That is a front page story in today's irving press. And it doesn't get any better.
Norbert Cunningham has an amusing column on New Brunswick's 'incoherent' job strategy. But I'm here to tell you not to worry. Norbert seems to have forgotten that six or seven years ago, his boss, Mr. Irving, informed us in the paper that he had named himself as a member of the government, and he was going to set out the province's economic policy for the future. Now, it's well know by members of the Chamber of Commerce that businessmen are far superior to politicians in deciding this sort of thing. (Read Norbert or read anything written by Prof. Savoie to see that.)
Accordingly, Mr. Irving organized meetings around the province, appointing businessmen and university presidents and other flunkies to plan the future for the rest of us. (I don't recall ever seeing a report from this august body. but it must exist. Can't we find a copy of it?)
Similarly, the Commentary page has a column by a favourite propaganda house of irving press, The Fraser Institute.
Brian Cormier has a column about how raising the seat of his desk chair make it more comfortable. Way to speak up, Brian.
In a world on the edge of nuclear war, with hundreds of millions starving, with tens of millions of refugees, we get big stories like 'Georgia man on trial for throwing boiling water on sleeping gay couple' and 'U.S. may ban swimmiing with Hawaii dolphins'.
There were other things we needed to know. Really.
1. CBC had a commentary that the defeat of ISIS in Iraq could lead to the collapse of the country. It probably will. Iraq was never a real country. Like most of the region, it was created when the western powers drew lines on a map, and so created nations that really didn't exist. In Iraq, that threw Kurds, deeply divided Muslim sects, and and tribal groups together. There was really no such person as an Iraqi.
All that held that country together was Saddamn Hussein. (Yes, I know he was a bad man. But he did hold it together and he didn't kill a million Iraqis as the U.S. did.) Then the U.S. oil industry decided to get rid of him because he wasn't sufficiently pro-American. At that, the whole country became unglued.
All that holds it together now is opposition to ISIS. Once ISIS is defeated, the lid on Iraq will be blown off. That would happen in Syria, too. And, in f act, in almost every country in the region. The oil industry is greedy. And greed makes for stupidity and short-sightedness. (Perhaps Mr. Irving could form a provincial committee to study that.)
2. A small city in Wisconsin is getting ready to divert water from Lake Michigan into a local river, and so supply the city's need for fresh water. Sounds innocent?
Any such diversion will drain water from all the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. And it's not just one city. The whole, heavily-populated region wants that water. Cities on the Canadian side are very alarmed at this. And we're going to see more of it as fresh-water problems grow. And not just in the Great Lakes.
3. This one is from a Russian source, but a pretty good one. It's about our media's creation of 'evil people', a creation that is used to justify killing them.
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/356846-provoking-nuclear-war-media/
4. Ever hear of Cambie Surgery? It's an American company suing the Canadian government because it wants to bring privatization of health care back to Canada. In the U.S., it's been proven to be so inefficient and expensive that health costs are the major cause of bankruptcy for the elderly. I'm suprised the irving editorialists haven't written columns in praise of it. Or perhaps something from The Fraser Institute.
5. Then there are stories which deal with the role of news media as propaganda agents.
https://off-guardian.org/2016/08/18/media-using-pro-al-nusra-media-center-as-source-for-war-propaganda/
See more at:
http://www.rense.com/general96/aleppoboy.htm#sthash.UgzKvdy5.dpuf
___________________________________________________________________________
There was time, not long ago, when North American police would patrol beaches to ensure that women's bathing suits reached almost to their knees. And they had to be one-piece from shoulder to knees. That was in the 1920s and even the 1930s.
As late as the 1960s, Canadian police would stop women on the streets to measure whether their shorts were long enough.
Now, in France, the patriotic and law-abiding requirement is to go close to naked. Just one side-effect of very foolish ideas of national values. Note the women sitting around in this scene. They would have been jailed for indecency not all that long ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/24/french-police-make-woman-remove-burkini-on-nice-beach
____________________________________________________________________________
And it's nice to see a bit of sanity in Canada.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/24/canada-mounted-police-muslim-women-hijab
_____________________________________________________________________________
And here's an example of how the Bush-Blair war on Iraq and the Obama war on Syria have opened the gates of hell in the middle east. The Iraq war destroyed the social structure of Iraq, making it a country deeply divided. A defeat of ISIS in Syria opens the way to a war with Kurds in both Syria and Turkey.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/24/turkey-launches-major-operation-against-isis-in-key-border-town#img-1
__________________________________________________________________________
1,800 people have recently been murdered by the government of The Phillipines. And there are more to come. But that doesn't appear in the irving press because that government is our good friend.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/22/490944191/under-new-philippine-president-nearly-1-800-have-died-in-extrajudicial-killings?utm_source=twi
_________________________________________________________________________________
The U.S. has moved closer to an official (and illegal) war with Syria as it puts its 'military advisors' there on a war footing. Does this affect Canada? Well, yes. Some of those 'adisors' are Canadians. Brilliant move, Jusin.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45335.htm
__________________________________________________________________________________
I don't entirely agree with this one. But I think its central point is valid. People in the U.S. power structure want a fulll-out war with Syria which, at this point, would likely mean a full-out war with Russia. Again, Canada has already, foolishly, committed troops. So we're in it, like it or not.
Hillary Clinton is their girl. That why the news media they own are cheering for Hillary.
Trump is crazy? Yep. So is Hillary - and perhaps crazier. That's the choice U.S. voters face.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45340.htm
__________________________________________________________________________
This one speaks for itself.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45336.htm
Irving press, so far, has been pretty silent on cases like this in Canada. When Oland was found guilty of beating his father to death, we got a big story in the paper every time he burped. The coverage of a prisoner killed by prison guards has received much less attention. And it's been several months since it happened.
Incidentally, so far this year, U.S. police have killed 698 people.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Here's another story we aren't getting in the irving press. And it's all to help those Christian gentlemen whose greed demands that they control the oilfields.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/fighting-rages-syrian-children-starving-death-160723190928618.html
____________________________________________________________________________
I include this one on mining in South America because people we know are deeply involved in it. The power of big business to run free in that region has caused enormous environmental damage and poverty. Think of that next time Norbert mentions the economics writing of Prof. Savoie.
Savoie tells us that business should be less subject to regulation because then development will benefit us all.
We have been moving in that direction for a good 30 years now. And the U.S. even more so. So how come only the rich are getting richer while others are getting poorer? And how come South America, where business can run free, does not have a population just rolling in money?
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/23/mining-as-a-threat-to-the-commons-the-case-of-south-america/
The record of business and its influence in the past 400 years or so has been one of war, starvation, enviromental destruction, and impoverishment for all but the rich. I just love those economic theories which we can see, every day, have no connection to reality.
______________________________________________________________________________
This article is by a prominent Canadian. Pity it's a bad fit with the economists who are admired by the wealthy.
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/water-as-a-commons-only-fundamental-change-can-save-us/
___________________________________________________________________________
The next one is on an issue it has been saddening to see in the Jewish community. As soon as Israel was founded, it began setting up propaganda agencies in North America. The timing was good because groups with volunteer leadership were starting to fail across North American about 1950. It was the result of TV, of more money available to go to events one paid for. It affected the availability not only of members, but of volunteer leaders. This was particularly true in Jewish circles with large numbers of such organizations. A major one, for example, was B'Nai Brith. Libraries with volunteer workers were also centres of Jewish life. The synagogue was a place of debate and serious discussion.
In Christian communities, such groups (like Boy Scouts, CGIT) simply withered. But in the Jewish community, Israel moved in to subsidize them and to convert them into propaganda agencies for Israel. In the U.S., this is part of what is known, collectively, as the Israeli lobby. For them, it wasn't enough to be in favour of Israel. You had to be in favour of whatever the government of Israel happened to be, and you had to be in favour of whatever it did. Not do do so meant bitter accusations of anti-semitism.
(In fact, most Jews of Israel and North America are not semites. They are Europeans, descended of Europeans. Their connection with the people of ancient Israel is a very slim one, indeed, rather like my family connection which shows traces of west Asian barbarian. )
The real, semitic Jews. by birth, are those who have been living in Israel since ancient times. They even look different from European (Ashkenazi) Jews. They look more like arabs - who are also semites.
No matter. With the coming of the Israeli lobby, any criticism of any Jews or of the Israeli government was declared racist. It was anti-semitic. The lobby's power in the news media was and is substantial. It is less so in North American Jewish communities which have a long tradition of independent thought and debate. Until my retirement, I was a speaker for synagogues, for Jewish libraries and other groups at least 40 or fifty times a year, and usually with audiences of a hundred to three hundred. Earlier, I had also been camp director for the YMHA. And in all of that time, I was often critical of Israel. So I was attracted to the following column.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/yves-engler/2016/08/jewish-groups-reckless-accusations-anti-semitism-sets-us-down-dan
____________________________________________________________________________
This one adds analysis to a story I have cited from The Guardian.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/j-baglow/2016/08/frances-fear-burkini-has-nothing-to-do-protecting-women
______________________________________________________________________________
Another story, almost local, that the irving press missed.
http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/talking-radical-radio/2016/08/broad-coalition-against-austerity-newfoundland
_______________________________________________________________________________
Well, that's it for another day. I would just add that we have to think and discuss more, and we have to do it openly. You don't want to walk through life like the mumbling puppet the irving press wants you to be.
Norbert Cunningham has an amusing column on New Brunswick's 'incoherent' job strategy. But I'm here to tell you not to worry. Norbert seems to have forgotten that six or seven years ago, his boss, Mr. Irving, informed us in the paper that he had named himself as a member of the government, and he was going to set out the province's economic policy for the future. Now, it's well know by members of the Chamber of Commerce that businessmen are far superior to politicians in deciding this sort of thing. (Read Norbert or read anything written by Prof. Savoie to see that.)
Accordingly, Mr. Irving organized meetings around the province, appointing businessmen and university presidents and other flunkies to plan the future for the rest of us. (I don't recall ever seeing a report from this august body. but it must exist. Can't we find a copy of it?)
Similarly, the Commentary page has a column by a favourite propaganda house of irving press, The Fraser Institute.
Brian Cormier has a column about how raising the seat of his desk chair make it more comfortable. Way to speak up, Brian.
In a world on the edge of nuclear war, with hundreds of millions starving, with tens of millions of refugees, we get big stories like 'Georgia man on trial for throwing boiling water on sleeping gay couple' and 'U.S. may ban swimmiing with Hawaii dolphins'.
There were other things we needed to know. Really.
1. CBC had a commentary that the defeat of ISIS in Iraq could lead to the collapse of the country. It probably will. Iraq was never a real country. Like most of the region, it was created when the western powers drew lines on a map, and so created nations that really didn't exist. In Iraq, that threw Kurds, deeply divided Muslim sects, and and tribal groups together. There was really no such person as an Iraqi.
All that held that country together was Saddamn Hussein. (Yes, I know he was a bad man. But he did hold it together and he didn't kill a million Iraqis as the U.S. did.) Then the U.S. oil industry decided to get rid of him because he wasn't sufficiently pro-American. At that, the whole country became unglued.
All that holds it together now is opposition to ISIS. Once ISIS is defeated, the lid on Iraq will be blown off. That would happen in Syria, too. And, in f act, in almost every country in the region. The oil industry is greedy. And greed makes for stupidity and short-sightedness. (Perhaps Mr. Irving could form a provincial committee to study that.)
2. A small city in Wisconsin is getting ready to divert water from Lake Michigan into a local river, and so supply the city's need for fresh water. Sounds innocent?
Any such diversion will drain water from all the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. And it's not just one city. The whole, heavily-populated region wants that water. Cities on the Canadian side are very alarmed at this. And we're going to see more of it as fresh-water problems grow. And not just in the Great Lakes.
3. This one is from a Russian source, but a pretty good one. It's about our media's creation of 'evil people', a creation that is used to justify killing them.
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/356846-provoking-nuclear-war-media/
4. Ever hear of Cambie Surgery? It's an American company suing the Canadian government because it wants to bring privatization of health care back to Canada. In the U.S., it's been proven to be so inefficient and expensive that health costs are the major cause of bankruptcy for the elderly. I'm suprised the irving editorialists haven't written columns in praise of it. Or perhaps something from The Fraser Institute.
5. Then there are stories which deal with the role of news media as propaganda agents.
https://off-guardian.org/2016/08/18/media-using-pro-al-nusra-media-center-as-source-for-war-propaganda/
See more at:
http://www.rense.com/general96/aleppoboy.htm#sthash.UgzKvdy5.dpuf
___________________________________________________________________________
There was time, not long ago, when North American police would patrol beaches to ensure that women's bathing suits reached almost to their knees. And they had to be one-piece from shoulder to knees. That was in the 1920s and even the 1930s.
As late as the 1960s, Canadian police would stop women on the streets to measure whether their shorts were long enough.
Now, in France, the patriotic and law-abiding requirement is to go close to naked. Just one side-effect of very foolish ideas of national values. Note the women sitting around in this scene. They would have been jailed for indecency not all that long ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/24/french-police-make-woman-remove-burkini-on-nice-beach
____________________________________________________________________________
And it's nice to see a bit of sanity in Canada.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/24/canada-mounted-police-muslim-women-hijab
_____________________________________________________________________________
And here's an example of how the Bush-Blair war on Iraq and the Obama war on Syria have opened the gates of hell in the middle east. The Iraq war destroyed the social structure of Iraq, making it a country deeply divided. A defeat of ISIS in Syria opens the way to a war with Kurds in both Syria and Turkey.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/24/turkey-launches-major-operation-against-isis-in-key-border-town#img-1
__________________________________________________________________________
1,800 people have recently been murdered by the government of The Phillipines. And there are more to come. But that doesn't appear in the irving press because that government is our good friend.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/22/490944191/under-new-philippine-president-nearly-1-800-have-died-in-extrajudicial-killings?utm_source=twi
_________________________________________________________________________________
The U.S. has moved closer to an official (and illegal) war with Syria as it puts its 'military advisors' there on a war footing. Does this affect Canada? Well, yes. Some of those 'adisors' are Canadians. Brilliant move, Jusin.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45335.htm
__________________________________________________________________________________
I don't entirely agree with this one. But I think its central point is valid. People in the U.S. power structure want a fulll-out war with Syria which, at this point, would likely mean a full-out war with Russia. Again, Canada has already, foolishly, committed troops. So we're in it, like it or not.
Hillary Clinton is their girl. That why the news media they own are cheering for Hillary.
Trump is crazy? Yep. So is Hillary - and perhaps crazier. That's the choice U.S. voters face.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45340.htm
__________________________________________________________________________
This one speaks for itself.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45336.htm
Irving press, so far, has been pretty silent on cases like this in Canada. When Oland was found guilty of beating his father to death, we got a big story in the paper every time he burped. The coverage of a prisoner killed by prison guards has received much less attention. And it's been several months since it happened.
Incidentally, so far this year, U.S. police have killed 698 people.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Here's another story we aren't getting in the irving press. And it's all to help those Christian gentlemen whose greed demands that they control the oilfields.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/fighting-rages-syrian-children-starving-death-160723190928618.html
____________________________________________________________________________
I include this one on mining in South America because people we know are deeply involved in it. The power of big business to run free in that region has caused enormous environmental damage and poverty. Think of that next time Norbert mentions the economics writing of Prof. Savoie.
Savoie tells us that business should be less subject to regulation because then development will benefit us all.
We have been moving in that direction for a good 30 years now. And the U.S. even more so. So how come only the rich are getting richer while others are getting poorer? And how come South America, where business can run free, does not have a population just rolling in money?
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/23/mining-as-a-threat-to-the-commons-the-case-of-south-america/
The record of business and its influence in the past 400 years or so has been one of war, starvation, enviromental destruction, and impoverishment for all but the rich. I just love those economic theories which we can see, every day, have no connection to reality.
______________________________________________________________________________
This article is by a prominent Canadian. Pity it's a bad fit with the economists who are admired by the wealthy.
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/water-as-a-commons-only-fundamental-change-can-save-us/
___________________________________________________________________________
The next one is on an issue it has been saddening to see in the Jewish community. As soon as Israel was founded, it began setting up propaganda agencies in North America. The timing was good because groups with volunteer leadership were starting to fail across North American about 1950. It was the result of TV, of more money available to go to events one paid for. It affected the availability not only of members, but of volunteer leaders. This was particularly true in Jewish circles with large numbers of such organizations. A major one, for example, was B'Nai Brith. Libraries with volunteer workers were also centres of Jewish life. The synagogue was a place of debate and serious discussion.
In Christian communities, such groups (like Boy Scouts, CGIT) simply withered. But in the Jewish community, Israel moved in to subsidize them and to convert them into propaganda agencies for Israel. In the U.S., this is part of what is known, collectively, as the Israeli lobby. For them, it wasn't enough to be in favour of Israel. You had to be in favour of whatever the government of Israel happened to be, and you had to be in favour of whatever it did. Not do do so meant bitter accusations of anti-semitism.
(In fact, most Jews of Israel and North America are not semites. They are Europeans, descended of Europeans. Their connection with the people of ancient Israel is a very slim one, indeed, rather like my family connection which shows traces of west Asian barbarian. )
The real, semitic Jews. by birth, are those who have been living in Israel since ancient times. They even look different from European (Ashkenazi) Jews. They look more like arabs - who are also semites.
No matter. With the coming of the Israeli lobby, any criticism of any Jews or of the Israeli government was declared racist. It was anti-semitic. The lobby's power in the news media was and is substantial. It is less so in North American Jewish communities which have a long tradition of independent thought and debate. Until my retirement, I was a speaker for synagogues, for Jewish libraries and other groups at least 40 or fifty times a year, and usually with audiences of a hundred to three hundred. Earlier, I had also been camp director for the YMHA. And in all of that time, I was often critical of Israel. So I was attracted to the following column.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/yves-engler/2016/08/jewish-groups-reckless-accusations-anti-semitism-sets-us-down-dan
____________________________________________________________________________
This one adds analysis to a story I have cited from The Guardian.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/j-baglow/2016/08/frances-fear-burkini-has-nothing-to-do-protecting-women
______________________________________________________________________________
Another story, almost local, that the irving press missed.
http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/talking-radical-radio/2016/08/broad-coalition-against-austerity-newfoundland
_______________________________________________________________________________
Well, that's it for another day. I would just add that we have to think and discuss more, and we have to do it openly. You don't want to walk through life like the mumbling puppet the irving press wants you to be.
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