Here's the story on just one tax-dodge scheme for the wealthy. It seems to have been done with the knowledge of the Canadian government through a firm that has many government contracts, and through a 'prestigious' law firm.
And this is only one of many such schemes. Tell me again what a lovely man Justin Trudeau is.
Will it appear in the irving press? Perhaps with an indignant column by Norbert Cunningham?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/kpmg-offshore-tax-dodge-1.4002778
I wrote the above note yesterday. Today, it did NOT appear in the irving press. It needed the front page for a big story that a local road got washed out. Inside, there's mostly heart-warming stories. I mean, who needs bad news?
And Norbert? Forget it.
This is just one tax dodge scheme among many that are carried out by our governments for the benefit of the wealthy. We, the majority by far, have to make up the difference in higher taxes and smaller services. The price for that is heavy, and it's going to get a lot heavier. No society can survive by constantly debasing itself to serve the rich.
The creation of tax havens is one of the great threats of our time. Those with vast fortunes are free to keep all their money with no obligation whatever to the millions of the rest of us who have made their fortunes possible.
Will the wealthy use that money to spread wealth to the rest of us? Not bloody likely. That extra money will be spread to where labour is cheapest and the corporation bosses are least controlled. We are now well into a system in which almost everybody is steadily getting poorer to benefit a very small group. We are designing trade treaties which give away our right to decide what will be done (or not done) for our environment. We are allowing that very small group increasing control of the governments we elect. We allow that small group to control the information we get about what is happening in the world.
All of this now has the U.S. in dreadful confusion, a nation of fear and hatreds. Trump has brought all this into the open. But he didn't create it. This has been developing for decades in the U.S, Canada,.......other parts of the world.
Impeaching Trump will solve nothing - because Americans (and most Canadians) are so thought-controlled that they don't even recognize the problem.
The U.S. has spent countless billions to kill people and steal their oil. Most correctly, the ordinary people of the U.S. have spent billions - money that they cannot now spend on health care or housing, or education. And for the sacrifice, the American people get ??? Well, some get killed. Some suffer for the rest of their lives after the killing. Meanwhile, the very wealthy, who usually avoid military services and who don't pay taxes to fight these wars,, trot happily to their tax haven of choice, occasionally giving a gift to a local charity (clap, clap, clap).
And our news media soon forget. Remember the reason for the U.S. and Britain invading Iraq? It was because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
(Whatever that means.) But there were no such weapons - and Bush and Blair knew there were no such weapons.
One and a half million people were murdered. (Okay. if you accept the U.S. figures, 'only' a few hundred thousand were murdered. So where is all the digust or even criticism about this mass murder?
The war was illegal under international law. That makes the masss murder a war crime. But the only person who got tried and hanged for it (very, very quickly) was the leader of Iraq. But our news carried not even a word about the criminality of Bush and Blair. Bush is now retired, honoured, and a regular attender of his Christian church. Clap hands for Jesus. Blair, like Bush, is now an extremely wealthy man, and an eminent member of British society.
We are creating an extraordinarily corrupt and murderous world with the most corrupt and murderous of us in charge. And we don't have much time to change that.
_____________________________________________________________________________
A reader sent the item below. It's from a source I'm not familiar with. But I'll certainly be adding it to my list, and with thanks.
https://theconversation.com/can-the-government-save-money-by-privatizing-prisons-medicare-and-other-functions-73229?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%202%202017%20-%2068875122%20Stories%20of%20Note&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%202%202017%20-%2068875122%20Stories%20of%20Note+Version+A+CID_ee9a5d10312002f9398b2e1e20ceb291&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=Can%20the%20government%20save%20money%20by%20privatizing%20prisons%20Medicare%20and%20other%20functions
If that huge link doesn't work or if you want to see the 'magazine' contents, go to
https://theconversation.com/ __________________________________________________________________________________
The following item is gruesome. But it's important as a sample of how we humans behave - and always have behaved. Self-righteousness and the most brutal treatment of others have always gone hand in hand.
(Some Protestants will take a satisfying comfort in noting that the villians in this case were Catholices. But devout Protestants (and people of other religions) have a very similar record.)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/mass-grave-of-babies-and-children-found-at-tuam-orphanage-in-ireland
__________________________________________________________________________________
What is the war in Yemen about? Why has Saudi launched a war on a country that is poor and is no threat to Saudi Arabia? Why is the U.S. supplying bombs and other weapons to the Saudis for this war? Why is it supplying guidance to Saudi aircraft that are bombing civilians? Why is the U.S. blockading Yemen so that this country that is suffering starvation and disease cannot get food or medical supplies? Why has Trudeau insisted on supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia for used in Yemen when that is contrary to Canadian international agreements? (And when are Canadians going to catch on to Justin Trudeau?)
This is a war so brutal and so contrary to international law---yet we hear virtually nothing about it. Have we become so numb that we have lost all morality?
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/mar/03/yemen-horror-uncertainty-act-prevent-famine-saleh-saeed-disasters-emeregency-committee
________________________________________________________________________________
People, all people, need some regulation. Cars need speed limits. City streets need stop signs. Buildings need building codes. That's obvious, of course. But the word from big business is that regulation of business is bad. And so it is that the big news media owned by big business routinely cheer the dregulation of business.
And here's a story that pokes a hole in that thinking.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/chile-wildfires-forestry-industry-plantations
New Brunswickers might think - forest spraying, fracking. The ones who do these things are people - just like us. So they need regulation - just like us.
__________________________________________________________________________
Well, to return to an earlier topic, the U.S. is now bombing Yemen. Why? Why is the richest country in the world bombing some of the world's poorest and most hungry people? Has Yemen threatened to attack the U.S.?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/03/lies-russia-trump-obamawww.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-launches-air-strikes-yemen-n728186
_______________________________________________________________________________
There's quite a story to be told about the behaviour of Canadian mining companies outside Canada - and their utter contempt for the local people. Here's a part of it.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Big-Win-for-Colombian-Community-Against-Canadian-Mining-Giant-20170302-0004.html
_____________________________________________________________________________
Why is the U.S. taking part in a war in Syria? And why is it supporting the 'rebel' side - the jihadists that the US says are evil? American wars since 1945 have killed millions. made refugees of many tens of millions, created the largest national debt in world history (one that can never be paid), devastated whole countries which are not likely to recover in the lifetime of any person now living.
The wealthy have made money out of all this, laughing all the way to their offshore tax havens. But what have the American people gained - if fanything - out of all this?
This isn't stupidity. This is insanity.
http://thesaker.is/syrian-war-report-march-3-2017-us-backed-forces-surrender-wide-areas-near-manbij-to-syrian-army/
And this most certainly not the world that Canadians fought and died for in 1939-45.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Why are some people rich and some poor? Well, it's because the rich ones have ambition, and they work hard. The same phenomenon can be seen with other successful and admired people. Why is Prince Harry a prince. Well? he workd hard and he studied. It was the same with his father.
Any clergyman will tell you that. Jesus, on the other hand, had no drive and no ambition. That's why He never got rich - and why the chamber of commerce never gave a dinner in His honour.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/why_do_some_people_have_money_while_others_dont_20170302
_________________________________________________________________________________
Trump is building up the U.S. nuclear arsenal. So guess what Russia will do. (Only one guess.)
One, modern nuclear bomb could wipe out any country in Europe - or any state in the U.S.
This isn't planning. This is profound stupidity, hysteria and insanity.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/24/sleepwalking-into-a-nuclear-arms-race-with-russia/
_________________________________________________________________________________
And here's a surprising story.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/shell-knew-oil-giants-1991-film-warned-climate-change-danger-video
______________________________________________________________________________
There are lots and lots of stories about Trump but, for the most part, they aren't worth reading. It was, for example, cruel of Trump to plant the widow of a Seal killed in a recent action - and out there right in the middle of his speech to congress so he could lead the applause. That really wasn't a moment to applaud that poor woman. But he's a lout. And we already knew that.
The really dangerous part of American political life is that the only altervative to the delusion, and corruption, and murder lust of the Republicans is the delusion, and corruption and murder lust of the Democrats. Americans have no alternative. The democrats have more 'class' perhaps. Obama did. But he still murdered and created refugees on a huge scale to obey his bosses. He still did nothing about torture. He still created crises with Russia and China. He still allowed the tax havents to go on. He still represented the insanity of the wealthy.
____________________________________________________________________________
Here's the story of the widow, and how Trump used her as a propaganda stunt. It reveals something of the character of Trump. He's disgusting. But his character is not the really dangerous part of him.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/03/notes-on-empire-and-spiritual-death-a-recent-episode/
______________________________________________________________________________
I usually leave Haaretz as my last reading because it's the last intelligent and honest commercial news medium left. I also have a fondness for it because it reminds me of the Jewish community I grew up with - honest, fair-minded, compassionate - all those qualities that today's Israel has thrown overboard.
Israel's treatment of Palestinians is shameful. It's racist. It's murderous I don't see any trace of Judaism in that. The Canadian response to this (none) is equally shameful.
Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, reminds me of the Judaism I knew and admired. His language in this statement is careful, very careful. But his message is clear. And it's honest. And intelligent.
And let's not kid ourselves. North American support for Netanyahu's Israael has nothing to do with Judaism. The U.S., in particular, supports Israel for one reason only. Israel is a vital agent in keeping control of the region for the U.S. and its oil barons.
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.774304
And this is only one of many such schemes. Tell me again what a lovely man Justin Trudeau is.
Will it appear in the irving press? Perhaps with an indignant column by Norbert Cunningham?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/kpmg-offshore-tax-dodge-1.4002778
I wrote the above note yesterday. Today, it did NOT appear in the irving press. It needed the front page for a big story that a local road got washed out. Inside, there's mostly heart-warming stories. I mean, who needs bad news?
And Norbert? Forget it.
This is just one tax dodge scheme among many that are carried out by our governments for the benefit of the wealthy. We, the majority by far, have to make up the difference in higher taxes and smaller services. The price for that is heavy, and it's going to get a lot heavier. No society can survive by constantly debasing itself to serve the rich.
The creation of tax havens is one of the great threats of our time. Those with vast fortunes are free to keep all their money with no obligation whatever to the millions of the rest of us who have made their fortunes possible.
Will the wealthy use that money to spread wealth to the rest of us? Not bloody likely. That extra money will be spread to where labour is cheapest and the corporation bosses are least controlled. We are now well into a system in which almost everybody is steadily getting poorer to benefit a very small group. We are designing trade treaties which give away our right to decide what will be done (or not done) for our environment. We are allowing that very small group increasing control of the governments we elect. We allow that small group to control the information we get about what is happening in the world.
All of this now has the U.S. in dreadful confusion, a nation of fear and hatreds. Trump has brought all this into the open. But he didn't create it. This has been developing for decades in the U.S, Canada,.......other parts of the world.
Impeaching Trump will solve nothing - because Americans (and most Canadians) are so thought-controlled that they don't even recognize the problem.
The U.S. has spent countless billions to kill people and steal their oil. Most correctly, the ordinary people of the U.S. have spent billions - money that they cannot now spend on health care or housing, or education. And for the sacrifice, the American people get ??? Well, some get killed. Some suffer for the rest of their lives after the killing. Meanwhile, the very wealthy, who usually avoid military services and who don't pay taxes to fight these wars,, trot happily to their tax haven of choice, occasionally giving a gift to a local charity (clap, clap, clap).
And our news media soon forget. Remember the reason for the U.S. and Britain invading Iraq? It was because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
(Whatever that means.) But there were no such weapons - and Bush and Blair knew there were no such weapons.
One and a half million people were murdered. (Okay. if you accept the U.S. figures, 'only' a few hundred thousand were murdered. So where is all the digust or even criticism about this mass murder?
The war was illegal under international law. That makes the masss murder a war crime. But the only person who got tried and hanged for it (very, very quickly) was the leader of Iraq. But our news carried not even a word about the criminality of Bush and Blair. Bush is now retired, honoured, and a regular attender of his Christian church. Clap hands for Jesus. Blair, like Bush, is now an extremely wealthy man, and an eminent member of British society.
We are creating an extraordinarily corrupt and murderous world with the most corrupt and murderous of us in charge. And we don't have much time to change that.
_____________________________________________________________________________
A reader sent the item below. It's from a source I'm not familiar with. But I'll certainly be adding it to my list, and with thanks.
https://theconversation.com/can-the-government-save-money-by-privatizing-prisons-medicare-and-other-functions-73229?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%202%202017%20-%2068875122%20Stories%20of%20Note&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%202%202017%20-%2068875122%20Stories%20of%20Note+Version+A+CID_ee9a5d10312002f9398b2e1e20ceb291&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=Can%20the%20government%20save%20money%20by%20privatizing%20prisons%20Medicare%20and%20other%20functions
If that huge link doesn't work or if you want to see the 'magazine' contents, go to
https://theconversation.com/ __________________________________________________________________________________
The following item is gruesome. But it's important as a sample of how we humans behave - and always have behaved. Self-righteousness and the most brutal treatment of others have always gone hand in hand.
(Some Protestants will take a satisfying comfort in noting that the villians in this case were Catholices. But devout Protestants (and people of other religions) have a very similar record.)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/mass-grave-of-babies-and-children-found-at-tuam-orphanage-in-ireland
__________________________________________________________________________________
What is the war in Yemen about? Why has Saudi launched a war on a country that is poor and is no threat to Saudi Arabia? Why is the U.S. supplying bombs and other weapons to the Saudis for this war? Why is it supplying guidance to Saudi aircraft that are bombing civilians? Why is the U.S. blockading Yemen so that this country that is suffering starvation and disease cannot get food or medical supplies? Why has Trudeau insisted on supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia for used in Yemen when that is contrary to Canadian international agreements? (And when are Canadians going to catch on to Justin Trudeau?)
This is a war so brutal and so contrary to international law---yet we hear virtually nothing about it. Have we become so numb that we have lost all morality?
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/mar/03/yemen-horror-uncertainty-act-prevent-famine-saleh-saeed-disasters-emeregency-committee
________________________________________________________________________________
People, all people, need some regulation. Cars need speed limits. City streets need stop signs. Buildings need building codes. That's obvious, of course. But the word from big business is that regulation of business is bad. And so it is that the big news media owned by big business routinely cheer the dregulation of business.
And here's a story that pokes a hole in that thinking.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/chile-wildfires-forestry-industry-plantations
New Brunswickers might think - forest spraying, fracking. The ones who do these things are people - just like us. So they need regulation - just like us.
__________________________________________________________________________
Well, to return to an earlier topic, the U.S. is now bombing Yemen. Why? Why is the richest country in the world bombing some of the world's poorest and most hungry people? Has Yemen threatened to attack the U.S.?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/03/lies-russia-trump-obamawww.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-launches-air-strikes-yemen-n728186
_______________________________________________________________________________
There's quite a story to be told about the behaviour of Canadian mining companies outside Canada - and their utter contempt for the local people. Here's a part of it.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Big-Win-for-Colombian-Community-Against-Canadian-Mining-Giant-20170302-0004.html
_____________________________________________________________________________
Why is the U.S. taking part in a war in Syria? And why is it supporting the 'rebel' side - the jihadists that the US says are evil? American wars since 1945 have killed millions. made refugees of many tens of millions, created the largest national debt in world history (one that can never be paid), devastated whole countries which are not likely to recover in the lifetime of any person now living.
The wealthy have made money out of all this, laughing all the way to their offshore tax havens. But what have the American people gained - if fanything - out of all this?
This isn't stupidity. This is insanity.
http://thesaker.is/syrian-war-report-march-3-2017-us-backed-forces-surrender-wide-areas-near-manbij-to-syrian-army/
And this most certainly not the world that Canadians fought and died for in 1939-45.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Why are some people rich and some poor? Well, it's because the rich ones have ambition, and they work hard. The same phenomenon can be seen with other successful and admired people. Why is Prince Harry a prince. Well? he workd hard and he studied. It was the same with his father.
Any clergyman will tell you that. Jesus, on the other hand, had no drive and no ambition. That's why He never got rich - and why the chamber of commerce never gave a dinner in His honour.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/why_do_some_people_have_money_while_others_dont_20170302
_________________________________________________________________________________
Trump is building up the U.S. nuclear arsenal. So guess what Russia will do. (Only one guess.)
One, modern nuclear bomb could wipe out any country in Europe - or any state in the U.S.
This isn't planning. This is profound stupidity, hysteria and insanity.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/24/sleepwalking-into-a-nuclear-arms-race-with-russia/
_________________________________________________________________________________
And here's a surprising story.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/shell-knew-oil-giants-1991-film-warned-climate-change-danger-video
______________________________________________________________________________
There are lots and lots of stories about Trump but, for the most part, they aren't worth reading. It was, for example, cruel of Trump to plant the widow of a Seal killed in a recent action - and out there right in the middle of his speech to congress so he could lead the applause. That really wasn't a moment to applaud that poor woman. But he's a lout. And we already knew that.
The really dangerous part of American political life is that the only altervative to the delusion, and corruption, and murder lust of the Republicans is the delusion, and corruption and murder lust of the Democrats. Americans have no alternative. The democrats have more 'class' perhaps. Obama did. But he still murdered and created refugees on a huge scale to obey his bosses. He still did nothing about torture. He still created crises with Russia and China. He still allowed the tax havents to go on. He still represented the insanity of the wealthy.
____________________________________________________________________________
Here's the story of the widow, and how Trump used her as a propaganda stunt. It reveals something of the character of Trump. He's disgusting. But his character is not the really dangerous part of him.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/03/notes-on-empire-and-spiritual-death-a-recent-episode/
______________________________________________________________________________
I usually leave Haaretz as my last reading because it's the last intelligent and honest commercial news medium left. I also have a fondness for it because it reminds me of the Jewish community I grew up with - honest, fair-minded, compassionate - all those qualities that today's Israel has thrown overboard.
Israel's treatment of Palestinians is shameful. It's racist. It's murderous I don't see any trace of Judaism in that. The Canadian response to this (none) is equally shameful.
Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, reminds me of the Judaism I knew and admired. His language in this statement is careful, very careful. But his message is clear. And it's honest. And intelligent.
And let's not kid ourselves. North American support for Netanyahu's Israael has nothing to do with Judaism. The U.S., in particular, supports Israel for one reason only. Israel is a vital agent in keeping control of the region for the U.S. and its oil barons.
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.774304
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