"I am going to f---ing kill you. I will f---ing kill everyone on this flight. They are all f---ing peasants. I could get you all fired in five minutes. I know your boss. My father will pay this out. He has before." Then he went really wild, getting violent with the flight crew, and smashing his fist against the fuselage to threaten them.
Luckily for the speaker, he wasn't an arab on a flight from Ottawa to Washington. If he had been, he'd now be in a secret prison wondering which torture was coming next. But he isn't an arab, or black, or even hispanic. He's a young, white man. More important, he's a young, white man with one hell of a rich family. He is Conrad Hilton, a descendant of the founder of the Hilton Hotel chain. So he didn't really do anything wrong. His lawyers say it was a sleeping pill that upset his little tummy.
Take a look at his statement again. (Do it here, because you won't find this story in the Irving press - though it does appear in other papers, including even the dreadful National Post.
Kill, peasants, fired, I know your boss, my father will pay this out... Where did he learn that? Where did he get his class superiority, his arrogance us peasants? Well, I have known more than a few Conrad Hiltons. And they learn their obnoxious behaviour from their parents and social circle. That's why you'll hear comments from the very wealthy like - "This recession is all the fault of those people who are too lazy to get rich. Instead, they lie around and soak up social welfare." (In fact, nobody soaks up social welfare like the very wealthy.)
With few exceptions, the very rich, the people who control our governments, think this way. Of course, it's always been this way with empire builders. They have to justify their brutality and greed by giving themselves a sort of racial sense of their own intellectual and spiritual superiority to us "peasants".
And Conrad Hilton will never be poor and lying around waiting for his welfare cheque. No, he'll have a prominent executive position in one of his daddy's companies at many millions of dollars a year, and the Norberts of this world will write flattering columns about him, and how he's so much smarter than those civil servants we overpay.
We see this sort of arrogance every day. But we don't draw the obvious conclusions from it. These are not just arrogant incompetents. They are dangerous, and they are the cause of massive suffering and deprivation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Netanyahu gave the expected speech. "You cannot trust Iran to keep an agreement." I mean, this reminds me of the time to major powers agreed to dismantle a certain proportion of its nuclear weapons. Russia carried out the agreement. George Bush Jr. did not.
How soon we forget!
Israel agreed, years ago, to srop taking over Palestinian lands, kicking out the Palestinians, and installing Israeli settlements. But it never even slowed down. It promised to accept international aid for Palestine, and to pass it on to Palestinan authoritites. It's not doing it. While Palestinians are starving, Israel is refusing to hand over money that it agreed to h and over.
For that matter, Israel's whole nuclear armament system is against international agreement, and is illegal. And the US was behind much of that. Israel has broken so many agreements that the majority of UN members turned against it long ago. All that keeps it from being hauled into court for that and for war crimes is the US veto. (And Harper's blessing.)
And did Netanyahu propose an alternative to a nuclear agreement with Iran? Nope. So - what do we do?
All that's left is to go to war with Iran. - which is what Netanyahu has always wanted in the first place. He wants the destruction of Iran. He always has. It has nothing to do with nuclear weapons. It has to do with Israeli dominance in the region.
And that poses the very, very high risk of a nuclear war because Russia, China, India have been forming relationships with countries like Iran to counterbalance the spread of American economic imperialism (led by people in the social circle of Conrad Hilton.)
All of this should (but doesn't) highlight the real problem. We simply cannot afford to keep nuclear weapons.
None. Not by anybody.
At this moment, we are facing two situations that could go nuclear. Oh, I know. It won't happen, yadayada. People have talked about it for years.. And it hasn't happened. It's like driving drunk. I mean, lots of people drive drunk. They do it all the time. And most of them have never killed anybody.
Right now, we're driving drunk in ten countries. Maybe nobody will get hurt. Maybe the odds are against it. I hope. But if we do it long enough, it's almost certain that one time, it will happen. And it only needs one time.
Of course, if it does happen, the billionaires who own American politicians will get to control all the trade in the world. Much good it may do them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's nothing much to talk about in the Times and Transcript. Yesterday, for example, was the Netanyahu speech to Congress which is likely to be, for all its silliness, one of the most important speeches in history, and the most insulting one ever to a leader of a country by a leader of another country delivered in the other's government building. The TandT does not have a single commentary on it. Of course. Nobody at the paper has the ability to comment on anything of significance. (Brian Cormier writes about shovelling snow.)
The editorial is about student loans, and really says nothing because the editorial writer obviously knows nothing. There are profound problems with the university system. Nobody at the TandT has a clue about them. For example, It didn't occur to the editorial writer to wonder why, in countries poorer than Canada, university students don't need loans because it's free.
I often got interviewed on matters of education, and often knew the reporters covering education stories in Montreal. I never met one who had any experience of teaching or who knew anything about education. And, really, that's the rule all over North America. The Irving papers cover a whole province, giving them the circulation of a newspaper in a fairly large city. Can't they hire one person who knows something about a topic as important as education? We need insight into what the options are - and we sure aren't getting that from the TandT - or from the anglophone east school board.
Norbert rants about how the government is not doing anything about the economy. But he does so without a word about the corporation world in this province even though it seems to profiting magnificently enough to pay monstrous salaries to executives, and even though one of them effectively controls the province.
"Outsiders". Norbert writes, "will decide our fate." That's just dumb. Our fate is decided by insiders, one of whom said, without criticism, that he would be a member of the government (though nobody ever elected him.)
In fact, corporate bosses have ALWAYS run the economy of New Brunswick. Norbert, how can you say the economy is in crisis without once mentioning them? And that is true of every writer at that paper.
Alec Bruce has another column on fracking for shale gas. Of course. If he didn't, the TandT wouldn't publish it - or him.
The Alward and Graham government had done no reliable research on fracking. Under public pressure, and only because of public pessure, Gallant is doing some. No, says Bruce, even without research we know it's perfectly safe. The oil companies have told us it's safe. I mean, poison chemicals are good for the soil and the water. Everybody knows that. Anyway, we need cheap shale gas. It'll make lots of profits, and some it (if not much) will come down to us in low-paying jobs.
And, anyway, nobody understands climate change - so let's keep plunging ahead. And if that kills people, well, maybe we'll invent something.
B3 has an interesting story based on a report from CSIS about the rise of ANTI-Islam sites on the web in Canada that encourage hatred and violence against Muslims. That's certainly true. I've seen many of them, including one called Blazing Cat Fur which, from the ignorance of its commentators, would seem to be an organization of louts, some of them from Moncton whose comments are usually one-liners like, "he's stupid", "That crazy", "Muslims are pigs". I know some are from Moncton because one of the organizers of the site has a real hatred for me, has mentioned me, and has published comments from readers whose pseudonyms I recognized from comments they had sent to this blog - usually one-liners that I don't publish because they're in the profanity of a Conrad Hilton.
However, Harper will not act on this CSIS report. After all, he's planning to win on the votes of people like that.
B5 carries to stories on the Netanyahu speech, both of them quite decent journalism. But they missed the best comment of all. Noting that Congress gave the speech 19 standing ovations, a respected (Jewish) commentator wrote, "It's the biggest blow job ever received by a Jewish man." (You have to know a little about Jewish humour to get the full effect of that one.)
Luckily for the speaker, he wasn't an arab on a flight from Ottawa to Washington. If he had been, he'd now be in a secret prison wondering which torture was coming next. But he isn't an arab, or black, or even hispanic. He's a young, white man. More important, he's a young, white man with one hell of a rich family. He is Conrad Hilton, a descendant of the founder of the Hilton Hotel chain. So he didn't really do anything wrong. His lawyers say it was a sleeping pill that upset his little tummy.
Take a look at his statement again. (Do it here, because you won't find this story in the Irving press - though it does appear in other papers, including even the dreadful National Post.
Kill, peasants, fired, I know your boss, my father will pay this out... Where did he learn that? Where did he get his class superiority, his arrogance us peasants? Well, I have known more than a few Conrad Hiltons. And they learn their obnoxious behaviour from their parents and social circle. That's why you'll hear comments from the very wealthy like - "This recession is all the fault of those people who are too lazy to get rich. Instead, they lie around and soak up social welfare." (In fact, nobody soaks up social welfare like the very wealthy.)
With few exceptions, the very rich, the people who control our governments, think this way. Of course, it's always been this way with empire builders. They have to justify their brutality and greed by giving themselves a sort of racial sense of their own intellectual and spiritual superiority to us "peasants".
And Conrad Hilton will never be poor and lying around waiting for his welfare cheque. No, he'll have a prominent executive position in one of his daddy's companies at many millions of dollars a year, and the Norberts of this world will write flattering columns about him, and how he's so much smarter than those civil servants we overpay.
We see this sort of arrogance every day. But we don't draw the obvious conclusions from it. These are not just arrogant incompetents. They are dangerous, and they are the cause of massive suffering and deprivation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Netanyahu gave the expected speech. "You cannot trust Iran to keep an agreement." I mean, this reminds me of the time to major powers agreed to dismantle a certain proportion of its nuclear weapons. Russia carried out the agreement. George Bush Jr. did not.
How soon we forget!
Israel agreed, years ago, to srop taking over Palestinian lands, kicking out the Palestinians, and installing Israeli settlements. But it never even slowed down. It promised to accept international aid for Palestine, and to pass it on to Palestinan authoritites. It's not doing it. While Palestinians are starving, Israel is refusing to hand over money that it agreed to h and over.
For that matter, Israel's whole nuclear armament system is against international agreement, and is illegal. And the US was behind much of that. Israel has broken so many agreements that the majority of UN members turned against it long ago. All that keeps it from being hauled into court for that and for war crimes is the US veto. (And Harper's blessing.)
And did Netanyahu propose an alternative to a nuclear agreement with Iran? Nope. So - what do we do?
All that's left is to go to war with Iran. - which is what Netanyahu has always wanted in the first place. He wants the destruction of Iran. He always has. It has nothing to do with nuclear weapons. It has to do with Israeli dominance in the region.
And that poses the very, very high risk of a nuclear war because Russia, China, India have been forming relationships with countries like Iran to counterbalance the spread of American economic imperialism (led by people in the social circle of Conrad Hilton.)
All of this should (but doesn't) highlight the real problem. We simply cannot afford to keep nuclear weapons.
None. Not by anybody.
At this moment, we are facing two situations that could go nuclear. Oh, I know. It won't happen, yadayada. People have talked about it for years.. And it hasn't happened. It's like driving drunk. I mean, lots of people drive drunk. They do it all the time. And most of them have never killed anybody.
Right now, we're driving drunk in ten countries. Maybe nobody will get hurt. Maybe the odds are against it. I hope. But if we do it long enough, it's almost certain that one time, it will happen. And it only needs one time.
Of course, if it does happen, the billionaires who own American politicians will get to control all the trade in the world. Much good it may do them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's nothing much to talk about in the Times and Transcript. Yesterday, for example, was the Netanyahu speech to Congress which is likely to be, for all its silliness, one of the most important speeches in history, and the most insulting one ever to a leader of a country by a leader of another country delivered in the other's government building. The TandT does not have a single commentary on it. Of course. Nobody at the paper has the ability to comment on anything of significance. (Brian Cormier writes about shovelling snow.)
The editorial is about student loans, and really says nothing because the editorial writer obviously knows nothing. There are profound problems with the university system. Nobody at the TandT has a clue about them. For example, It didn't occur to the editorial writer to wonder why, in countries poorer than Canada, university students don't need loans because it's free.
I often got interviewed on matters of education, and often knew the reporters covering education stories in Montreal. I never met one who had any experience of teaching or who knew anything about education. And, really, that's the rule all over North America. The Irving papers cover a whole province, giving them the circulation of a newspaper in a fairly large city. Can't they hire one person who knows something about a topic as important as education? We need insight into what the options are - and we sure aren't getting that from the TandT - or from the anglophone east school board.
Norbert rants about how the government is not doing anything about the economy. But he does so without a word about the corporation world in this province even though it seems to profiting magnificently enough to pay monstrous salaries to executives, and even though one of them effectively controls the province.
"Outsiders". Norbert writes, "will decide our fate." That's just dumb. Our fate is decided by insiders, one of whom said, without criticism, that he would be a member of the government (though nobody ever elected him.)
In fact, corporate bosses have ALWAYS run the economy of New Brunswick. Norbert, how can you say the economy is in crisis without once mentioning them? And that is true of every writer at that paper.
Alec Bruce has another column on fracking for shale gas. Of course. If he didn't, the TandT wouldn't publish it - or him.
The Alward and Graham government had done no reliable research on fracking. Under public pressure, and only because of public pessure, Gallant is doing some. No, says Bruce, even without research we know it's perfectly safe. The oil companies have told us it's safe. I mean, poison chemicals are good for the soil and the water. Everybody knows that. Anyway, we need cheap shale gas. It'll make lots of profits, and some it (if not much) will come down to us in low-paying jobs.
And, anyway, nobody understands climate change - so let's keep plunging ahead. And if that kills people, well, maybe we'll invent something.
B3 has an interesting story based on a report from CSIS about the rise of ANTI-Islam sites on the web in Canada that encourage hatred and violence against Muslims. That's certainly true. I've seen many of them, including one called Blazing Cat Fur which, from the ignorance of its commentators, would seem to be an organization of louts, some of them from Moncton whose comments are usually one-liners like, "he's stupid", "That crazy", "Muslims are pigs". I know some are from Moncton because one of the organizers of the site has a real hatred for me, has mentioned me, and has published comments from readers whose pseudonyms I recognized from comments they had sent to this blog - usually one-liners that I don't publish because they're in the profanity of a Conrad Hilton.
However, Harper will not act on this CSIS report. After all, he's planning to win on the votes of people like that.
B5 carries to stories on the Netanyahu speech, both of them quite decent journalism. But they missed the best comment of all. Noting that Congress gave the speech 19 standing ovations, a respected (Jewish) commentator wrote, "It's the biggest blow job ever received by a Jewish man." (You have to know a little about Jewish humour to get the full effect of that one.)
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