
_______________________________________________________________

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/uk-researcher-predicts-over-250000-people-china-will-have-coronavirus-ten-days

Earlier in the site, I had given a report that claimed the coronavirus may be an exaggerated threat. But that, alas, is not the only opinion.
_________________________________________________________

It's an old story. Greed runs wild among us humans. It always has been, of course. But now it may be running wild at a pace this world has never seen before.  Canadian and American billionaires have created massive poverty in Latin America. The British and, now, American billionaires are destroying the middle east..............and it is quite possible the very greedy will soon attack Russia and China.

Almost all wars in human history have been fought out of greed. That was true, on most sides, in world wars one and two. Interestingly, the only major country that fought for freedom and for the benefit of it's people, was Mao's China  which had to fight off both greedy British and greedy American billionaires.

https://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2019/02/inequality-is-growing-pox-upon-our.html
________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/virtually-all-major-us-drinking-water-sources-likely-contaminated-with-pfas/

This is insanity. And Trump has a minority but high minority of American fanatics. And it's quite possible he could win with the helped of a few Democrats who are as greedy and crazy as he is.
________________________________________________________________

https://truthout.org/articles/rolling-back-water-rules-doesnt-help-most-farmers-its-for-big-polluters/
________________________________________________________________

Be patient with this one. It's worth it to get through the opening paragraphs to get to the heart of it.

https://truthout.org/articles/the-world-is-burning-but-its-not-front-page-news/
_________________________________________________________________
https://thesaker.is/u-s-demands-iraq-either-join-u-s-war-against-iran-or-be-destroyed/

Yes, the U.S. with far the world's biggest military spending needs help to fight Iran. And watch for a request to Canada. It would be a wonderful chance for another mass murder of civilians and children (As Iraq knows.)
_________________________________________________________________