March 14:A planet run by greedy fools.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/coronavirus-lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous-how-the-1-are-coping

https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-sean-mallen-coronavirus-1.5491827

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/13/donald-trump-coronavirus-national-emergency-sketch

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/14/trump-may-exploit-coronavirus-crisis

Trump has done nothing - and there's still no sign of him doing anything signficant. Will that  hurt him at the polls? I doubt it. Nor is there any reason to expect better from a Republican party led by Biden.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/european-colonial-powers-still-loth-to-admit-historical-evils

Western powers such as Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and now  the U.S. (and that means most of our readers)  have a long and murrderous history of brutal imperialism.  Indeed they have been - and still are - the most vicious nations in  history.

Many years ago, as a teenager, I was captivated by Winston Churchill's writing which was all about the greatness of empire. Only later would I realize that Winston Churchill starved millions of the people of India to death, deliberately bombed civilians in the middle east....and, like the people of his social class, had nothing but contempt for most of the British people.

The U.S. was a leader in the slave trade as it's capitalists are today in the exploitation and mass murder of Latin Americans. Then, of course, there was the long. mass murder of America's indigenous peoples - with special attention to  the murder of women and children. That went on for centuries - with eager killers like George Washington.

Nor was Canada simply an onlooker. Chinese were imported to work on the railway across Canada - partly because they could be forced to work for low wages, and could be used for dangerous jobs like dynamiting.

You would never guess it from our history books, but our white ancestors were at least as vicious as any in history. Sometimes (often) we still are.  And the arrival of print news did nothing to change that. As a student at a maritime university, I was astronished by the cruel treatment of maritime Blacks. (And, ignorant as I was, I did not know that my native Montreal was just as bad.)

Most of our news media ignored all this, just as most of them to this day ignore the cruelty of our treatment of people in the middle east, the sending of Canadian to kill Afghanis and train killers in Syria, and destroy a legitimate nation of Haitians to please American billionaires.

Yes. It is an evil world. And we are very much a part of that evil.
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https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/03/economic-response-covid-19-pandemic-go-big-go-fast
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2020/03/lessons-covid-19-we-are-only-strong-our-weakest-link
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2020/03/arms-show-announces-intention-proceed-despite-coronavirus
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-what-peculiar-time-health-minister-pursue
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/coronvirus-products-face-mask-hand-washing-sanitizer-gloves-1.5496659
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-canada-social-distancing-1.5497789
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https://www.thenation.com/article/world/coronavirus-america-first/
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https://www.thetelegram.com/opinion/local-perspectives/gwynne-dyer-bibi-benny-and-ruvi-the-future-of-israel-423981/
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/13/shock-doctrine-press-conference-trump-bails-out-oil-industry-not-us-families

This should surprise no-one. Here in Canada, governments are very kind to oil companies, and Liberal and Conservative politicians - especially Conservatives, make a point of how good oil companies are to us, and openly insist there is no such thing as climate change.

The reality is , of course, us is that climate is going wild all over the world, and with even a country like Switzerland running out of snow. We are not heading to climate catastrophe. But that's because we are there..And this year is a striking example.

But still, twits like Donald Trump and Canadian premiers like Doug Ford - people who have no scietific training whatever and who, indeed, never even try to explain their idiot theories, proudly boast on every possible occasion that the oil industry is innocent - and there is no climate change happening.

Virtually all of the world scientists who have been studying this for thirty years and more have warned we are in severe danger and the planet, itself,  may be destroyed soon.

But still, most of our news media tread softly, treating village idiots like Trump and Ford and and Jason Kenney as if they were intelligent and honest. Worse. The news media of states and provinces with oil industries lie to their own readers. Thus the insanity of Alberta - and some striking examples of it in Ontario.

In  fairness, it's possible such people are honest. Not likely, but possible. And just stupid.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/13/grotesque-level-greed-owned-worlds-richest-man-jeff-bezos-whole-foods-wants-workers

Capitalism does not work on moral or religious principles. It's pure and simple greed. Too bad evangelical Christians don't have any religious principles, either.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/13/cruelty-charts-trump-blocks-states-expanding-medicaid-response-coronavirus


Indeed, this is a day when it's worth reading the whole of Common Dreams.
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/12/nuclear-war-could-devastate-us-even-if-no-one-shoots-back/

The reality is that a world war (which is very close) would destroy us all. So why are we preparing for it?
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/12/team-trump-failed-to-bully-icc-into-dropping-war-crimes-probe/
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/13/four-reasons-civilization-wont-decline-it-will-collapse/
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/white-house-removes-public-health-experts-coronavirus-discussions/5706281
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/murdering-children-sport/5706188

You didn't see this in your local news media?  No. I guess not.
________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/54004.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/54001.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/54006.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/54006.htm
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I'm afraid I have to agree with this next opinon.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53099.htm
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/03/13/analysis/truth-about-coronavirus-scary-global-war-truth-even-scarier
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/03/12/news/young-inmate-died-suicide-saskatchewan-and-people-want-answers
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https://truthout.org/articles/amid-coronavirus-trump-moves-to-take-food-stamps-from-over-a-million-people/

There are no people as greedy as billionaires. Rule by billionaires has not worked. It's abuse of most of us is by a very small group. And that has been true without exception.
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Today's news is deep in hysteria. In it, the leading nations are trying to do two imcompatible things - trying to dominate each other with weaponry we rarely hear about and which is so uncontrollably destructive that any use of it would destroy both sides. We are well past the point at which our technology can be used to destroy only one side.

War is wildly impractical for all of us. But still we insist on it. We also use wars to pamper billionaires who need them to plunder the wealth of other countries - as in the middle east.

But that's a mug's game. Wars fought for that reason - as in the middle east - are stuningly expensive, so expensive that we are suffering declining prosperity because of the cost of them. That's very nice for the oil barons who make huge profits out of this. But it's the rest of us who have to pay the cost. (The oil barons don't pay oil taxes - or any other kind.) In a country like the U.S., millions go hungry and homeless so the oil bosses can pocket billions while very large numbers of the rest of us are living in increasing poverty.

For most of us, wars are a losing proposition. Trump's Make America Great Again is nonsense. American are not, on the whole, rising. Only a handful get the gains.

And the great cost yet to come? That will come with a misstep into the war that cannot be won, not by either side. We are not rising in triumph. One day, the final disaster will happen.

March 12: Which side are you on?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/12/coronavirus-symptoms-what-are-they-and-should-i-see-a-doctor
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/trump-coronavirus-ban-travel-backfired

And he's doing all this through an American  health care system that works at high, high cost, essentially to produce profits for the super wealthy who own it.
So who cares whether most people cannot afford it?
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/science-soap-kills-coronavirus-alcohol-based-disinfectants
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And, oh, I  was so relieved to see this next item.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/disease-dodging-worried-wealthy-jet-off-to-disaster-bunkers
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We, in the western world, have been murdering, plundering, starving, horribly abusing the people of Africa and the Middle East for centuries. Millions of them are desperately trying to flee. And we won't lift a finger to help them. On the contrary.....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/12/revealed-the-great-european-refugee-scandal

That abuse, incidentally. has been inflicted by, among others, Canada - as in Syria and other countries.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/european-colonial-powers-still-loth-to-admit-historical-evils

Hitler was not an unusual figure in world history. Western leaders have been killing on an even bigger scale than Hitler did for centuries. That's really the meaning of "Make America Great Again" on Trump's cap.

And Trump, like all the other western plunderers in history, has horribly abused the poor of his own country.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/12/majority-white-us-protestants-believe-trump-good-for-interests

The U.S., Canada, Britain - the whole 'Christian' world is not Christian and never has been. It would be nice if they were. But it hasn't happened.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/12/against-humanity-un-expert-calls-on-australia-to-stop-selling-weapons-to-war-torn-mali

Weapons industries are among the busiest in the world. The U.S., in particular, has the biggest spending on weapons in history. For the billionaire manufacturers of weapons, this is purely for their own profit. And the cost of this for the rest of us?  Check out the decline in spending on education. Check out income levels for us peasants - and how they have been declining for years. Check out the lack of action to deal with millions of homeless all over the world.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid19-premiers-coronavirus-1.5495001

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-election-advantages-and-disadvantage-1.5494197

If it comes to choice between Republican Trump and Democrat Biden, it couldn't matter less which wins. Like Trump, Biden is not bright and possibly not sane. And both are the puppets of billionaires.
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Just thinkin'.

"Christian" nations have commonly been among the greediest and most brutal nations in the world for almost 2,000 years. But Canada once broke away from that pattern.

For the better part of a century, Canada had a political party based on the principles of Christian faith. Christian clergy were among it's major leaders.

No. They didn't try to cram religion down people's throats. In fact, it happily welcomed people of all religions. Nor did it try to convert them. No, it simply based its policies on Christian principles - the only Canadian party ever to do so.  Indeed, it could well have embraced people of most religions. And it did. That's not surprising. Most religions have values much in common with each other. Too bad that we commonly train them  to hate each other.

That party was called the CCF.

What it campaigned for was decent salaries and, notably, the medicare system that they forced on the reluctant Liberals.

Alas! Parties that do good things do not get donations from billionaires. And that seriously handicapped the CCF in a Canada run by Liberals and Conservatives who were the servants not of any faith but only of the super wealthy.

Needing a source of election money, it turned to the Canadian labour unions to raise money.  Alas, the unions, just like the Liberals and Conservatives, were not keen on religious values.  The CCF became the NDP, certainly  a better party than the Libs and Cons, but still lacking in big money- and lacking in the principles of human values.

Political parties need moral values. The Libs and Cons, like the U.S. Reps and Dems, have no values whatever.

I vote NDP. But I miss the CCF.
_________________________________________________________________
https://rabble.ca/news/2020/03/fight-against-covid-19-should-focus-most-vulnerable-including-first-nations
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/12/us-reportedly-bombs-iran-backed-militias-just-house-passes-resolution-prevent
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/11/accusing-us-medical-terrorism-iran-demands-trump-lift-drug-import-sanctions-amid
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/12/us-france-significantly-increase-arms-exports/
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This next item is the world we live in. It takes me back to when I was 11, and joining in the excitement of Victory in Europe day. And after all of these years I still remember the slogan "We've won the war" and then "Now we've got to win the peace."

But we didn't win the peace.

And no, it's not just the other side that was evil through those years. We, in fact, were the most evil - with 75 years of  non-stop wars and threats to please our billionaire masters. 

As I stood that day looking at the new slogan, I looked forward to family friends coming home - and my father coming home. It was over, I thought...

But it wasn't over. Within five years and ever since, I watched  every generation go to more killing. And all of it to satisfy the unsatisfiable greed of the very wealthy.

Of course, most of those very wealthy, like George Bush Jr., never went to war themselves. (And I remembered how one of Montreal's wealthiest men who made his fortune as a liquor smuggler to the U.S. in prohibition days put his sons into the army - but to occupy office jobs in Washington.)

Just about every war there ever was had at least one side fighting to gain super wealth. That was true of the wars of over two thousand years ago. And it is still true.
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/chelsea-manning-hospitalized-after-attempting-suicide-in-federal-detention
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/how-bernie-bros-were-invented-then-smeared-as-sexist-racist-and-unamerican-as-borscht
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/criminality-democratic-party/5705869
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53092.htm
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https://popularresistance.org/99-9-percent-of-us-citizens-unaware-of-largest-us-war-game-in-europe-in-25-years/?fbclid=IwAR3JgNXKswufEx6A4V_FjaQ4o01mH6p7vkdb8YOJpimP7WoW202yrXKf6kU
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53093.htm
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We live in a world controlled mostly by the greediest people - and quite possibly the most foolish people - in history. This tiny group is a profound curse on much of the planet. Caring only about itself (and profoundly ignorant of any morality one can think of) this group controls our governments and us.

They starve, abuse and murder millions. And now that evil is combined with the most powerful and destructive weapons in history. Now, at any time, they can take us to the final destruction, the war that has no winners. They own us, and we let them own us.

If we are going to wake up, we have to do it very, very soon. So far, we have squandered all the years since 1945. Anybody who can take the Liberal party, the Conservatives, the Republicans or most of the Democrats seriously is either a fool or a  scoundrel.

And the time we have to smarten up is very, very short..

March 10: It doesn't get better.

Despite Trump's assurances that coronavirus is no big deal, all of Italy has been shut down by it. And NOBODY has even a rough count of how many Americans have it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/mar/10/coronavirus-update-latest-italy-shutdown-lockdown-who-pandemic-outbreak-quarantine-uk-cases-usa-america-australia-live-news-updates
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I'm finding my local news media are starting to pay attention -  but not much. A hockey game gets more coverage.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/10/wearing-face-mask-how-doctors-deal-with-coronavirus-risk-daily-lives
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/10/elon-musk-college-for-fun-not-learning

Having taught in universities for  almost forty years, I think Mr. Musk is full of it. It's true there is a serious problem in our universities. But it's not the lack of fun.

One problem is the cost of university education. That, alone, makes university impossible for a very large part of our population. And there's an even bigger problem.  Almost all university professors have no training in education. None. Zilch

In some programmes that doesn't really matter. Business programmes, for example, are simply job training. But my field, History, is quite different. It, like many other programmes, should be about learning how to think, how to make judgements. But professors have no training in that. Instead, I can recall years of memorizing lectures that had nothing to do with thinking. The lectures were information that had nothing to do with making judgements, and everthing to do with memorizing for the exam - almost all of which would be forgotten after the exam.

What students in such fields have to learn is not forgettable information. They have to learn how to think, how to make judgements about the pronouncements of the professor. It's not the information that has to be learned - it's the skill of making judgements about it.

I had classes with capitalist historians and marxist historians  when what I had to learn was the skill of judging the worth   (and purpose?) of their views.

And some professors didn't even have the basic skill of communicating with an audience.

But, as I learned, saying this was seen as an insult to professors who wasted their time and student time with lectures to be memorized, a task that could be more simply (and as uselessly) achieved by issuing a text book for memorization.

(Then there was the course on Chaucer's  Pilgrim's Progress. In every class, we read around the room to learn how to speak in very old English. I now pass on to you, dear reader, all that I learned.  "If yow  leste" means - if it is pleasing to you.)
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/10/coronavirus-latest-at-a-glance
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/how-can-i-go-back-delhi-fearful-muslims-mourn-riot-dead

India's leaders have, in effect, approved of the mass murder of their Islamic citizens. Trump visited and shook hands with the national leader who approved this mass murder.
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Billionaires, including Canadian ones, have been making huge profits by, among other horrors, using young children to work in their mines at very low salaries. In return, we send them missionaries.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/10/human-rights-activist-forced-to-flee-drc-over-child-cobalt-mining-lawsuit
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-canada-death-1.5491907
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadian-oilpatch-price-plunge-1.5491173
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/cathy-crowes-blog/2020/03/torontos-homeless-people-deserve-covid-19-plan
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https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/dyer-whatever-you-call-it-china-has-made-a-mess-of-the-covid-19-crisis/wcm/aa0db324-b865-461f-949d-606a15a78e4a
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/10/hiding-behind-false-and-misleading-claims-biden-refuses-commit-signing-medicare-all
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/09/closing-nyc-schools-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-last-resort-says-official-due-114000

114,000 homeless school children in New York? And the number of homeless children in the U.S. is 2.5 million. This is in a country in which the major cities are, for the most part, ruled by the super wealthy or by their puppets.  This is in a country in which billionaires who control everything don't pay income tax - but who commonly demand and get huge financial gifts for themselves.

But to stay with New York and it's 114,000 - it's mayor until a few years ago was a man named Bloomberg who is 'worth' 69 billion dollars and who was until days ago, a Democrat candidate for president And what did he do for homeless children when he was mayor?

https://www.salon.com/2019/12/15/how-bloomberg-made-life-worse-for-the-poor-in-new-york/

Our world has always been dominated by greed. But probably  never on the scale we are seeing now. Can any leader, even one who wants to end this carnival of greed, be permitted to do anything?

Alas! I doubt it very much. The super wealthy can buy politicians and news media....and they can buy evangelicals. Any attempt to stop the abuse of us and our children will almost certainly be met by violence.

And yes. That's true of Canada as well.
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/global-warming-on-a-rampage

And so it was that the voters of Ontario elected a man who probably can't even spell 'global warming'.
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Here's a radical change of tone about coronavirus.

https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/coronavirus-no-need-for-fear-stay-calm
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/iran-and-the-us-holy-code-book-of-double-standard-morality

Sometimes, the U.S. and Canada should look at themselves in a mirror. The U.S. is a useless and illegal killer. And Canada is it's loyal servant.
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/09/joe-biden-is-demented-racist-shark-food/
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https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/02/28/Blockades-Arent-The-Crisis/
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/idf-knee-capping-besieged-gazans-hundreds-of-palestinians-killed/5705989
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/united-states-imposed-economic-sanctions-big-heist/5705987
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-confiscates-sole-medical-vehicle-serving-1500-palestinians/5705900

The above item has no connection with what we used to think about Jewish or Christian principles. The 'good guys' in this are Muslims.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53084.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53091.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53085.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53086.htm

Well - somebody had to say it.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/03/09/news/coastal-gaslink-broke-bc-pipeline-rules-more-50-times
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/03/09/analysis/how-tc-energy-transcanada-treated-indigenous-rights-its-mexico-projects

Yes. Canadian capitalists act just like American ones.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/03/08/news/greta-thunbergs-attackers-reveal-grim-pattern
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https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/coronavirus-paid-sick-leave-united-states/

The U.S., like a great many other countries doesn't give a damn about it's own people - unless they're the very rich ones.
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The following item is long, but  worth the read.

We are the Naziis of our time. Our news media of World War Two never told us the truth of what that was about. It was not about Nazi murder of Jews. The reality is we didn't care about that. For Britain, the purpose of the war was to reduce the competition of German capitalists so the world could be exploited by British capitalists. For the Americans, it was get control of British capitalism by, for example, stealing British oil fields in the Middle East - and British colonies in the Far East. And the U.S. has been trying to do that ever since - as in Latin America and the Middle East and, quite possibly, in much of Asia.

This is not a criticism of Canadians who fought in those wars. They believed in the reasons they were given. And they performed well. But our governments lied to them just as Hitler had lied to the German people.

The reality is that almost all wars in history have been fought to satisfy the greed of the very wealthy. And the purpose of most news media is to lie to us about it.

That's why Canadians went to kill Afghanis. And North Koreans. And Libyans. And Haitians. And trained people to kill Syrians.

That's how we became Naziis. And it began long before Hitler's time . The British Empire was as greedy and murderous as any empire in history. Indeed, it murdered far more people. And Canada joined in to kill Boer settlers so that British billionaires could steal South African gold. Why did Canadians do this? It was because they were serving the King! (That's the usual sort of excuse for murdering and plundering.)

Take a look at Churchill's record. He had nothing but contempt for those who weren't rich and, as for colonies, he happily worked and starved them to death in the millions. The U.S. today (and going back to the earliest British intruders) has been as murderous and plundering as Britain was.)

https://truthout.org/articles/auschwitz-survivors-dont-want-their-past-to-be-their-grandchildrens-future/
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https://truthout.org/video/activists-call-for-health-measures-to-prevent-coronavirus-at-immigrant-jails/

Good luck, prisoners. The Trumps and Bidens of this world won't even look after their own people.
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https://truthout.org/articles/no-one-knows-how-many-immigrant-kids-have-disappeared-in-us-custody/
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https://truthout.org/articles/war-on-terror-rhetoric-is-being-used-to-justify-the-killing-of-syrians/

All wars are wars on terrorists and are reported as by terrorists on one side. That's what war is. The term 'war on terror' was invented by the U.S. to justify it's own terrorists - though it never calls them by that name.
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https://theintercept.com/2020/03/10/coronavirus-covid-19-government-federal-contracts/
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Hitler was not an aberration. For all his dreadful faults, he was a typical. western leader - and very similar to the western powers of today.

March 7: A bad day...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/us-coronavirus-death-toll-washington-state

It should be obvious that Trump is wildly incompetent as president.   He has made no serious attempt to ensure that everyone has access to health care; and he refuses even to recognize the spread of coronavirus. Indeed, he is still blaming it all on fake news. The world is picking on him.

It should be obvious that this man in seriously mentally ill. But his evangelical fans still cheer him on. These fans are people who think it's evil to abort pregnancies - but have no problem with the American mass murder of babies and children all over the world - a number that must now far exceed a million deliberately killed by American bombs and deliberate American starvation. Another term for Trump would be a disaster for the world when such a large part of the American population, the most "Christian" part of it, still supports Trump.

Nor are things much better on the Democrat side. A large number of Democrat leaders, probably a majority, are pretty much as bad as the Republicans who are quite prepared to murder foreigners for the sake of pleasing American billionaires, and to force poverty on the American people.

The presence of Bernie Sanders probably won't change this. His platform probably isn't strong enough to make the changes he speaks of - and much of his own party would probably vote against any changes he might attempt.

The American system (which was never democratic) is not likely to become democratic. It is, as it always has been, the servant of the very wealthy. And that could well trigger a complete breakdown.

And Canadians? They have always been politically much the same as Americans.  They may well turn against the Liberals. But, if so, they are likely to vote for Conservatives - who are the Canadian  equivalents of Trump. And Canada's billionaires, like those of the U.S., are our Hitlers.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/07/coronavirus-us-deaths-new-york-emergency-florida
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/05/palestinian-voters-israel-benjamin-netanyahu-joint-list-party
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/we-re-just-lost-why-the-u-s-still-lags-on-covid-19-testing-1.5488886
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/we-re-just-lost-why-the-u-s-still-lags-on-covid-19-testing-1.5488886

It's an old story. We make some countries unlivable. Then, when they try to escape the horror, we rerfuse to accept them, and we even murder them.

Onward Christian soldiers....
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2020/03/community-leaders-arrested-after-protesting-canadian-oil

Yes. Canadian billionaires abuse Latin Americans just like American billionaires do. But Canadian news media (like American ones) almost never report it.
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/03/coronavirus-discovered-alberta-just-politics-trumps-facts
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-patterson/2020/03/business-booming-canadas-largest-arms-fair-comes-ottawa

Canada can't afford adequate schools for it's children. It has no money to provide shelter for those who live on our sidewalks.

But oh, there's always lots and lots of money for weapons to kill children and civilians all over the world.
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https://www.thetelegram.com/opinion/local-perspectives/gwynne-dyer-migrants-a-glimpse-of-the-future-420417/
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https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/03/06/trump-vs-sanders-concise-comparison-voters-and-why-bernie-wins-hands-down
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/06/stop-calling-it-a-stutter-dozens-of-examples-show-bidens-dementia-symptoms/
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And here's a story that didn't make my local news media - and almost certainly didn't make yours.

https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/global-warming-on-a-rampage
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/this-is-not-just-a-gender-gap-its-a-power-gap

And how many Canadian women have become prime ministers?

We need a man - like  Pierre Trudeau - to be  prime minister?  Get real.
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Here's a story that I have never seen in our commercial news media. American sailors on nuclear powered ships and submarines are dying of high rates of cancer.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/06/cancer-in-us-navy-nuclear-powered-ships/
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/06/a-simple-prescription-for-a-longer-life-economic-equality/
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https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2020/03/05/Trudeau-Circus-Act-Blockade-Crisis/
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https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/03/06/BC-Coronavirus-Frontlines-Face-Financial-Risk-Protect-Workers/

Sending workers home with no pay? That's a neither helpful nor intelligent decision.
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/china-coronavirus-shocking-update/5705196

I don't know. I suppose it is possible in this insanely gangsterish world.
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/despicable-usa-theater-dystopia/5705722
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53077.htm

Whatever one might think of him, Putin seems to be the most capable leader among the world's leading nations.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53073.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53066.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44722.htm

We have to realize what Judaism has become. And what it has become has no resemblance to the traditions of Judaism.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/03/04/news/disputed-environmental-claim-championed-tories-comes-shell-insider
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https://truthout.org/articles/national-nurses-united-issues-grave-warning-on-coronavirus/

Reading the news, I have found, has become increasingly depressing as we watch the U.S.  doing ----nothing.
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https://truthout.org/audio/voter-suppression-threatens-to-take-the-us-back-to-reconstruction-era/

The truth has to be faced. The U.S. is not a democracy. It never has been a democracy. There is now a possibility, at least, of large numbers of Americans realizing that.

Will most of the politicians recognize that? I doubt it. The U.S. could be headed for very serious violence.
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https://theintercept.com/2020/03/05/iran-coronavirus-medicine-sanctions/
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https://theintercept.com/2020/03/06/coronavirus-covid-19-stock-market-economy/
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75  years after the war to end all wars we, almost all of us, have become the fans of war. Hitler would have been proud of us. In the U.S., especially, the greatest spending in human history is  going into the war industries. And the Canadian war industries are joining the pack.

For what?

The greatest threat of a world war comes from our side. The greatest killers since 1945 have been our side.

And the chances of anybody winning such a war? Close to zero as we now have weapons so powerful as to destroy both sides. And what have we done to recognize that reality?

Nothing.

Canadians and Americans and British (and Germans) fought and died in the belief that they were fighting for a better world. But our leaders knew what they were really fighting for - making our billionaires even richer. And that's what all the wars before and since 1945 have been about.

To continue wars like that in today's world was never a good idea. Now, it's insanity.
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March 06: I'm sorry. I'm even sorry I'm sorry......

This blog is late because I had a visit from my sister whom I haven't seen for several years. It's also short because, on the side, I like to have a life _ though I have never discovered how to have one. The Saturday edition should be back to normal.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/05/trump-coronavirus-who-global-death-rate-false-number

But still the numbers are high for Donald Trump. It's insane. But his evangelical followers  are products of insane religious ideas. They believe that Trump was chosen by God to bring the end to this world - and that they and only they  will be the ones to go to heaven.

The British Empire  (now deceased) and the American empire of today both have taught their people to believe a history which tells them that God wants them to rule the world. That's what justified the British in murdering over 400 million people. That's why it's okay for the U.S. to have conducted a mass murder of it's native peoples, of uncounted numbers of Latin Americans and peoples of the middle east.

The churches, for the most part, have played along with this nonsense. It's very prominent now among American evangelicals who are convinced that God wants them, only them, in heaven.

You know, I have never seen any version of The Bible that even hints at this.
The evangelical gospel of their purity and excellence, and of their's and their's alone, visions of their exclusive destiny can, I think, be reasonably considered a crashing ignorance of the nature of Christianity, and one with strong evidence of intellectual delusion.
_________________________________________________________________

...And some useful information that has not been common in much of our news media.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/05/what-is-coronavirus-symptoms-infection-wuhan-china-covid-19
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/05/truly-extreme-winter-2019-20-in-europe-by-far-hottest-on-record

Pay no attention to this. Donald Trump and the premiers of Ontario and Alberta would have told us if this had happened.
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For all their talk about creating jobs, etc., oil companies and other companies live a full life on money handed over to big business as gifts (of our money). These are gifts of  billions of dollars in gifts from people like you and me who have to work for it.

They get away with it because they pay off both Liberals and Conservatives big money so those parties can can easily win elections and sell out all of us to our billionaires.

Why do Canadian still vote for those two parties anyway? Well, partly because most people rely on our news media for information. And most of our news media are owned by the very wealthy. And so they lie.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-oil-industry-subsidies-1.5476030
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/womens-shelters-turned-away-domestic-violence-1.5483186

Well, you know, we can't afford to help victims of domestic violence. Let's get real. The weatlhy don't pay income tax. And the wealthy insist of getting handouts of money, our money, in the billions every year.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/australia-bushfires-climate-change-1.5486562
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https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/03/us-has-choice-medicare-or-coronavirus-all

Donald Trump and the Republicans have to be taken for what they are - remarkably stupid and possibly mentally ill people.
_________________________________________________________________

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/03/investment-advice-if-you-have-choice-dont-trust-right-wing
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/03/coronavirus-chaos-south-border-poses-national-security-threat
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https://rabble.ca/news/2020/03/power-profit-and-politics-ontarios-home-care-sector
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https://www.thenation.com/article/society/coronavirus-sick-leave/
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https://www.capebretonpost.com/opinion/national-perspectives/gwynne-dyer-violence-in-india-offers-disturbing-similarities-with-nazi-germany-419673/
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https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1872709/a-glimpse-of-the-looming-migrant-armageddon
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The world of the near future? Coronavirus is good for you.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/06/your-brain-capitalism-cnbc-market-analyst-rick-santelli-calls-infecting-global
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/06/i-trump-hails-economic-impact-deadly-coronavirus-says-people-are-now-spending-their
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/05/cdc-says-do-not-go-work-trump-says-thousands-coronavirus-could-go-work-and-get
_________________________________________________________________
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/05/total-win-human-rights-groups-welcome-icc-probe-us-torture-and-war-crimes

The American Empire is simply a continuation of the old British Empire    - murderous, plundering, and ignoring the needs of it's own paople to plunder them, too.
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March 3: A slow day in the news.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/coronavirus-us-reaction-criticism-1.5482317

Donald Trump, despite the opinon expressed by a doctor in the article above, (and despite the rise of coronavirus) has been dismissive of those who warn about the danger of it. In fact, he has gone so far as to say there is no crisis, and it's all just a panic being stored up the Democrats.

There is also much doubt about how the American privatization of health can deal with the crisis. As it is, Americans who are being treated for coronavirus are being billed for it. And that means that the poor can't afford it.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/coastal-gaslink-pipeline-construction-resumes-1.5482153

Canada's confrontation with indigenous land rights has been settled....sort of....
maybe...... possibly.... some day....
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/03/kenney-government-trying-persuade-albertans-separation-canada

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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2020/03/collapse-frontier-oil-sands-project-should-spark-debate-about
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https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/wetsuweten-canada-pipeline-protests/
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/02/why-are-we-being-charged-surprise-bills-coronavirus-testing-spark-calls-government

No wonder Trump thinks there's little coronavirus in the U.S. Most Americans can't afford the cost of a test. Tough luck. Think hard. What can one say about the evils and greed of American capitalism?

And what can one say about the wimpiness of those millions who support an economic system which is so brutal in its treatment of citizens?

At this point, the U.S. still shows no signs of protecting anybody except the rich.
____________________________________________________________

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/03/nations-fractured-public-health-system-under-trump-w
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/02/inhumane-and-reckless-amnesty-international-condemns-greeces-measures-block-migrants

Britain and the U.S. have a centuries old history of making life hell for vicitims of their wars and plundering. When those people try to flee the horror  we have created in, say, Latin America and Africa and the Middle East, countries like Britain, the U.S. , Italy and Greece either put them in foul and deadly camps - or simply push them back into the sea to drown.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/02/record-breaking-warm-weather-expected-around-globe-human-caused-climate-crisis-now

Not to worry. Alberta tells us there is no climate crisis. And, like, you know, this is a province that knows---like----things.
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/02/assange-extradition-the-armoured-glass-box-is-an-instrument-of-torture/
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/02/assange-extradition-humanity-is-making-a-very-important-decision/
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https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/02/assange-extradition-humanity-is-making-a-very-important-decision/
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And here's a current reminder of the world of Hitler. For some reason, most North American News media have not been interested in it.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/03/the-real-modi-do-the-killings-of-muslims-represent-indias-kristallnacht/
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https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2020/03/03/Solutions-Journalism-Reports-On-How-To-Fix-Societal-Problems/
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/migrant-child-killed-greek-coast-lesbos-syria-refugee-deaths-a9369826.html

The west creates wars that produce refugees in huge huge numbers.  Then it punishes the refugees by turning away most of them - perhaps to drown.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53061.htm
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https://truthout.org/articles/pence-hates-science-tasking-him-with-coronavirus-response-could-cost-lives/
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https://theintercept.com/2020/03/02/coronavirus-vaccine-price-gouging-senate/
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There really wasn't much in today's (March 3) news. I had a hard time finding enough material to record and comment on.

Feb. 29: No. It's not getting better.

(I apoligize for being late with this edition. My computer was attacked by evil spirits.)
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/28/greta-thunberg-bristol-schools-shut-students-join-climate-strike
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/what-is-coronavirus-what-should-i-do-symptoms

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/worse-than-flu-busting-coronavirus-myths

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/28/coronavirus-donald-
This is the kind of news we should all be getting from our news media. But I haven't seen much of it.

Oh. And there's this.....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/joe-biden-trump-coronavirus-hoax-claim
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/29/pontypridd-braced-second-flood-in-fortnight-storm-jorge

For some reason, North American news media have shown little interest in the
terrible storms and floods in Britain and Northern Europe. But these are storms so severe they have not happened for many years - in fact, many centuries. I don't understand why we are getting so little information on the cause of them.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/28/canada-nevsun-eritrea-lawsuit-human-rights-slavery

Gee! Wealthy Canadians do that? Any chance a Canadian news medium will us this, and tell us their names - and maybe pictures of them?

Nah.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/28/canada-pipeline-protests-climate-indigenous-rights
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/us-taliban-sign-peace-agreement-afghanistan-war

The U.S., with the most weaponry (and the biggest weapons spender in history)
has not been able to defeat the Taliban in almost 20 years of fighting.

And Canada, for a time, helped the U.S.  That's why Canada has at least a couple of roads that transported it's dead. They are called Highways of Heroes. They were heroes. But we weren't heroes in sending them.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/29/teachers-call-for-ban-on-shooter-drills-in-us-schools
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-19-china-epicurve-1.5479983

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-coronavirus-cases-1.5481218
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https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2020/02/alberta-budget-corporate-lobbyists-return-legislature-hallways

Though Ontario has had coronavirus for many days now, this seems not to have attracted the notice of Ottawa's newspapers.
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https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/02/29/american-fuhrer-delusionary-dictatorial-donald-trump-drunk-power
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/forever-chemicals-tap-water
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https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/david-ray-griffins-the-christian-gospel-for-americans-a-systematic-theology
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An indigenous view of the Canada's blockade crisis.

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2020/02/28/Blockades-Arent-The-Crisis/
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This is a  long and complex 'downer' on the chances of peace in Afghanistan.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53055.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53048.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53051.htm
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53054.htm

Not to worry. Ontario premier, Doug Ford, says it's not happening. And Doug Ford has a high school certificate. So there.
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Bernie Sanders may be the best of the contestants for the presidency. But he also has serious shortcomings. What makes him a potential winner is that his opponents are so awful.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/53056.htm

Can the U.S. ever become a government of the people, by the people, and for the people? I doubt it. The wealthy own American governments. They always have. (Much as the Canadian wealthy own Canadian Liberals and Conservatives.) The American news media, like the Canadian news media, encourage this. The power in the U.S. and Canada is not the people. And the rich will not give up their power without violence.
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_https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/24/analysis/what-we-mean-when-we-say-indigenous-land-unceded
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https://thesaker.is/turkey-asks-nato-to-join-its-war-against-syria-and-russia/
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Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States."

I would urge both Americans and Canadians to read this book. I have a Ph.D. in History, so  I've read a lot of history. I have never seen so much scholarship packed into one book. It starts with the murderous Christopher Columbus, and takes the reader to about the year 2,000.

I would also advise readers, perhaps, to read only twenty pages at a time because this book is so packed with information it can be overwhelming
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Then there is the nasty role played by our news media. When a coutry goes to war, the villain is also the other side, not our side. World Wars One and Two are excellent examples of that. (In fact, both were the same war - and all the countries fought for much the same reason.)

That was not how they were treated by the news media on each side. No. Our side were the good guys. The other side were the bad guys. In fact, they were all bad guys.

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, there was a rapid growth of industry that promised huge profits for capitalists. Generally, those capitalists were close (to say the least) with the leaders of their governments. And the great desire for the capitalists on all sides was to grow more rapidly than the others.
This was particularly true of Britain, France, Germany and, increasingly, of the U.S.

Britain had a big lead with it's huge empire which, by starvation, mass murder forced its colonies under the control of British capitalists. France had colonies in what is now Vietnam and Africa and, like Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and, increasingly, the U.S. In all cases, the industrializing countries murdered, plundered their colonies, and then forced the survivors into something like slavery and starvation. (And they also abused their own people in that way.)

But the great powers feared each other. That's what led them to form alliances - to pit national groups of capitalists against each other. Before 1914, all the significant capitalist governments were in two groups - each nervously eyeing the others, each with armies on borders next to their  rivals.

The trigger for the war was the murder of an Austrian archduke. He really didn't amount to anything.  But his murder set up something like a panic for war as each country feared 'the other side' to used this incident to cause a war. So they all went to war - with the U.S. hanging back to see who was likely to win.

But that's not the way it was reported in the news media. In each country, the message was that the other side was evil. There side was good. That was true especially for the British news media. In fact, Britain was then at the peak of its mass murder and plundering of more than 400 million people, perhaps a world record for murder and plunder.

In the British news media, the British were good, and the Germans were evil. Of course. The British news media were owned by the wealthy who were the murders and plunderers of over 400 million people. But, from the start of the Empire, all those 400 million people were evil, and their British murderers and plunderers were gallant gentlemen.

Canadians went into that war that it had nothing to do with. And that was because Canadians were gallantly going to the aid of their king. In fact, their kings ( and Queen) had done nothing for them. Quite the contrary,  when Britain went to war against the Boers in South Africa so it could steal South African gold (as the Boers had been doing), Britain demanded that colonies like Canada
should rally to the king in killing Boers (Dutchmen). It was to set Canada up for the World War that was coming.

World War One was a war of capitalists against capitalists. who made the citizens fight their wars for them.

When the war ended, everybody agreed that no country was responsible for it. But Britain and France laid all the blame on Germany. Why? The why was because the war had been fought to destroy German competition. And there was a great danger that German capitalists would rise again as competition.

So Britain and France inserted a condition penalizing it for the war. And that was so severe, that all of Germany descended into a hopeless poverty. And that is what set the stage for Hitler. In other words, Britain and France were as reponsible for World War 2 as Hitler was.

However, British, French, and American capitalists   learned to love Hitler. There had been a revolution in Russia that threatened to make Russia a major industrial power - and therefore a threat to the West. And Hitler? He was a good, old-fashioned capitalist. And when he murdered Jews and gypsies?  The reality is that we didn't care. Indeed, we applauded him. Israelis understand that very well, indeed. That is why they became so ruthless and cruel in their treatment of Palestinians.

We really didn't change until 1938-39. And then, though the western leaders well knew what Hitler was doing, they began to turn against him because it had beome obvious he was the agent of German capitalism. He was economic competition against France, The Netherlands, and Britain.

That's when the western news media turned against Hitler. But our press never talked about the real reason we went to war.  No. Hitler was evil. And we were good. That was why.

When China kicked out the British and their puppet Chiang Kai-chek, all the British and Americans saw was the (evil) rise of China to become a world power.
None of the news media noticed the American slaughter and impovershment of The Phillipines or the more than a century of slaughter and plunder in Latin America.

And why did the U.S. enter World War Two? Was it theJapanese Attack on Pearl Harbour? No.In fact, that was a set up.

The U.S. capitalists saw World War Two as their big chance to take over the British Empire in the Far East. But it needed an excuse to get Americans to fight.

Japan's weakness was it lacked oil. So the U.S. cut off it's oil supply. It knew that Japan would reply with an attack - somewhere. But it wasn't expecting Pearl Harbour.

No matter,   The U.S. had it's excuse.

Shortly after, it joined the war in Europe (after waiting for almost two and a half years). But it wasn't to help Britain. it was to establish a presence in places like the British oil fields in the middle east and the fading British empires in Asia.

In short, almost all of the partipants in World War Two joined the war for the same reason they had for World War One.  It was, essentially, the same war.

And the villains of it all? They were the capitalists of both sides. And their wars have continued from 1950 to today.

But in our news media, the other side - only the other side - is evil.
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