That's the title of a four page nothingburger in the Globe and Mail today (still only $6.30 at the Korean Extortionist's in Wiarton).
Authors Shannon Carranco and Jon Milton treat us to a breathless recounting of the antics of several dozen semi-literate racist goobers who pretend to be gamers. Apparently that's so they can piggyback on popular gamer websites with their coded secret messages. They use really cool made-up names like "Whiteknee," "Axe in the Deep," and "Dank," and horror of horrors, they are recruiting on university campuses, especially at U of T!
I wonder how that's going?
By page three of the expose, our would-be fascist revolutionaries are ready to actually organize a face to face with their internet fellow-travellers. They get together for a weekend of alcohol abuse and homo-social bonding at a cottage up north. They drink lots of moonshine (supplied by "Rusty," a middle-aged Canadian Forces veteran), talk a lot of drunken shit, make really big breakfasts, and then they go home.
On the last page of this expose we come across the following disclaimer; "The chat room and its conversations exist in a digital world one step removed from reality, which can make it difficult to assess the threat they represent."
Indeed.
So why is the Globe and Mail giving this idiot fringe four pages of free publicity?
The white-supremacist fringe of the political spectrum is largely a media confection. It's always a "growing threat." When I was at the University of Guelph forty years ago, there was a Professor Stan Barrett in the sociology department who researched the far right fringe.
Guess what?
They were a "growing threat" then, too.
In fact, Stan made a fifty year career out of the growing threat of the far right.
And twenty years before that, when the Canadian Nazi Party tried to hold a meeting in Toronto's Allan Gardens, four thousand protesters showed up and beat the would-be Nazis to a bloody pulp - but they were a growing threat...
As for those recruiting efforts at U of T, I have my doubts. Due to the next generation being way smarter than me, I've had occasion to spend some time around the place, and l'm l00% certain most students there have more pressing concerns.
Surely the Globe and Mail could have found some more important issues to fill those four pages.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Thursday, April 25, 2019
RIP Joe Szewczyk
I only met Joe once, but I'd heard about him a lot.
I hadn't realized that he passed away just the other week, until I ran into a couple of guys as I was walking my dog on his property this morning. It's the first day of turkey season, and Rick and Tom had the whole hunting thing going on: camo blinds, decoys, an ATV...
Seems I got a couple of things wrong in the hearsay I heard said about Joe. According to his obit, he was born in Canada, whereas I'd thought he was born in the old country. And he was only 82.
Joe's extended clan always come up for deer hunting season, and Rick and Tom were apparently close enough to have been part of that, and also close enough to stay at the main cabin down at Mary Lake while they're up here for turkey season.
Me and the Farm Manager were down at Mary Lake one time, throwing sticks into the water for the dogs. Joe's property manager showed up in short order to check us out. I figure Joe must have had some kind of security camera system set up around the place.
Be that as it may, once he knew who we were, he was exceedingly generous, and made it clear that we could walk our hounds on his property any time we liked.
Thanks, neighbour.
I hadn't realized that he passed away just the other week, until I ran into a couple of guys as I was walking my dog on his property this morning. It's the first day of turkey season, and Rick and Tom had the whole hunting thing going on: camo blinds, decoys, an ATV...
Seems I got a couple of things wrong in the hearsay I heard said about Joe. According to his obit, he was born in Canada, whereas I'd thought he was born in the old country. And he was only 82.
Joe's extended clan always come up for deer hunting season, and Rick and Tom were apparently close enough to have been part of that, and also close enough to stay at the main cabin down at Mary Lake while they're up here for turkey season.
Me and the Farm Manager were down at Mary Lake one time, throwing sticks into the water for the dogs. Joe's property manager showed up in short order to check us out. I figure Joe must have had some kind of security camera system set up around the place.
Be that as it may, once he knew who we were, he was exceedingly generous, and made it clear that we could walk our hounds on his property any time we liked.
Thanks, neighbour.
Cooking with snot; cheap thrills for the jaded palate
I submitted an essay by that title to a "humour" magazine, I believe it was called the "Harpoon." It was a Canadian version of the National Lampoon.
We're talking thirty or forty years ago, at least.
The Harpoon didn't last very long. By the time my comedic literary effort crossed their front desk, that desk was in the possession of The Harpoon's receiver in bankruptcy.
I don't really remember much about that essay, other than the fact that the gal I'd roped into typing it up for me mentioned that she'd gagged multiple times whilst doing the typing.
Her name was Rosie.
I recall I was somewhat infatuated with her at the time, and I still have the tattoo to prove it.
That's a messed up thing, isn't it? You take a fancy to a gal and you get their name tattooed across your chest...
It shouldn't have come as a surprise that she found me a little "intense."
No shit!
It wasn't long after Cooking with Snot that I bought myself an old Royal typewriter. I covered every key with masking tape and forced myself to learn how to touch type. Been doing my own typing ever since... or "keyboarding," as it is now known.
We're talking thirty or forty years ago, at least.
The Harpoon didn't last very long. By the time my comedic literary effort crossed their front desk, that desk was in the possession of The Harpoon's receiver in bankruptcy.
I don't really remember much about that essay, other than the fact that the gal I'd roped into typing it up for me mentioned that she'd gagged multiple times whilst doing the typing.
Her name was Rosie.
I recall I was somewhat infatuated with her at the time, and I still have the tattoo to prove it.
That's a messed up thing, isn't it? You take a fancy to a gal and you get their name tattooed across your chest...
It shouldn't have come as a surprise that she found me a little "intense."
No shit!
It wasn't long after Cooking with Snot that I bought myself an old Royal typewriter. I covered every key with masking tape and forced myself to learn how to touch type. Been doing my own typing ever since... or "keyboarding," as it is now known.
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Canada urged to get tough with China
Colin Robertson has an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail today informing us that China's been bullying us, and it's high time that Ottawa muscle up.
That's the kind of militaristic malarkey one would expect from a "vice-president and fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute." CGAI, a registered Canadian "charity," is essentially a lobby group funded by the US defense industry. It works tirelessly to convince whichever party is in power that Canada is bedevilled by existential threats, meaning Russia and China, and our very sovereignty is at risk if we don't throw gobs of money to the US armaments industry.
To convince the party in power to indulge such foolishness, it helps to get the public onside, and that's where Canada's newspaper of record comes in. Its role is to provide a platform for the kind of confrontational propaganda we see today. A casual perusal of the list of "fellows" at CGAI shows that Canada's elite opinion-shapers are already convinced of the righteousness of their scare-mongering, but it never hurts to get the rabble on board.
What Robertson wants the rabble to get riled up about today is the ongoing Meng Wanzhou hostage taking. That was a Canadian first strike. China retaliated by taking two citizens and our canola producers hostage. That's where things stand, and that's where they'll stay stuck, at least till Mr. Trudeau mans up and decides we're gonna fight back!
Robertson invokes the "rule of law" a couple of times in the course of his article. This mysterious phenomenon is frequently trotted out by the apostles of American Exceptionalism and their acolytes in the me-too nations, sometimes called the "Five Eyes." Contrary to what you might think if you took the term literally, abiding by the "rule of law" in no way precludes the Nations of Virtue running roughshod over international law as we favour recalcitrant countries with crippling economic sanctions, regime change operations, and when all else fails, bomb lesser civilisations back to the stone age.
Robertson carefully avoids any mention of Meng Wanzhou's original crime; allegations that her employer, Huawei, violated US sanctions against Iran. Would the rule-of-law fetishists please explain by what rules of which laws it is America's right to dictate to the world who is permitted to do business with whom?
The long and the short of the Huawei debacle is that PM Fluffy, in his virtue-signalling meanderings through the meadows of international relations, managed to step in a particularly pungent cow-pie. Now he's got shit on his colourful socks and doesn't know what to do.
He doesn't need to get tougher.
He needs to get smarter.
That's the kind of militaristic malarkey one would expect from a "vice-president and fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute." CGAI, a registered Canadian "charity," is essentially a lobby group funded by the US defense industry. It works tirelessly to convince whichever party is in power that Canada is bedevilled by existential threats, meaning Russia and China, and our very sovereignty is at risk if we don't throw gobs of money to the US armaments industry.
To convince the party in power to indulge such foolishness, it helps to get the public onside, and that's where Canada's newspaper of record comes in. Its role is to provide a platform for the kind of confrontational propaganda we see today. A casual perusal of the list of "fellows" at CGAI shows that Canada's elite opinion-shapers are already convinced of the righteousness of their scare-mongering, but it never hurts to get the rabble on board.
What Robertson wants the rabble to get riled up about today is the ongoing Meng Wanzhou hostage taking. That was a Canadian first strike. China retaliated by taking two citizens and our canola producers hostage. That's where things stand, and that's where they'll stay stuck, at least till Mr. Trudeau mans up and decides we're gonna fight back!
Robertson invokes the "rule of law" a couple of times in the course of his article. This mysterious phenomenon is frequently trotted out by the apostles of American Exceptionalism and their acolytes in the me-too nations, sometimes called the "Five Eyes." Contrary to what you might think if you took the term literally, abiding by the "rule of law" in no way precludes the Nations of Virtue running roughshod over international law as we favour recalcitrant countries with crippling economic sanctions, regime change operations, and when all else fails, bomb lesser civilisations back to the stone age.
Robertson carefully avoids any mention of Meng Wanzhou's original crime; allegations that her employer, Huawei, violated US sanctions against Iran. Would the rule-of-law fetishists please explain by what rules of which laws it is America's right to dictate to the world who is permitted to do business with whom?
The long and the short of the Huawei debacle is that PM Fluffy, in his virtue-signalling meanderings through the meadows of international relations, managed to step in a particularly pungent cow-pie. Now he's got shit on his colourful socks and doesn't know what to do.
He doesn't need to get tougher.
He needs to get smarter.
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Curling
There's a lovely little human interest story on view at the CBC today, about Canada's other national sport, curling.
That got me thinking...
In the pantheon of professional sport, professional curling is somewhere in the sub-basement, well below professional bowling.
Indeed, the word "professional" is something of a misnomer. Many a top "professional" curler in Canada, a global curling powerhouse, can't afford to quit their day job at Tim Horton's.
It's definitely not like the NBA/NFL or anything like that.
That said, it must be remembered that curling does have its charms. Until relatively recently, it was one of the few sports that could be engaged whilst having a smoke and chugging a beer.
That's got to count for something.
And there's no denying that curling had a larger-than-life presence in small-town Canada. Many communities built a curling sheet right alongside their hockey rink.
I even had a brief brush with curling back in my high school days.
I got a call one Saturday morning from the captain of the GCVI curling team to show up at the Guelph Curling Club.
So I did.
Seems they were in some sort of competition and hadn't had enough of the team show up to make a quorum, or whatever they call it in curling. They went deep into their archives and must have found that on the first day of grade nine, several years prior, I had ticked a box that said I "might" be interested in curling as an extracurricular.
Once they found out I'd never in my life thrown a rock, I was summarily, and in my recollection, somewhat rudely, dismissed.
But I have a hunch that I'd be a contender for a spot on the Kosovo national curling team. After all, the CBC is giving loads of free air to a Canadian expat and his girlfriend who invented curling in Kosovo.
Is this story about curling, or is it about giving a warm and fuzzy face to the Muslim enclave that NATO carved out of the former Yugoslavia?
That got me thinking...
In the pantheon of professional sport, professional curling is somewhere in the sub-basement, well below professional bowling.
Indeed, the word "professional" is something of a misnomer. Many a top "professional" curler in Canada, a global curling powerhouse, can't afford to quit their day job at Tim Horton's.
It's definitely not like the NBA/NFL or anything like that.
That said, it must be remembered that curling does have its charms. Until relatively recently, it was one of the few sports that could be engaged whilst having a smoke and chugging a beer.
That's got to count for something.
And there's no denying that curling had a larger-than-life presence in small-town Canada. Many communities built a curling sheet right alongside their hockey rink.
I even had a brief brush with curling back in my high school days.
I got a call one Saturday morning from the captain of the GCVI curling team to show up at the Guelph Curling Club.
So I did.
Seems they were in some sort of competition and hadn't had enough of the team show up to make a quorum, or whatever they call it in curling. They went deep into their archives and must have found that on the first day of grade nine, several years prior, I had ticked a box that said I "might" be interested in curling as an extracurricular.
Once they found out I'd never in my life thrown a rock, I was summarily, and in my recollection, somewhat rudely, dismissed.
But I have a hunch that I'd be a contender for a spot on the Kosovo national curling team. After all, the CBC is giving loads of free air to a Canadian expat and his girlfriend who invented curling in Kosovo.
Is this story about curling, or is it about giving a warm and fuzzy face to the Muslim enclave that NATO carved out of the former Yugoslavia?
Saturday, April 20, 2019
I wasn't kidding
Who decides what you see on your screen?
Your content providers?
What the fuck is a "content provider?"
Are content providers the same folks who have already decided that you're gonna get two more years of RussiaTrump, whether you want it or not.
Does America have other issues? Issues beyond RussiaTrump?
Like a homelessness crisis? Look around.
Like a wildly discriminatory economy crisis? "Working poor" is an oxymoron that needs to be expunged.
Like a multi-century institutional racism crisis, or a crisis of democracy, wherein many billions are spent ensuring that the victor in the most recent election cycle will dutifully implement policies that the majority of the population don't want.
No, nevernevernevernever, and if you disagree, we'll kick you off Facebook-Twitter-Google.
I wasn't kidding.
Your content providers?
What the fuck is a "content provider?"
Are content providers the same folks who have already decided that you're gonna get two more years of RussiaTrump, whether you want it or not.
Does America have other issues? Issues beyond RussiaTrump?
Like a homelessness crisis? Look around.
Like a wildly discriminatory economy crisis? "Working poor" is an oxymoron that needs to be expunged.
Like a multi-century institutional racism crisis, or a crisis of democracy, wherein many billions are spent ensuring that the victor in the most recent election cycle will dutifully implement policies that the majority of the population don't want.
No, nevernevernevernever, and if you disagree, we'll kick you off Facebook-Twitter-Google.
I wasn't kidding.
Why you should be reading alternative news sites
Big Brother and his MSM acolytes, together with Big Tech, have got it in for "alternative news."
You know, those news sites mentioned in the Propornot expose as being fronts for Russian propaganda.
I long ago gave up the belief that I was going to get the straight skinny from CNN or the rest of the "mainstream" media.
It wasn't always that way.
I remember driving through the northeast states back in the Gulf War One days, on my way with my family to a new job at the shipyard in Saint John.
If you put a ruler on a road-map, you'll see that the shortest route from Guelph to Saint John runs through the US northeast.
Every little town you drove through in upstate New York, in New Hampshire and Vermont and Maine, had yellow ribbons on all the big trees in all the front yards along all of the main streets.
Every hotel we stayed at had 24/7 Gulf War Shock and Awe on the CNN channel in the front lobby.
When we got to Saint John I made a point of getting CNN in our cable package.
But, that was then.
Times have changed.
*******
I don't want to write a dissertation on the decline of "news" over the last thirty years, but here's a little experiment. Compare the "news" you get on CNN to what you get on Fox. One is allegedly right wing, the other is allegedly progressive.
Both have a bedrock belief in this thing called "American Exceptionalism." That's the belief that the USA is always right and just in whatever calamities it gifts the rest of the planet. We wrecked Viet Nam? Laos? Cambodia? Most of Central America? Most of the Middle East?
The exceptional nation is currently working overtime to overthrow the legitimate governments of Iran and Venezuela, not to mention Cuba and Nicaragua, even though America's democracy promotion initiatives have a track record of unmitigated disaster for the last seventy years?
But America is a force for good?
********
Here's another experiment.
Read this "analysis" of the current Ukraine election from Canada's state broadcaster, the CBC.
Then try this one on the same topic from an "alternative" news site called The Vineyard of the Saker.
Read them both. Decide for yourself which one is more objective and better informed.
And even better, read everything out there on every side of this topic... that's how informed opinions are made.
Informed opinions are not made by having Facebook and Google block sites that offer countervailing opinions to claims of American Exceptionalism.
You know, those news sites mentioned in the Propornot expose as being fronts for Russian propaganda.
I long ago gave up the belief that I was going to get the straight skinny from CNN or the rest of the "mainstream" media.
It wasn't always that way.
I remember driving through the northeast states back in the Gulf War One days, on my way with my family to a new job at the shipyard in Saint John.
If you put a ruler on a road-map, you'll see that the shortest route from Guelph to Saint John runs through the US northeast.
Every little town you drove through in upstate New York, in New Hampshire and Vermont and Maine, had yellow ribbons on all the big trees in all the front yards along all of the main streets.
Every hotel we stayed at had 24/7 Gulf War Shock and Awe on the CNN channel in the front lobby.
When we got to Saint John I made a point of getting CNN in our cable package.
But, that was then.
Times have changed.
*******
I don't want to write a dissertation on the decline of "news" over the last thirty years, but here's a little experiment. Compare the "news" you get on CNN to what you get on Fox. One is allegedly right wing, the other is allegedly progressive.
Both have a bedrock belief in this thing called "American Exceptionalism." That's the belief that the USA is always right and just in whatever calamities it gifts the rest of the planet. We wrecked Viet Nam? Laos? Cambodia? Most of Central America? Most of the Middle East?
The exceptional nation is currently working overtime to overthrow the legitimate governments of Iran and Venezuela, not to mention Cuba and Nicaragua, even though America's democracy promotion initiatives have a track record of unmitigated disaster for the last seventy years?
But America is a force for good?
********
Here's another experiment.
Read this "analysis" of the current Ukraine election from Canada's state broadcaster, the CBC.
Then try this one on the same topic from an "alternative" news site called The Vineyard of the Saker.
Read them both. Decide for yourself which one is more objective and better informed.
And even better, read everything out there on every side of this topic... that's how informed opinions are made.
Informed opinions are not made by having Facebook and Google block sites that offer countervailing opinions to claims of American Exceptionalism.
Thursday, April 18, 2019
White France gives its Muslim minority the finger
Michel Houellebecq was awarded France's top literary prize today, the Prix Goncourt. That's no doubt intended as a great big F-U to France's Muslim minority.
His Divine Majesty Macron has his hands full these days with various revelations concerning military meddling in Libya, Yemen, and various African (former?) colonies, the ongoing working class revolt that won't go away, and of course, the convenient catastrophe of the Notre-Dame fire, the fire that promises to unite all French, or at least those from the respectable classes, around the cross of Jesus.
Whatever Houellebecq's charms as an artiste, he is best known for his anti-Muslim fear-mongering. That France's cultural elite would choose this moment in time to elevate such a hate-monger into the literary pantheon speaks volumes.
Nothing good can come of this.
His Divine Majesty Macron has his hands full these days with various revelations concerning military meddling in Libya, Yemen, and various African (former?) colonies, the ongoing working class revolt that won't go away, and of course, the convenient catastrophe of the Notre-Dame fire, the fire that promises to unite all French, or at least those from the respectable classes, around the cross of Jesus.
Whatever Houellebecq's charms as an artiste, he is best known for his anti-Muslim fear-mongering. That France's cultural elite would choose this moment in time to elevate such a hate-monger into the literary pantheon speaks volumes.
Nothing good can come of this.
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Great news! The winter weather warning has been lifted!
The bad news; there's a freezing rain warning in place now!
And after that, it's gonna snow... by golly, this winter just won't let go!
You can see the exasperation on the faces of the songbirds that have come back from wintering down south. They're all sitting around the bird-feeder calling out "WTF" to one another. Sorry, birds.
The idea of heading south for the winter certainly has merit. But where would I go? I'd like to avoid flying, so that pretty much rules out all those Caribbean countries. If you're going further south than the north shore of Lake Erie, well...
Shouldn't we be boycotting that place?
History has rendered Brian Mulroney a great man for his leadership role in the boycott of apartheid South Africa. We don't remember him for exchanging cash-stuffed envelopes with shady characters in seedy hotels, or even for exchanging cash-stuffed envelopes with European business consultants in five-star hotels.
No, we remember Lyin' Brian for his principled stand for human rights!
Justin Trudeau is standing in a grand-historical moment. He can go down in history as a grovelling wimp.
Or he can go down in history as the world leader with the cajones to initiate the BDS-USA initiative.
Stand up to Uncle Sam, Justin!
Grow a pair!
Make us proud!
After all, we've got nothing to lose, and you just look like a shallow twit with all that desperate Trump kow-towing that you work so hard to hide.
He doesn't respect you, Justin. And he doesn't respect us.
Go for it, Justin.
BDS-USA... you know you want to.
And Canada is right behind you. Everybody hates Trump!
Boycotting Trump just might get you the next election!
And you'll be going down in the history books as the father of BDS-USA, the international boycott that brought down American fascism.
And after that, it's gonna snow... by golly, this winter just won't let go!
You can see the exasperation on the faces of the songbirds that have come back from wintering down south. They're all sitting around the bird-feeder calling out "WTF" to one another. Sorry, birds.
The idea of heading south for the winter certainly has merit. But where would I go? I'd like to avoid flying, so that pretty much rules out all those Caribbean countries. If you're going further south than the north shore of Lake Erie, well...
Shouldn't we be boycotting that place?
History has rendered Brian Mulroney a great man for his leadership role in the boycott of apartheid South Africa. We don't remember him for exchanging cash-stuffed envelopes with shady characters in seedy hotels, or even for exchanging cash-stuffed envelopes with European business consultants in five-star hotels.
No, we remember Lyin' Brian for his principled stand for human rights!
Justin Trudeau is standing in a grand-historical moment. He can go down in history as a grovelling wimp.
Or he can go down in history as the world leader with the cajones to initiate the BDS-USA initiative.
Stand up to Uncle Sam, Justin!
Grow a pair!
Make us proud!
After all, we've got nothing to lose, and you just look like a shallow twit with all that desperate Trump kow-towing that you work so hard to hide.
He doesn't respect you, Justin. And he doesn't respect us.
Go for it, Justin.
BDS-USA... you know you want to.
And Canada is right behind you. Everybody hates Trump!
Boycotting Trump just might get you the next election!
And you'll be going down in the history books as the father of BDS-USA, the international boycott that brought down American fascism.
Justin Trudeau heaps shame on his father's legacy
Justin Trudeau before becoming a Yankee stooge.
Interesting story at the CBC about how the Trudeau government has cancelled aid to Nicaragua but forgot to mention the fact to the Canadian public.
For good reason. There's a good slice of the Canadian public already uncomfortable with Canada's collusion with the Americans in their efforts to impose regime change on Venezuela. Our "leadership" of the so-called Lima Group, an amalgam of extreme-right Trump toadies from Central and South America, is a betrayal of Canada's independent foreign policy, insofar as we still have one.
Anyone who has been paying attention knows that the Beltway Bullies see Venezuelan regime change as part of a package deal, with the other parts of the package being Cuba and Nicaragua. Here's John Bolton talking about the "Troika of Tyranny."
And here's Mike Pompeo in a Telemundo interview proclaiming that "the US, under President Trump, is working diligently" to bring peace and prosperity and democracy to the entirety of the Western hemisphere, which will of course require regime change in the tyrannical troika. (Pompeo brings up Nicaragua at 3:12)
There's a reason Bolton and Pompeo value Canada's participation in this anti-democratic chicanery. Trudeau still has a bit of Trudeau the Elder's non-conformist aura about him, and his Foreign Minister is best known on the world stage for her grandstanding on human rights. Chrystia and Justin have a palatability in human rights circles that the leaders of our Lima Group peers like Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, and Brazil clearly do not.
Justin and Chrystia are sacrificing Canada's credibility in the family of nations to serve as window dressing for the crude power politics of neo-fascist war-mongers like Bolton, Pence, Pompeo, and Trump.
Here's a different perspective on what's been happening in Nicaragua.
Twenty-five years after Black Hawk Down, US still bringing security and stability to Somalia
Well, if there's one thing you have to admire about Uncle Sam, he's not the type to cut and run...
More than twenty-five years after Black Hawk Down, US military officials are finally feeling optimistic for the future of Somalia. In fact, if all goes to plan, US forces may be able to say "mission accomplished" in a mere seven years from now.
Coincidentally, Somalia's Norwegian-Somali Prime Minister Hassan Khaire was in Washington this week, checking in with John Bolton. Bolton is very impressed with the economic reforms that Khaire and Somalia's American-Somali President, Mohamed Mohamed, have been instituting.
Khaire established his economics bona fides as "Executive Director for Africa" at Soma Oil and Gas. Since Soma's only business is in Somalia, the position would have been a pretty big deal. It gave Khaire valuable insights not only into the oil and gas business, but into patronage networks between business and political elites in Somalia and beyond.
It's no coincidence that both President and PM are business-friendly hyphenated Somalis more loyal to big business than to their own people. Soma Oil and Gas is fronted by a British Aristocrat, backed by a Russian Oligarch, and based in London. The company has a controversial agreement with the Mogadishu government to earn an ownership stake in lucrative off-shore oil fields in return for seismic mapping of the seabed.
The think tank here at Falling Downs predicts that the US mission in Somalia will be extended as long as necessary to ensure the security and stability of those oil fields once they are in production.
More than twenty-five years after Black Hawk Down, US military officials are finally feeling optimistic for the future of Somalia. In fact, if all goes to plan, US forces may be able to say "mission accomplished" in a mere seven years from now.
Coincidentally, Somalia's Norwegian-Somali Prime Minister Hassan Khaire was in Washington this week, checking in with John Bolton. Bolton is very impressed with the economic reforms that Khaire and Somalia's American-Somali President, Mohamed Mohamed, have been instituting.
Khaire established his economics bona fides as "Executive Director for Africa" at Soma Oil and Gas. Since Soma's only business is in Somalia, the position would have been a pretty big deal. It gave Khaire valuable insights not only into the oil and gas business, but into patronage networks between business and political elites in Somalia and beyond.
It's no coincidence that both President and PM are business-friendly hyphenated Somalis more loyal to big business than to their own people. Soma Oil and Gas is fronted by a British Aristocrat, backed by a Russian Oligarch, and based in London. The company has a controversial agreement with the Mogadishu government to earn an ownership stake in lucrative off-shore oil fields in return for seismic mapping of the seabed.
The think tank here at Falling Downs predicts that the US mission in Somalia will be extended as long as necessary to ensure the security and stability of those oil fields once they are in production.
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Blaming the victims for instability in the Middle East and North Africa
Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders has an intriguing take on "Arab Spring 2.0" in today's paper.
According to Doug, back in 2011 Western leaders were "jumping over each other" to support popular uprisings in the Arab world. But, due to how things have since turned out, particularly in Libya, their enthusiasm to get behind current popular unrest in Algeria and Sudan has waned mightily.
Doug poses the rhetorical question, "Would the Middle East and North Africa be in better shape if its strongman dictators... had been kept in place?" He finds his answer in Syria, where "the al-Assad regime remains in power... and the mass uprising against him was denied a victory, either through deliberate neglect or insufficient commitment from outside."
Note the assumption that it is up to Western leaders, outsiders, to determine the course of politics in Arab nations. With the exception of Libya and Syria, no Western leaders anywhere were "jumping over each other" to support any popular uprisings in 2011, certainly not in Tunisia, or Egypt, or Bahrain, or Yemen.
In Egypt, the West backed away from Arab Spring from the beginning, and fully connived in the overthrow of the Morsi government in 2013.
In Libya and Syria, on the other hand, modest popular protests were soon fanned into regime-change operations via wholesale interventions by the West. Oddly enough, those were two secular Arab states which had made reasonable, in Libya's case exceptional, progress in human development.
Libya was perhaps a special case. So few people, all that oil; that's a combo bound to pique the interest of the humanitarian interventionists in the West, which it did.
The strongman dictator of Syria didn't have a lot of oil, but did have the misfortune of sharing a common border with Israel, and that alone is enough to make a stable Syrian government a threat to US interests. Here's a telling headline from the Guardian in 2012; Most Syrians back President Assad, but you'd never know from western media. That was Jonathan Steele on western propaganda, an unrelenting barrage of disinformation that has persisted right up until Doug's column today.
As for the future, "getting behind the people in the street" in Sudan seems a dubious goal. The "educated, hopeful, next generation" will hopefully get educated sufficiently to understand that our "help" is generally not in the interests of the people we purport to be helping.
**************
Further reading on Sudan and Arab Spring
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/07/2013710113522489801.html
http://www.gallup-international.com/surveys/syria-poll-march-2018/
https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/the-decline-of-sudans-cappuccino-sipping-middle-class/44575/
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/04/quietly-angrily-washington-confronts-its-wayward-offspring-south-sudan-africa-diplomacy-foreign-aid-war-conflict-peace-deal-salva-kiir/
According to Doug, back in 2011 Western leaders were "jumping over each other" to support popular uprisings in the Arab world. But, due to how things have since turned out, particularly in Libya, their enthusiasm to get behind current popular unrest in Algeria and Sudan has waned mightily.
Doug poses the rhetorical question, "Would the Middle East and North Africa be in better shape if its strongman dictators... had been kept in place?" He finds his answer in Syria, where "the al-Assad regime remains in power... and the mass uprising against him was denied a victory, either through deliberate neglect or insufficient commitment from outside."
Note the assumption that it is up to Western leaders, outsiders, to determine the course of politics in Arab nations. With the exception of Libya and Syria, no Western leaders anywhere were "jumping over each other" to support any popular uprisings in 2011, certainly not in Tunisia, or Egypt, or Bahrain, or Yemen.
In Egypt, the West backed away from Arab Spring from the beginning, and fully connived in the overthrow of the Morsi government in 2013.
In Libya and Syria, on the other hand, modest popular protests were soon fanned into regime-change operations via wholesale interventions by the West. Oddly enough, those were two secular Arab states which had made reasonable, in Libya's case exceptional, progress in human development.
Libya was perhaps a special case. So few people, all that oil; that's a combo bound to pique the interest of the humanitarian interventionists in the West, which it did.
The strongman dictator of Syria didn't have a lot of oil, but did have the misfortune of sharing a common border with Israel, and that alone is enough to make a stable Syrian government a threat to US interests. Here's a telling headline from the Guardian in 2012; Most Syrians back President Assad, but you'd never know from western media. That was Jonathan Steele on western propaganda, an unrelenting barrage of disinformation that has persisted right up until Doug's column today.
As for the future, "getting behind the people in the street" in Sudan seems a dubious goal. The "educated, hopeful, next generation" will hopefully get educated sufficiently to understand that our "help" is generally not in the interests of the people we purport to be helping.
**************
Further reading on Sudan and Arab Spring
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/07/2013710113522489801.html
http://www.gallup-international.com/surveys/syria-poll-march-2018/
https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/the-decline-of-sudans-cappuccino-sipping-middle-class/44575/
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/04/quietly-angrily-washington-confronts-its-wayward-offspring-south-sudan-africa-diplomacy-foreign-aid-war-conflict-peace-deal-salva-kiir/
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Assange
Looks like the jig is up for Julian Assange. He's on his way to a US court for revealing US war crimes.
Revealing US war crimes is treason. Assange is guilty of releasing the video of US helicopters machine-gunning unarmed Iraqi civilians, included two Reuters employees, provided to Wikileaks by Chelsea Manning.
We haven't heard from our Foreign Minister yet, but her British partner in the upcoming Press Freedom Summit, Jeremy Hunt, has been all over UK media harrumphing his delight at this turn of events.
There are multiple levels of irony in play here. Governments that hide their war crimes, including the wanton murder of journalists, by silencing and prosecuting whistle-blowers, are by definition unfit to be lecturing anyone about "press freedom."
Revealing US war crimes is treason. Assange is guilty of releasing the video of US helicopters machine-gunning unarmed Iraqi civilians, included two Reuters employees, provided to Wikileaks by Chelsea Manning.
We haven't heard from our Foreign Minister yet, but her British partner in the upcoming Press Freedom Summit, Jeremy Hunt, has been all over UK media harrumphing his delight at this turn of events.
There are multiple levels of irony in play here. Governments that hide their war crimes, including the wanton murder of journalists, by silencing and prosecuting whistle-blowers, are by definition unfit to be lecturing anyone about "press freedom."
Sudan: revolution of the 3%?
I'm impressed with how many of the protesters in Sudan own cars. Just this morning on the CBC news we heard that protesters were coordinating the tooting of their car horns to the rhythm of protest chants. What a heart-warming story! I wonder if that's a resistance strategy promoted by one of those "civil society" initiatives the Nations of Virtue are forever pushing on the lesser peoples?
Car caravans of protesters are ubiquitous in media coverage of the protests.
This imagery seems at odds with common perceptions of Sudan as one of the worlds' most pathetic economic basket cases. So I looked up the vehicle ownership stats for Sudan.
Sudan has 33 cars per thousand population. Canada has over 600 per thousand. Obviously, Sudan's elite are spearheading the move to dump Omar al-Bashir.
Here's a list of projects the US government's NGO the National Endowment for Democracy has funded in Sudan over the last twenty years or so;
Car caravans of protesters are ubiquitous in media coverage of the protests.
This imagery seems at odds with common perceptions of Sudan as one of the worlds' most pathetic economic basket cases. So I looked up the vehicle ownership stats for Sudan.
Sudan has 33 cars per thousand population. Canada has over 600 per thousand. Obviously, Sudan's elite are spearheading the move to dump Omar al-Bashir.
Here's a list of projects the US government's NGO the National Endowment for Democracy has funded in Sudan over the last twenty years or so;
- Babiker Badri Scientific Association for Women's Studies (1996, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004)
- Badya Center for Integrated Development Service (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005)
- Badya Centre for Integrated Development (1999)
- Center for Documentation and Advocacy (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)
- Center for Sudanese Studies (1993, 1994)
- Center for the Strategic Initiatives of Women (2000)
- Community Development Center (2002, 2004)
- Democracy Development Center (2003)
- Environmentalists Society (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004)
- Equatoria Relief and Development Association (2003)
- Freedom Equality Peace Society (2003, 2004)
- Fund for Peace (1992, 1993, 1994, 1996)
- Fund for Peace channelled to Sudan Democratic Gazette (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998)
- Fund for Peace channelled to Six Sudanese Activist Organizations (1998)
- Gender Center for Research and Training (2002)
- Grand Africa Media Service Company – The Khartoum Monitor (2005)
- International Republican Institute (2002)
- Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (1991)
- Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies channelled to Sudan Democratic Gazette (1992)
- Justice Africa (2002)
- KharSummary Toum MoniSummary Tor (2001)
- Khartoum Monitor (2002, 2004)
- KwoSummary To Popular Theater Group (2001)
- Kwoto Cultural Center (2002, 2003, 2005)
- Kwoto Popular Theatre Group (1999, 2000)
- Mohamed Omer Beshir Centre for Sudanese Studies, Omdurman Ahlia University (2001)
- Mutawinat Benevolent Co. (2002)
- Mutawinat Benevolent Company (1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003)
- Mutawinat (Women Cooperating) (2004)
- National Center for Peace and Development (2003, 2005)
- National Democratic Institute (2003, 2004)
- New Sudan Council of Churches (2000)
- Nile Institution for Strategic Policy and Development Studies (2004)
- Southern Women Group for Peace (2003)
- Sudan Council of Churches (2004)
- Sudan Democratic Gazette (1996, 1999, 2000, 2001)
- Sudan Human Rights Association (1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004)
- Sudan Human Rights Association - Uganda (2002)
- Sudan Human Rights Organization (Cairo) (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005)
- Sudan Inter-Religious Council (2005)
- Sudan Organization Against Torture (2003)
- Sudan Self-Help Foundation (2004, 2005)
- Sudanese Studies Center (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005) (per sourcewatch)
Unfortunately, as is the case with all too many American democracy promotion initiatives, NED is going to need a little help from a man in uniform. Meet the guy who's going to midwife the birth of Sudanese democracy!
Lt. General Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf
Good luck, folks!
Chrystia Freeland scores honorary White Helmet!
Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs has been recognized for her services to ISIS affiliate Syria Civil Defense, also known as the "White Helmets."
As everyone knows, the White Helmets are courageous volunteers from all walks of life who risk everything to save innocent civilians. They are strictly non-partisan but work exclusively in areas of Syria held by Nusra Front, ISIS, and al-Qaeda.
It apparently costs a lot of money to keep these altruistic volunteers in business. Over the course of their rise to stardom they have been lavished with many millions of dollars in funding from the same Western governments who have been the most vehement in their denunciations of the legitimate government of Syria.
Suspicious minds may conclude that the White Helmets are little more than a PR stunt, designed to provide cover for Western support for the very terrorists we've allegedly been fighting all these years, but Freeland herself has denied this, claiming it is mere Russian propaganda.
What a relief! For a brief moment I felt a sense of dread that we'd let a bunch of ISIS operatives, "terrorists," into the country...
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Hand of God intervenes in Israel election
You must love this headline from the Jerusalem Post; In dramatic shift, Netanyahu's Likud leading in latest exit polls.
Hey, that's not a "dramatic shift."
That's divine intervention!
The Greatest Leader Since Moses prevails again!
Hey, that's not a "dramatic shift."
That's divine intervention!
The Greatest Leader Since Moses prevails again!
Ray Dalio, a capitalist who gets it
Ray Dalio is gonna be shunned by his fellow billionaires after what he said in this essay, Why and how capitalism needs to be reformed.
He nails it. Income inequality in his country is way past what can be sustained. We're about a generation behind the Americans, mainly because we haven't totally shredded our safety net yet, but I'm guessing there's a certain percentage of voters who very well might trade a safety net for tailgate parties.
The billionaires who own the global media infrastructure didn't waste any time unleashing their minions to question Dalio's sanity, not to mention his class loyalty.
Here's Fox News with the "white man's guilt" angle.
If you scan the numerous rebuttals out there, you'll encounter the word "traitor" more than once.
Obviously, a lot of the uber-fortunate think they're meant to keep getting richer indefinitely while the number of homeless in their city, the number of kids who can't afford to eat, the number of working poor, etc keep climbing.
If I were a billionaire capitalist, I would think it's better to start reforms now rather than wait for the revolution.
He nails it. Income inequality in his country is way past what can be sustained. We're about a generation behind the Americans, mainly because we haven't totally shredded our safety net yet, but I'm guessing there's a certain percentage of voters who very well might trade a safety net for tailgate parties.
The billionaires who own the global media infrastructure didn't waste any time unleashing their minions to question Dalio's sanity, not to mention his class loyalty.
Here's Fox News with the "white man's guilt" angle.
If you scan the numerous rebuttals out there, you'll encounter the word "traitor" more than once.
Obviously, a lot of the uber-fortunate think they're meant to keep getting richer indefinitely while the number of homeless in their city, the number of kids who can't afford to eat, the number of working poor, etc keep climbing.
If I were a billionaire capitalist, I would think it's better to start reforms now rather than wait for the revolution.
Educators stupify Toronto
I don't know if anybody noticed, but 14,000 education researchers were partying it up in Toronto this week. Good to see OISE taking a leading role in this shindig. As a former teacher I can attest that OISE is where a lot of brilliant shit that'll never work in the classroom originates.
Take a gander at the American Educational Research Association website. Look around a bit. Get to know them...
I don't want to be judgemental, but I have a hunch you'd find a lot of folks there who would be the type to protest a Jordan Peterson appearance.
I watched a couple of Jordan Peterson videos once just to see what the fuss was about. What is this guy, the Ann Landers of the 21st century? He makes $70,000 a month for this from his YouTube channel?
People must be desperate.
And I'll admit I have no clue what cultural Marxism is. Does it have anything to do with old-fashioned non-cultural Marxism?
Anyway, as I was rooting around on the website of the AERA, it occurred to me that they might want to incorporate this old post from the archives into one of their seminars.
Take a gander at the American Educational Research Association website. Look around a bit. Get to know them...
I don't want to be judgemental, but I have a hunch you'd find a lot of folks there who would be the type to protest a Jordan Peterson appearance.
I watched a couple of Jordan Peterson videos once just to see what the fuss was about. What is this guy, the Ann Landers of the 21st century? He makes $70,000 a month for this from his YouTube channel?
People must be desperate.
And I'll admit I have no clue what cultural Marxism is. Does it have anything to do with old-fashioned non-cultural Marxism?
Anyway, as I was rooting around on the website of the AERA, it occurred to me that they might want to incorporate this old post from the archives into one of their seminars.
Canada and Neo-Nazis
The Trudeau government yesterday welcomed the news that extreme-right personality Faith Goldy had been voted off Facebook Island. That's to be expected. After all, it would be hard to find a crew more outspoken in their anti-fascist virtue signalling than Justin's social justice warriors.
Meanwhile, the decision to extend Canada's military mission to Ukraine passed virtually unnoticed when it was announced last month. We're all-in to help the plucky Ukrainians ward off Putin's aggression, after all.
Whenever the fascist tendencies in Ukrainian politics become a topic of conversation, our media are quick to offer scathing denials from folks like Paul Grod and Lloyd Axworthy. Lies, slander, and Putinist propaganda; not a word of truth to it, they claim.
That's usually enough to stop the conversation in its tracks.
Yet the story never completely goes away. Here's an article from The Nation, which as far as I know is not one of Putin's disinformation outlets; Neo-Nazis and far right on the march in Ukraine. The writer obviously forgot to fact-check with Lloyd and Paul.
Here's a news story from Germany a couple of years back; The Brotherhood of Racists and Anti-Semites. According to the story, Ukraine is the go-to destination for young white-power aficionados across Europe hoping to get training and inspiration.
Our government spends our tax dollars training the Ukrainian military. Elements in the Ukrainian military then pass along that military training to violent extremists drawn to Ukraine from across Europe.
What they'll do with that training remains to be seen...
Your tax dollars at work!
Meanwhile, the decision to extend Canada's military mission to Ukraine passed virtually unnoticed when it was announced last month. We're all-in to help the plucky Ukrainians ward off Putin's aggression, after all.
Whenever the fascist tendencies in Ukrainian politics become a topic of conversation, our media are quick to offer scathing denials from folks like Paul Grod and Lloyd Axworthy. Lies, slander, and Putinist propaganda; not a word of truth to it, they claim.
That's usually enough to stop the conversation in its tracks.
Yet the story never completely goes away. Here's an article from The Nation, which as far as I know is not one of Putin's disinformation outlets; Neo-Nazis and far right on the march in Ukraine. The writer obviously forgot to fact-check with Lloyd and Paul.
Here's a news story from Germany a couple of years back; The Brotherhood of Racists and Anti-Semites. According to the story, Ukraine is the go-to destination for young white-power aficionados across Europe hoping to get training and inspiration.
Our government spends our tax dollars training the Ukrainian military. Elements in the Ukrainian military then pass along that military training to violent extremists drawn to Ukraine from across Europe.
What they'll do with that training remains to be seen...
Your tax dollars at work!
Monday, April 8, 2019
Canada's democracy under siege...
... maybe. Sort of. Possibly. We have no proof, but we'd be naive to think it isn't happening.
So it's a slam dunk, then!
Three days ago the CBC reported that Chrystia Freeland thinks we're for sure going to be targeted by Russia. In fact, Chrystia is pretty sure there's already been some meddling!
And maybe there has, but how would you or I know? Are we to take Chrystia's word for it? Why can't she share with us the evidence of the meddling, so we at least know what to look out for?
Why is she keeping us in the dark?
Today the CBC follows up with another evidence-free presentation on the same theme, this time from the Communications Security Establishment, Why are all these people who are ostensibly protecting us not giving us more info?
Furthermore, if they know it's happening, what are they doing about it? Maybe they're doing lots, but saying so in public would just tip off Putin's trolls to the fact that we're on to them or something. So I guess there's a reason for the secrecy.
Maybe.
Or maybe this is just nonsense intended to turn the channel away from the SNC scandal, which has discredited Canada's government far more than anything the Ruskies could come up with...
...unless... OMG, it's all making sense now!!!
JWR is a Russian agent!
So it's a slam dunk, then!
Three days ago the CBC reported that Chrystia Freeland thinks we're for sure going to be targeted by Russia. In fact, Chrystia is pretty sure there's already been some meddling!
And maybe there has, but how would you or I know? Are we to take Chrystia's word for it? Why can't she share with us the evidence of the meddling, so we at least know what to look out for?
Why is she keeping us in the dark?
Today the CBC follows up with another evidence-free presentation on the same theme, this time from the Communications Security Establishment, Why are all these people who are ostensibly protecting us not giving us more info?
Furthermore, if they know it's happening, what are they doing about it? Maybe they're doing lots, but saying so in public would just tip off Putin's trolls to the fact that we're on to them or something. So I guess there's a reason for the secrecy.
Maybe.
Or maybe this is just nonsense intended to turn the channel away from the SNC scandal, which has discredited Canada's government far more than anything the Ruskies could come up with...
...unless... OMG, it's all making sense now!!!
JWR is a Russian agent!
Sunday, April 7, 2019
Life and death and the Teviotdale Truck Stop
Me and my old pal Kipling have been getting together at the Teviotdale Truck Stop for quite a few years now, ever since I moved to the sticks up here. Teviotdale is kinda sorta half way, although my half of the drive is a little longer than his.
Not that I'm complaining; I get a pretty good price on Kipling's primo home-grown. In fact, if he's in a particularly expansive mood, I don't pay a cent, as was the case today. Thanks buddy!
The three-egg "Big Breakfast" is still only $10.95. Amazing how they can do this after that massive job-killing hike in the minimum wage. The "Breakfast Special," where you get peameal instead of regular bacon, is still $12.95. If you're ever in Teviotdale, check it out.
So we get together every few months, and the first order of business increasingly becomes comparing notes on funerals we've been to since our last breakfast. The conversation goes something like this...
Remember what's his name? His daughter died. Killed herself. Thirty-eight. Nobody seen it coming.
That's fucked up, man. Remember what's her name? Ya, her... I worked with her a few years. Had a boy, only child. Went off to college. Offed himself before the end of the first semester.
Aw, fuck man.
Ya, that's fucked up. And remember my pal what's his name? Took a package. Full pay and benefits for two years. He was gonna sell his place and move up to Parry Sound and go fishing every day. Kidney failure. He's got a dialysis machine in his house now...
Aw fuck man... if he can't go fishing his retirement dreams just went for a shit.
And on and on in that vein... it could get seriously depressing if you let it.
But here's why it doesn't.
We've both, quite independently, come to the conclusion that there's no logical explanation for life's vagaries. One guy falls off a motorcycle at 20 mph and dies. Another guy falls off a motorcycle at 100 mph and walks away.
One guy goes to the gym five days a week and drops dead jogging at 50. Another guy goes to the bar five days a week, smokes two packs a day, and dies in his sleep at 90.
You can call it the luck of the draw. You can call it fate. You can call it random happenstance.
I call it the grace of God.
Not that I'm complaining; I get a pretty good price on Kipling's primo home-grown. In fact, if he's in a particularly expansive mood, I don't pay a cent, as was the case today. Thanks buddy!
The three-egg "Big Breakfast" is still only $10.95. Amazing how they can do this after that massive job-killing hike in the minimum wage. The "Breakfast Special," where you get peameal instead of regular bacon, is still $12.95. If you're ever in Teviotdale, check it out.
So we get together every few months, and the first order of business increasingly becomes comparing notes on funerals we've been to since our last breakfast. The conversation goes something like this...
Remember what's his name? His daughter died. Killed herself. Thirty-eight. Nobody seen it coming.
That's fucked up, man. Remember what's her name? Ya, her... I worked with her a few years. Had a boy, only child. Went off to college. Offed himself before the end of the first semester.
Aw, fuck man.
Ya, that's fucked up. And remember my pal what's his name? Took a package. Full pay and benefits for two years. He was gonna sell his place and move up to Parry Sound and go fishing every day. Kidney failure. He's got a dialysis machine in his house now...
Aw fuck man... if he can't go fishing his retirement dreams just went for a shit.
And on and on in that vein... it could get seriously depressing if you let it.
But here's why it doesn't.
We've both, quite independently, come to the conclusion that there's no logical explanation for life's vagaries. One guy falls off a motorcycle at 20 mph and dies. Another guy falls off a motorcycle at 100 mph and walks away.
One guy goes to the gym five days a week and drops dead jogging at 50. Another guy goes to the bar five days a week, smokes two packs a day, and dies in his sleep at 90.
You can call it the luck of the draw. You can call it fate. You can call it random happenstance.
I call it the grace of God.
Corporate rule
Here's a question; why has our government worked so hard to make a "deferred prosecution agreement" (DPA) available to SNC-Lavalin?
Here's another one; why has no mainstream media outlet ever investigated how hedge fund sharpie Gerald Schwartz was able to more than double the value of Husky Injection Molding in less than four years?
And another; why was Hunter Harrison universally lauded as a hero in our mainstream Canadian media for eliminating over 5,000 excellent working class jobs at CPR?
Here are some tentative answers.
The purpose of a DPA is to allow corporate entities that engage in bribery, bid-rigging, and other nefarious business practices to get off by paying a fine instead of being charged with a crime. Corporations love it! Paying the fine becomes just another cost of doing business, just like the original bribe. The Trudeau government's rationale for having slipped a DPA provision into law last year, in the back pages of an omnibus budget bill, is that Canada needs to have a level playing field vis-a-vis our competitors. Ergo, if the UK and US go easy on corporate crooks, we must too, or we won't be competitive.
Husky was the life's passion of Robert Schad, a German immigrant who started out with a little machine shop in the mid 50's. He famously made Husky one of the most desirable workplaces in Canada by providing not only good wages, but unprecedented employee perks, from free meals to free day-care to on site gyms. Getting on in years, he sold his baby to Gerald Schwartz's Onex in 2007 for just under a billion dollars.
Less than four years later, Schwartz sold Husky on to another hedge fund for two billion. How did Schwartz add a billion dollars in value to the company that Robert Schad had spent a lifetime building up? He ripped out all that feel-good stuff that detracts from the bottom line, that's how. That's what "building value" looks like in the world of hedge fund operators.
That's appalling, disgusting, scandalous... but Gerald Schwartz is a Very Big Deal who just donated $100,000,000 to the University of Toronto. No newspaper publisher, let alone reporter, is going to touch that story with a fifty foot pole, because it would be their last story.
Canadian news media lapped up every drop of mendacious idiocy that dripped from Hunter Harrison's lips as Harrison and his hedge fund boss Bill Ackman destroyed more than 5,000 working class jobs at the iconic railroad. Harrison was "the new sheriff in town," don't you know. He was going to "change the culture" at CPR.
And he did. He replaced a culture of collegiality with a culture of fear, and he and Ackman walked away with a cool two billion for their troubles. For that, they are regarded as business geniuses by our business press.
That's what corporate rule looks like. There are innumerable case studies to choose from. Eddie Lampert looted Sears Canada to the tune of billions, leaving 16,000 pensioners in the lurch, but our media claim the company failed because of changing consumer tastes and inept management. The same corporate media still proclaim NAFTA a resounding success, even as all evidence shows it decimated Canada's manufacturing sector.
Which brings us to our current Prime Minister. He serves as an invaluable cover for the greedbags who call the shots behind the scenes. All the talk about feminism and diversity and human rights is designed to take our eye off the fact that he's 100% committed to corporate rule.
Here's a bold prediction. SNC-Lavalin will yet get their DPA. Our media, both corporate and the state broadcaster, will keep hammering away at the credibility of JWR and the (completely bogus) claim that 9,000 jobs are at risk.
Corporate rule will prevail.
Here's another one; why has no mainstream media outlet ever investigated how hedge fund sharpie Gerald Schwartz was able to more than double the value of Husky Injection Molding in less than four years?
And another; why was Hunter Harrison universally lauded as a hero in our mainstream Canadian media for eliminating over 5,000 excellent working class jobs at CPR?
Here are some tentative answers.
The purpose of a DPA is to allow corporate entities that engage in bribery, bid-rigging, and other nefarious business practices to get off by paying a fine instead of being charged with a crime. Corporations love it! Paying the fine becomes just another cost of doing business, just like the original bribe. The Trudeau government's rationale for having slipped a DPA provision into law last year, in the back pages of an omnibus budget bill, is that Canada needs to have a level playing field vis-a-vis our competitors. Ergo, if the UK and US go easy on corporate crooks, we must too, or we won't be competitive.
Husky was the life's passion of Robert Schad, a German immigrant who started out with a little machine shop in the mid 50's. He famously made Husky one of the most desirable workplaces in Canada by providing not only good wages, but unprecedented employee perks, from free meals to free day-care to on site gyms. Getting on in years, he sold his baby to Gerald Schwartz's Onex in 2007 for just under a billion dollars.
Less than four years later, Schwartz sold Husky on to another hedge fund for two billion. How did Schwartz add a billion dollars in value to the company that Robert Schad had spent a lifetime building up? He ripped out all that feel-good stuff that detracts from the bottom line, that's how. That's what "building value" looks like in the world of hedge fund operators.
That's appalling, disgusting, scandalous... but Gerald Schwartz is a Very Big Deal who just donated $100,000,000 to the University of Toronto. No newspaper publisher, let alone reporter, is going to touch that story with a fifty foot pole, because it would be their last story.
Canadian news media lapped up every drop of mendacious idiocy that dripped from Hunter Harrison's lips as Harrison and his hedge fund boss Bill Ackman destroyed more than 5,000 working class jobs at the iconic railroad. Harrison was "the new sheriff in town," don't you know. He was going to "change the culture" at CPR.
And he did. He replaced a culture of collegiality with a culture of fear, and he and Ackman walked away with a cool two billion for their troubles. For that, they are regarded as business geniuses by our business press.
That's what corporate rule looks like. There are innumerable case studies to choose from. Eddie Lampert looted Sears Canada to the tune of billions, leaving 16,000 pensioners in the lurch, but our media claim the company failed because of changing consumer tastes and inept management. The same corporate media still proclaim NAFTA a resounding success, even as all evidence shows it decimated Canada's manufacturing sector.
Which brings us to our current Prime Minister. He serves as an invaluable cover for the greedbags who call the shots behind the scenes. All the talk about feminism and diversity and human rights is designed to take our eye off the fact that he's 100% committed to corporate rule.
Here's a bold prediction. SNC-Lavalin will yet get their DPA. Our media, both corporate and the state broadcaster, will keep hammering away at the credibility of JWR and the (completely bogus) claim that 9,000 jobs are at risk.
Corporate rule will prevail.
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Why the old order is doomed
The "American Dream" is dead.
And it's not just dead in America. Thanks to the ubiquity of US pop culture and its usurpation of native cultures around the world, the death of the American Dream has global repercussions.
Hard work and making sure your kids get a decent education, so that they'll make an even better go of things, well, that might still work today, if you're lucky.
But in all probability, it will not.
Hard work don't mean shit if the place you worked for thirty years gets bought and stripped bare by the hedgies. That happens over and over again, and it's just considered business as usual. Look at what happened to Sears Canada once that asshole in Florida got his hands on it.
Goodbye pensions! Goodbye jobs!
As for getting an education, good luck with that.
The recent Ivy League admissions scandal is just a step beyond what always goes on. Certain schools have a more prestigious degree than others, and that can make all the difference in a career. The stupid children of the rich are far more likely to get into those schools than the smart children of the poor.
Not that all rich kids are stupid, and of course poor folks have lots of stupid kids too. But unless you've got the right credentials from the right place, that university degree you owe $40,000 in student loans on is gonna take a big bite out of your paycheck as a barista or an Uber driver.
And, horror of horrors, the kids are figuring this out.
And it's not just dead in America. Thanks to the ubiquity of US pop culture and its usurpation of native cultures around the world, the death of the American Dream has global repercussions.
Hard work and making sure your kids get a decent education, so that they'll make an even better go of things, well, that might still work today, if you're lucky.
But in all probability, it will not.
Hard work don't mean shit if the place you worked for thirty years gets bought and stripped bare by the hedgies. That happens over and over again, and it's just considered business as usual. Look at what happened to Sears Canada once that asshole in Florida got his hands on it.
Goodbye pensions! Goodbye jobs!
As for getting an education, good luck with that.
The recent Ivy League admissions scandal is just a step beyond what always goes on. Certain schools have a more prestigious degree than others, and that can make all the difference in a career. The stupid children of the rich are far more likely to get into those schools than the smart children of the poor.
Not that all rich kids are stupid, and of course poor folks have lots of stupid kids too. But unless you've got the right credentials from the right place, that university degree you owe $40,000 in student loans on is gonna take a big bite out of your paycheck as a barista or an Uber driver.
And, horror of horrors, the kids are figuring this out.
Are you that happy to see me?.. or is that just a chainsaw in your pants?
My golly, it's a f@cked up world, isn't it? What with climate change, an ever-growing international refugee crisis, the global economy on the brink, American exceptionalism running amok as never before... holy moly, sometimes it's a struggle to summon the willpower to get out of bed!
That's why I love Fox News. Yup, there's nothing like the news feed at Fox to make you thankful to be alive. After all, if I'd died in my sleep last night, I would have missed this story. Buddy's out shopping for a chainsaw, spots one that might work for him, and decides to save himself a few hundred bucks by tucking it down his pants!
I've been chainsaw shopping a few times in my life, and the idea that such a thing was even possible had never, ever, even once crossed my mind.
Thank you, Fox News!
That's why I love Fox News. Yup, there's nothing like the news feed at Fox to make you thankful to be alive. After all, if I'd died in my sleep last night, I would have missed this story. Buddy's out shopping for a chainsaw, spots one that might work for him, and decides to save himself a few hundred bucks by tucking it down his pants!
I've been chainsaw shopping a few times in my life, and the idea that such a thing was even possible had never, ever, even once crossed my mind.
Thank you, Fox News!
Thursday, April 4, 2019
That was never about justice; it was a crime against humanity
Big news out of Texas yesterday; all outstanding charges in the four year old Waco biker ambush outrage have been dismissed.
Suffice it to say the charges being dismissed should never, in a free country governed by the rule of law, have been laid in the first place. By dumb luck I happened on the live broadcast that Sunday in May, 2015, where Waco police spokesman Sgt. Swanton was hyperventilating about the evil of "outlaw bikers." My first reaction was, this guy is full of shit.
I've never owned a Harley and my only knowledge of "outlaw bikers" is that it wasn't unusual to find yourself working next to one in one of the two dozen or so welding shops I did time in over the years. I never knew any of those supposed biker drug kingpins you read about in the papers. "Satan's Choice" was the crew we had in the K-W area back in the day. They eventually amalgamated with the Hells Angels. The guys I knew were just regular folks working in the welding shop to pay their bills, same as me. If they were big-time criminals, they hid the fact very well.
The best source by far on the Waco tragedy is The Aging Rebel. I've never read anything there that would lead me to believe those guys caught up in this Waco business were any different than the guys I used to work alongside. Regular working folks trying to make their financial obligations. You know, pay their bills and feed their kids, that kind of nefarious stuff.
Even if it's true that it wasn't police bullets that killed every one of the Waco casualties, there is no question that the entire incident was orchestrated by law enforcement agencies. A local cabal of smug law enforcement careerists took it from there. Many otherwise law-abiding people who were guilty of nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time had their lives destroyed.
And now they get a "oops, sorry, guess we'll drop the charges..."
That's not nearly good enough.
Suffice it to say the charges being dismissed should never, in a free country governed by the rule of law, have been laid in the first place. By dumb luck I happened on the live broadcast that Sunday in May, 2015, where Waco police spokesman Sgt. Swanton was hyperventilating about the evil of "outlaw bikers." My first reaction was, this guy is full of shit.
I've never owned a Harley and my only knowledge of "outlaw bikers" is that it wasn't unusual to find yourself working next to one in one of the two dozen or so welding shops I did time in over the years. I never knew any of those supposed biker drug kingpins you read about in the papers. "Satan's Choice" was the crew we had in the K-W area back in the day. They eventually amalgamated with the Hells Angels. The guys I knew were just regular folks working in the welding shop to pay their bills, same as me. If they were big-time criminals, they hid the fact very well.
The best source by far on the Waco tragedy is The Aging Rebel. I've never read anything there that would lead me to believe those guys caught up in this Waco business were any different than the guys I used to work alongside. Regular working folks trying to make their financial obligations. You know, pay their bills and feed their kids, that kind of nefarious stuff.
Even if it's true that it wasn't police bullets that killed every one of the Waco casualties, there is no question that the entire incident was orchestrated by law enforcement agencies. A local cabal of smug law enforcement careerists took it from there. Many otherwise law-abiding people who were guilty of nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time had their lives destroyed.
And now they get a "oops, sorry, guess we'll drop the charges..."
That's not nearly good enough.
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Should Canada's state broadcaster be trusted?
I'm curious why this story doesn't appear on the CBC "Top Stories" page. After all, they do mention that Trudeau would be addressing a gathering of young women. A lot of youthful feminist types are flocking to Trudeau's feminist agenda?
Maybe not so much.
You'd think that when dozens of young feminists turn their backs on PM Trudeau, the story would be front and centre.
Trudeau's name also comes up in the latest Wilson-Raybould story. Once again, the former Justice Minister and AG is portrayed on the CBC as a vengeful and conniving woman.
Why is the CBC doing damage control for PM Fluffy?
Maybe not so much.
You'd think that when dozens of young feminists turn their backs on PM Trudeau, the story would be front and centre.
Trudeau's name also comes up in the latest Wilson-Raybould story. Once again, the former Justice Minister and AG is portrayed on the CBC as a vengeful and conniving woman.
Why is the CBC doing damage control for PM Fluffy?
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Set the bar high!
Here's my dear 86 year old father setting up to do a little tree pruning.
Now that he's stone deaf he always wears hearing protection! Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?
You park the loader just so, lift the bucket to max height, set up the extension ladder, and you're good to go!
Dad's tree-pruning expertise has been honed by trial and error over decades. I remember when he was first experimenting with the bucket & ladder method, he had his John Deere crawler-loader parked on an incline to get at an offending branch.
While he was up in the bucket doing his chainsaw work, the brake slipped and the loader slowly meandered down the hill with nobody at the controls and Dad in the upraised bucket hanging on for dear life.
Now that would have made for some great family photos!
Now that he's stone deaf he always wears hearing protection! Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?
You park the loader just so, lift the bucket to max height, set up the extension ladder, and you're good to go!
Dad's tree-pruning expertise has been honed by trial and error over decades. I remember when he was first experimenting with the bucket & ladder method, he had his John Deere crawler-loader parked on an incline to get at an offending branch.
While he was up in the bucket doing his chainsaw work, the brake slipped and the loader slowly meandered down the hill with nobody at the controls and Dad in the upraised bucket hanging on for dear life.
Now that would have made for some great family photos!
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