The more we help Ukraine, the more they lose

Remember back in late February when Russia first invaded Ukraine? US gov't intelligence was so convinced the war would be over in a week, they offered Zelensky a helicopter ride to safety. Instead, those plucky Ukrainians kicked Russia's ass clear out of Kyiv. That was before Zelensky began his daily pleadings for weapons weapons weapons and money money money. Both the weapons and the money flowed. First a few hundred millions here and a few thousand Javelin anti-tank weapons there. But Ukraine needed more more more. The initial dribble of support soon became an out-of-control gusher. Hundreds of millions became billions became tens of billions. Javelins were superceded by howitzers and tanks. Crazy thing is, the more we help Ukraine, the worse the war is going for them. From Putin having his ass handed to him three months ago, to the fall of the entire east of Ukraine $50 billion later. Explain that!

Three mourning doves and a cowbird

I've mentioned my theory that the covid vaxx impaired my immune systemn. Why else would I suddenly come down with a gluten allergy mere months after my second dose of Pfizer? We're kinda on top of that, but just a few days ago another issue cropped up. All of a sudden everything tasted the same - and not tasty at all. Whether I drank a cup of coffee or a glass of water or a Boxer gluten-free beer, it all tasted like a bitter seltzer, or possibly a selter bitter. Either way, it's the first time I stretched a six-pack out over three days since I was about twelve years old, so in some sense that's a good thing. But it sure ain't much fun. Then along comes the swollen lips, tongue, throat, a heavy wracking cough, and Holy Jesus, I'll be seeing you soon. Happy to report things have calmed down somewhat. I'm not 100%, but it looks like I'm gonna finish off at least three beers tonight, so at least we're headed in the right direction. Still got a bit of a throat thing going, but at this point it doesn't feel it's gonna be terminal. Not that I'm reluctant to meet Jesus; but a little more time would allow me to buff up my application a bit. That's what I'm pondering on the stoop this evening. While I'm watching the birds at the feeders, it occurs to me that we only feed the birds in the summer. That's sorta fucked up, because in the summer is when there's lots of food and they should get their own. Otherwise we're just spoiling them and undermining their self-sufficiency. But it's way too cold to sit on the stoop hours on end in January. Been a lot of action this evening. A lot of starlings, but the mourning doves and the cowbirds hold their own against them. The redwing blackbird comes shreiking in once in awhile. That scares of starlings but not mouning doves or cowbirds. Blue Jays, like starling and outlaw bikers, tend to show up in gangs. The wee birds tend to the ground under the feeders when the bigger birds are fighting over the buffet. The visitor we've only seen once or twice is the orange tanager, a couple of them. At the moment all we got is three mourning doves and a cowbird.

Tucker Carlson poses major threat to Canadian democracy

That's according to CBC News. Apparently Carlson referred to PM Fluffy as a "Stalinist dictator." That's maybe a bit over the top, but let's face it, invoking the Emergency Powers Act, previously known as the War Measures Act, to enforce Ottawa parking by-laws is WAY over the top. It points to massive failures at all levels of government. Stupidity and incompetence have profoundly deep roots in Canadian political culture. Just ask Canadian civil employees still waiting for the government to fix their massively dysfunctional payroll system. Even better, ask those Afghans who mistakenly assumed a promise from the country they risked their lives for meant something. Perhaps our democracy is indeed such a delicate flower that a Fox News blowhard poses a threat to its very existence. If that's the case, our democracy is in way worse shape than I could have imagined. Then again, if you check out the authours of the actual report, it seems more likely the "report" on which this story is based is nothing more than a PR excercise by the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

Russia Warcrimes House

I was catching up on the news at Al Jazeera, and the top story was about how Zelensky addressed the opening plenum at the Davos confab. Well, of course he did! What doesn’t he address these days? He’s the most successful media pop-tart darling since Greta Thunberg! Then Al Jazeera goes to its local dude on the ground, who has a special guest to explain some shit to us dumbfucks. The expert is from the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He explains the whole nine yards about Putin’s megalomania etc. and how he is losing this totally unprovoked war he started. Did a five minute Google on the International Institute for Strategic Studies and noticed former CIA director John Brennan is on the board of trustees. That pretty much tells you all you have to know! Then our intrepid journalist takes us to downtown Davos to point out that the vacant Russia House, where the Russian delegation normally stays, has been re-christened the Russia Warcrimes House. That’s a propaganda project funded by non other than Victor Pinchuk, a Jewish Ukrainian oligarch. (As an aside, how can Ukraine harbour fascists if they have Jewish oligarchs?) Victor’s big break came when he married the daughter of the Ukrainian President back before Joe Biden cleaned up corruption in that country. The nuptials were barely concluded before Pinchuk was the proud owner of Ukraine’s premier specialty steel concern. Some guys have all the luck! Oddly enough, in her book “Plutocrats,” author Chrystia Freeland names Pinchuk as number three on the list of plutocrats who have become her personal friends, right after George Soros and Google’s Eric Schmidt. And that was way before she became deputy PM of Canada in addition to Ambassador at Large for Ukraine. Even more oddly than that, his Wikipedia page informs me that in 2016 he wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal calling on Ukraine to make serious compromises to ensure peace with Russia. Now he’s funding Russia Warcrimes House. Who says Chrystia doesn’t have schlep!

Azov nazis have trained and inspired tens of thousands of white supremacists

Time magazine made that claim in January 2021. Far from being a conduit for Russian disinformation, Time is as American as apple pie. It has to be said that CBC and the Globe & Mail have denazified Ukraine a lot quicker than Putin with his “Special Military Operation!” This is especially rich given how hard these pillars of our free press worked to connect the truckers’ protest to white supremacy, on the strength of a single swastika scrawled on a flag in magic marker. Not a month later they’re urging Canada to stand with guys who have adorned their bodies with swastika tattoos, and stand with them we have, to the tune of almost $2 billions thus far! Meanwhile, the bamboozlement of the taxpayers in the “donor” nations proceeds at warp speed. The great Zelensky is in reality little more than a ventriloquist’s dummy sitting on Uncle Sam’s lap, but our media treat him as some kind of superhuman oracle. He should be focused on saving the lives of his people - that used to be considered a leader’s number one priority. Instead, he laps up the adulation and makes ever more fanciful demands for newer and bigger weapons, which the Americans and their NATO poodles are happy to oblige. Every day this war goes on, hundreds more Ukrainians become casualties. This does not prevent the CBC from persisting in the fantasy that a glorious Ukrainian victory is just around the next corner, or perhaps the one after that. Rosemary Barton had both Canada’s ambassador to the UN Bob Rae and former US ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker on her show today, and sure enough, they both talk like all Ukraine needs is a little time and a few tens of billions more in debt for the latest hardware from American arms manufacturers. Nonsense. If the first $50 billions didn’t turn the tide, the next $100 won’t make any difference either, other than to Lockheed’s and Raytheon’s bottom line. If the CBC was in the business of journalism, they’d have some hard questions instead of blithely spreading US/NATO propaganda. There are signs that the magnitude of the disaster engulfing Ukraine is beginning to overtake the narrative CBC has been pushing for three months. Here is Kim Iversen of The Hill taking “piss-poor journalism” to task for failing in what should be job one - to inform us what’s actually going on. I couldn’t agree more. We deserve more from CBC News… like news, instead of US/NATO propaganda.

May two-four

This is May two-four weekend. That's the weekend named after Queen Victoria's birthday. In my youth, we used to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday by heading to the beaches of Lake Huron. Sauble Beach was a particularly popular destination. You'd round up a crew, at least one of whom had a car, and another had legit proof of age or a reasonable facsimile thereof, load up as many two-fours as the trunk would hold, and off you'd go for a weekend of drunken excess. If you couldn't remember anything between Friday night and Monday morning, that was considered a successful adventure. Back in the day, a lot of high-school students owned cars. If you had a part-time job you could afford one. If you could squeeze it onto your parents insurance policy, you could afford it even more. Things are different now. Not as many teen drivers on the roads. You can't afford a car on the strength of a part-time job, that's for sure. Then again, fewer impaired teen drivers on the highways can only be a good thing. Just buying a car is a prohibitive exercise. You're looking at a couple of thousand for a junker. Back in the pre-safety-check days, you'd go to the junkyard for your junker. Pick out the nicest thing you can find for fourty bucks. If you had to put a piece of cardboard on the floor to keep the slush from coming through the rust holes, no big deal. That changed when they brought in the safety checks. All of a sudden a cardboard floor didn't cut it any more. Nor did using a upended milk crate for a seat. Those milk crates were everywhere, remember? I must have known dozens of folks who kept their LP collections in milk crates they happened to find behind Safeway. But I digress. Even after the safety checks were introduced, you could do an end run for a time. There was a guy in Guelph who was happy to safety your new purchase, sight unseen,for a modest contribution to either his retirement fund or his liquor cabinet, or if you wanted priority service, both. Those days are long behind us. As are the days of youth flocking to the beaches of Lake Huron on two-four weekend. Now they just stay home and play kill-em-all video games in the comfort of their parents' house. At least nobody gets hurt.

Pfizer announces safe and effective Monkeypox vaccine

You gotta wonder when they’re gonna stop bullshitting us about Ukraine. For three months we’ve been hearing Ukraine is winning and just a few more billions in US weapons should put paid to Putin’s totally unprovoked war, in a glorious victory for Ukraine and her NATO backers, and a humiliating defeat for Putin. Never before in history has there been such a clear example of the eternal struggle between good and evil. Sure. And we’re the good guys, of course! Western media have from the beginning declared imminent victory. In the first week of the war, CBC and all the rest were full of stories about that stalled Russian military column north of Kyiv. The stalled column soon became the first great victory for Ukraine. The plucky Ukrainian resistance, mostly artists and writers who had never picked up a weapon before, had beaten back Russia’s attempt to seize the capital! And it’s been all downhill for Russia ever since. There was another lesson that might have been drawn from the “stalled” column. The fact that 50 miles worth of Russian armour parked in the open for over a week was not decimated spoke volumes. If the Ukrainians had anything to attack it with, they would have. That was the first week of the war, and Ukraine has been winning ever since, as the idiotic hyperbole about “Ukraine fighting for the very survival of democracy worldwide” continuously assures us. But a narrative shift is afoot. There’s been a couple of op-eds in the NYT in the past week suggesting we turn down the volume on the “Ukraine is winning” story. That’s gonna be a tough sell, after the NYT and virtually the entire Western mediaverse have been pumping the Ukraine saga nonstop. We’re gonna need something really scary to change the channel… How about MONKEYPOX!!!

Russia bans Canadian state broadcaster

A couple of months after we ban Russian site RT, the Russians ban the CBC. PM Fluffy then shows up on CBC to inform me this state of affairs proves that we, who banned first, are somehow the champions of media freedom. Alrighty then! And Ukraine will continue to win this war. Russia will collapse. Good will triumph over evil! And the world will once again rally ‘round the Stars and Stripes, the eternal banner of all that is good in this world. Maybe. What I fear is more likely, is that the Exceptionalists driving this conflict with Russia will drive us over the cliff. What I don't get is how we seem to be going along with this death wish. By "we" I mean the populations of the NATO/EU "democracies" who acquiesce to this idiocy. Can the people of Sweden, officially neutral for over 200 years,suddenly feel so threatened by Putin's war in Ukraine to upend 200 years of common sense? They stayed officially neutral throughout two world wars, but this intra-Slavic conflict, which has, after three months, cost less lives than what the fire-bombing of Dresen took in one night, is allowed to end 200 years of neutrality? I say, put it to the people in a referendum.

Anxiety overload

I shudder to think how many among us are zonked on Zoloft or zooming on Xanax, but it's gotta be a pretty good slice of the populace. Then there's the folks feeding the OD pandemic, burying their anxieties with opiods of one sort or another until fentanyl buries them. Not to mention the run-of-the-mill beer-swilling pot-heads like me, who are just hanging on for the ride and hoping to make the best of it. Point is, everybody got a lot on their plate. That pandemic didn't disappear just because we took our maskes off. Global warming and cooling and species extinction aren't around the corner, they're already here, and what are you doing about it? Sorry, buying an electric vehicle isn't gonna budge the overall trajectory that much. The overall tragectory seems to indicate that we're fucked. My old pal Kipling called me up tonight. He retired recently and is just starting to notice that we're fucked. He tries to avoid the Xanax and the Zoloft and sticks to the basics, like me. Lucky for him, he's already got a spot in the country and a thousand gallon stash of diesel. He's gonna be growing vegtables and running his generator in perpetuity. When you got that going on, you don't have to sweat the other shit. Relax!

Jewish guilt

So what would a Goy like me know about Jewish guilt, you ask. Isn't that cultural appropriation or something? Well, after almost twenty years consorting with the Farm Manager's clan, I think I've gained some insights. Jewish mothers wield guilt like a surgical instrument. An apt analogy, because nine out of ten Jewish mothers will unsheath the guilt weapon if their daughter fails to marry a doctor. Consequently,90% of Jewish daughters feel like failures if they didn't snag one in holy matrimony. Jewish dads, on the other hand, are much more blase about the matter. The main thing for them, is their baby gonna be happy? But for their sons it's different. Jewish sons feel like failures if they don't surpass their fathers' accomplishments. That wasn't hard for the first generation of immigrants. Dad was a furrier or a scrap dealer. He worked his ass off to make sure you could get a profession. That second gen didn't have a lot of trouble surpassing the first. But trouble reared its head for the third generation. When your dad had already accomplished so much, on account of working hard to please his father, your zaida, that played out in all sorts of ways, which is why Jews are more likely to have weekly visits with fancy therapists. Read up on those third-gen Reichmann kids and you'll see what I mean. My Jewish mother-in-law was an absolute artiste with those surgical tools. She was also the doyenne of the local Little Theatre troupe for over fifty years. Acting was in her blood, every minute of every day. And we all loved that about her! In fact, me and the Farm Manager have a theory about how Bruno is the re-incarnation of her Mom. Now that's she's on the other side, she was feeling guilty about all the guilt she peddled, and she decided to come back as Bruno to make it up to us. Back in the day, you couldn't take Ruth out to dinner without somebody coming over to tell her how great she was. Now we can't take Bruno anywhere without somebody coming over to tell him how great he is. We know that's you, Ruthie!

With gas at ten bucks/gallon, it's important your power boat be big enough that you can have fun without leaving the marina

At ten bucks a gallon, my dream 27' Sea Ray will cost a thousand bucks to fill up. That's causing me to reconsider my priorities. There's a few boats docked at the marina that never seem to go anywhere. Near as I can tell, the folks associated with them mainly hang out in the sunshine, drinking beer and smoking pot. Oddly enough, judging by the laughter and gaiety they exude, they gotta be about the happiest people at the marina! Which presents a conundrum. If you're gonna spend all summer on your boat not going anywhere, you'll want more than a 27' Sea Ray. Got my eye on a 40' Silverton. 300 gallons of fuel capacity, but who cares? You're not going anywhere! Meanwhile, you've got three cabins and two bathrooms, and about the same square footage as a million dollar one-bed condo in Toronto. Where would you rather spend your summer?

It's gonna be a good summer when the lawnmower starts on the first pull

Sorry about the formatting. I'm hoping one of the kids drops in for a visit soon. They'll have it sorted out in no time. Kids just get this internet shit way quicker than folks my age. I must be about the only dude who ever had to plead for permission to cut the grass. The Farm Manager has a bee in her bonnet about not cutting the grass till the end of May. Apparently that's to allow all sorts of wee critters like butterfies and bees to mature enough to get out of the way when you come along with the mower. I made the case that of 100 acres, I'm only mowing one of them, which leaves 99 acres of pastures and woodlands for the bees and the butterflys. Besides, by the end of May, the lawn around the house would be so thick I'd have to be going back and forth a few inches at a time. She relented, and shortly thereafter I had that Jesus moment. Oh ya, it's gonna be a good summer!

Woke media should be kept away from our children

We were out for a scenic drive last weekend, and we had the CBC on the car radio. A Harmony and some other airhead were waxing lyrical about the latest release from Pusha T. Never heard of the dude, but apparently Pusha T is a 44 year old rapper who has made a marquee career out of rapping about the cocaine trade. A Harmony and the other gal had nothing but praise for Pusha. After all, A Harmony and her cohorts are on CBC because CBC are down for full wokeness, and A Harmony slots in nicely with the Being Black in Canada sideshow that has become a staple of CBC’s home page. I’m neither Black nor woke, but what the fuck is CBC doing lending cred to drug-dealing thug culture? Drug dealing gangs are the root of virtually all Black-on-Black gun violence in Toronto, and CBC wants to celebrate that?! A Black teen in Toronto is at least a thousand times more likely to be shot dead by another Black teen than by a racist cop. Let us turn for a moment to the national newspaper of record. Forty-five years ago the Globe & Mail and every other media outlet branded Gerald Hannon a pervert and a paedophile. That was on account of a couple stories the free-lance journalist had written on behalf of the North American Man Boy Love Association. That’s a lobby group advocating for the freedom of men to have sex with underage men, otherwise known as boys. Today the same Gerald Hannon the G&M crucified half a century ago gets a fawning full-page obit. He was a pioneer for sexual freedom, don’t ya know! Indeed he was. Just like Pusha was a pioneer in main-streaming thug culture. This is where our legacy media are taking us. Frankly, I prefer my kids stick with the pioneers who cleared the land and built homesteads.

Yachts for the homeless

I was reading recently that Los Angeles spends up to $800k per year to house a homeless person. That’s insane. Thanks to the fact I just concluded another winter of laptop boat shopping, I believe I have a solution to the homelessness crisis. Check out this 60’s era ChrisCraft. Three staterooms for fifty thousand bucks! A lot of homeless folks hate their shelter options, but you’d have a waiting list to get a berth in these lodgings. And this math applies to a boat that actually works, which isn’t, strictly speaking, a factor when you’re converting a yacht to a homeless shelter. Boatyards across coastal America are bursting with vintage high-quality yachts, available at near give-away prices because they need re-powered to the tune of a few hundred thousands. Not if you’re converting them to homeless shelters, they don’t! You could find a ChrisCraft Constellation in the 70’ range, with no power train, at a price that would bring the cost per homeless person down to a few hundred bucks. That’s some big savings over what we’re paying to house the homeless now!

Following the science back to reality

I see where Dr. Peter Juni,head of Ontario's "Covid Science table," has skedaddled out of town. He’s left his teaching post at the most prestigious university in Canada,U of T, (Sorry McGill, my daughter-in-law got one of your fine arts degrees and she’s working in a weed shop) for a teaching post at the most prestigious university in the world. Who can blame him? Good timing too. We followed Doctor Juni’s science for two years. Where are we now? Pretty much back to normal, wouldn’t you say? Thank God for science! Except this. The current seven day average mortality in Canada as of today eclipses the death rate for all but the deadliest few months of the pandemic. The deaths today are higher than they were for the entire year from February 2021 to January 2022 22, yet how many times did we shut down small business and keep kids out of school during that period. And now, with more deaths, things are back to “normal?” While I haven’t heard anyone apologize, let alone take responsibility, it looks to me like a tacit acknowledgement by the powers that be that they got things wrong. When I think of all the elderly who spent their last weeks and days alone, dying in excruciating loneliness, all in the name of “following the science,” it disturbs me that the legion of experts who foisted this barbarity on our elders will not be held to account.

Canadian's thrilled to finally get covid vax for infants and toddlers

Well, at least some Canadians. Here's a couple exerpts from a letter to the editor published by the Toronto Star today. "I am very excited that Health Canada can approve the under-six Moderna vaccine before the US Food and Drug Administration." Excited about approving something before the FDA? Seriously? Apparently the writer hasn't heard about the all-too-cozy relationship between the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry. The FDA is too slow to approve covid vaccine for infants and toddlers? We can get it approved even faster? Canada is number one! "At the US rate... the smallest member of our society will be unprotected for another month or two." Oh, the shame! Here's another perspective. Flu kills more under-20s, including infants and toddlers, than covid has, and that's before a single Canadian child under 6 has had a covid shot. My hunch is for every letter like that they get a hundred from parents who plan to never give their infants and toddlers the safe and effective and totally unnecessary vaccine, but those letters probably come from white supremacists and Trump fans, so they can't publish them. Journalistic standards, after all.

Rediscovering the joy of farting

Still haven't sorted out the formatting issues since Doublewide walked over the keyboard a couple of weeks ago. I tried to get her to retrace her steps, to no avail. If you want to know where the paragraph breaks are, most of my posts are also on my Substack, which the cat hasn't managed to fuck up yet. The most stressful thing about my adventures in Celiac disease was I lost the ability to distinguish between a pending fart and something more substantial. I'm off the gluten for a full week now, and what a thrill it is to report that my confidence is coming back! The ability to make that distinction is a fundamental building block on the path to growing up. Usually, we're able to discern what's pending by the age of 3, and let's face it, once you get much beyond that, you're widely shunned in civilized society if you shit your pants when you think you're merely impressing your buddies by ripping one forth. So, from the age of 3 till a few months ago, I could confidently rip forth with the best of them. It's a guy thing. I recall when I used to shepherd the school soccer teams to away games on the bus. With the girls team, they didn't fart much, and when they did, it didn't stink much. The boys team was a different kettle of fish. When the boys team was heading to an away game, farting became a competetive sport in itself. If somebody dropped one, twenty other guys felt duty-bound to best it. I didn't know shit about soccer. In fact, when they made me a volunteer soccer coach, I had to get a book out of the school library to learn some basics - like how many players were allowed on what they call the "pitch." I'm pretty sure the only reason I gained a measure of respect from the kids was, thanks to the sardines and pickled eggs in my diet, my ability to hold my own in the competetive farting department. Don't think I'm ready to rip one forth on a bus full of teenagers just yet, but happy days are just around the corner!

Embracing senility

There were a couple of items I intended to write about today. Andrew Bennett had an op-ed in the Globe and Mail. If that name doesn't quite ring a bell, he was Canada's first and last Commissar of Religious Freedom. Plucked from the obscurity of a Christian College with about 12 students, Harper installed him in this made up post, which was cancelled not long after Justin became PM. I had a lot of fun with that at the time. It seemed to fit the modus operandi of Big Steve's Alliance Church crowd, which in my mind is the kissing cousin to the "Christian fascists" Chris Hedges thinks are taking over America. So you can see, I had some serious shit to gnaw on. Then I stepped out on the stoop for a breath of fresh air, and got totally distracted by the buzzards soaring on the air currents overhead. I'd much rather do that than research Christian fascists. So I did. For hours. We've got a bit of dementia showing up here and there in the family tree. The low-hanging fruit on that tree were smitten before they were the age I am now, which gives me hope. Then again, there's ample gluten allergy in that tree too, which I never felt would ever impact me, so you never know. Bennett, who apparently merits an op-ed where I'm lucky to get a letter to the editor published once in awhile, has his shorts in a twist over the recommendations of the National Defence Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination. I know. Now I gotta read up on that when I could be watching turkey vultures soaring on the thermals. That panel was the brain wave of the wokelings in the Trudeau cabinet, and our turban-sporting Minister of Defence was the point dude. Nothing against turban's per se, but in Sajjan's case it just seemed like cover for an almost inconcievable level of ineptitude. I generally have high regard for Sikhs, but this clown was an embarrasment to the tribe. So they strike this four-person panel to investigate systemic racism and discrimination in the Canadian Armed Forces. This next part sounds like the set-up for a joke, but the panel, all CAF vets, consist of a Native dude, a Native lesbian, a career feminist activist, and a Jew. And then they walked into a bar... You can see why I'd rather watch vultures soaring. You can see why I'd rather embrace senility than spend one more precious moment of my time on this earth researching the thoughts and motivations of the kind of people who seem to have taken over the public space.

One question we don't ask about those civilians trapped beneath Mariupol

It should be an obvious question, but we are so bedazzled by our own propaganda that it never occurs to us. Who has them trapped? Why, the Russians, of course! Well, think about it. International media is obviously on the scene, as you can readily see for yourself when CNN or al Jazeera post footage of the occasional successful “rescue” of civilians from Azovstal. Those are Russian troops helping those civilians to the buses. So if it’s not the Russians trapping them, who else could it be? Maybe those guys who until very recently were acknowledged by CNN, BBC, NYT, the Guardian etc, to be the kind of folks who executed collaborators and used civilians as human shields? That would be the Azov battalion, the same guys doing the same crimes outlined in at least half a dozen Amnesty International reports from 2014 on. The problem is that the collective West has been brainwashed by its own bullshit. Ukraine is winning this war. In fact, no less an authority than US Secretary of State Tony Blinken announced Ukraine’s victory in early April. Yup, they just need a few more billions in US made munitions to put the finishing touches on this glorious triumph of good over evil. Except that was all bullshit, and still is, as confirmed in stories beginning to seep into Western media. Check out this story from Agence France Presse, the France based major news agency. “For every 300 artillery rounds they fire at us, we fire back three.” That’s a wounded Ukrainian soldier talking. They’re ordered to “hold the line.” They are being slaughtered, and the more we drag out this war, the more Ukrainians will die. That Russia had effectively won this war was evident in the first few days. Remember that 50 mile-long Russian convoy that was “trapped” north of Kyiv for ten days? We were treated to all sorts of speculation from Western experts about poor morale, Russia running out of fuel and supplies, etc. Seemed plausible at the time… Except. For ten days, that 50 mile-long sitting duck was not attacked by Ukrainian forces on the ground, from the air, or from long-range artillery. Instead, they tied down tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops waiting for an assault on Kyiv that never materialized, while the Russians created a land bridge to Crimea. Then that 50 miles of Russian heavy weapons made their way to the south, where, two months later, they’re decimating what’s left of the Ukrainian army. The retired US Army generals on CNN told us this was evidence of a heroic Ukrainian victory and was labelled a “Russian retreat.” Telling the truth would have killed the twenty billion in US military exports that have ensued. Why kill Lockheed and Raytheon profits when you can kill people instead? That’s where we’re at. We can keep escalating this war to the brink of global nuclear catastrophe, or we can change course and bend our efforts to making peace.

Every day you can still eat and shit is a good day

I never paid much attention to the "gluten-free" fad that's been sweeping the nation. Sure, you'd go for a family get-together and half the people there were fussing about gluten, but I figured they were just fussy people. Nothing about gluten a robust lad like me would ever have to worry about. After the past few months, I must admit I have modified my outlook somewhat. Seems this celiac disease, or whatever they call a gluten allergy now, can claim the best of us. In my case I'm pretty sure it's because the safe and effective vaccine we were all bullied into has greatly compromised my immune system, but I can't prove it. So things is what they are, and I gotta admit things were seriously on the down-tick for a spell. First off, I was developing flaming red blotches on my skin that itched to high heaven. Then, the old reliable (for sixty-five years) digestive tract took a bad turn. For the first time since I was about three, or whenever mom weaned me off nappies, I've been able to distinguish between a pending fart and something more. Not anymore. You can imagine that set off some alarm bells. Without getting to graphic with the details, I shared my concerns with some those fussy folks. They were unanimous. Get off the gluten! So I did, as of last Thursday. My biggest concern was beer, because that's a medicine I hold as dear as life itself. Turns out there's a gluten free beer out there way tastier (although somewhat more pricey) than my regular swill. Easy to remember too; Glutenberg. Been making some other adjustments too. The first gluten-free bagels I tried were crap, but if you reframed them as gluten-free fluffy buns, they were passable. Turned out a lot of staples in my diet, like pickled beets and tinned kippers, were gluten-free anyway. I gotta tell ya, exiting the bathroom with a sense of accomplishment instead of a sense of dread is a gift well worth giving up gluten for.

Toronto "Hot Docs Festival" hot with US Empire propaganda

What with all the buzz around that fabulous eye-opener about Jose Andres' NGO, World Central Kitchen, you can be forgiven for forgetting it's the product of the Hollywood branch of the American Esceptionalism cult. So here’s why I ended up flushing most of the day down the "We Feed People" rabbit hole. CBC had an interview with Jose Andres this morning, founder of NGO World Central Kitchen. Host Matt Galloway greeted him with the same credulous enthusiasm with which he greets debunked shills for Empire like Bill Browder and Elliot Higgins. Matt is a nice guy, but geopolitics is clearly not his bag. Jose was on to promote a new doc about World Central Kitchen. WCK is quick off the mark in bringing food relief to disaster zones. They had a team on the ground in Ukraine the day after the war started. In the course of the interview, Jose meandered into a little more ant-Putin editorialising than I would have expected of a non-biased humanitarian. The CEO of WCK is none other than Nate Mook, the very guy Bill Clinton tapped for a puff-doc on his humanitarianism. Not only that, he is also the executive producer of the documentary under discussion. Nate Mook has been a Dem party fave for ages. WCK is an extraordinarily well financed NGO, although you’ll be hard pressed to find details on specific donors in their financials. It’s a matter of public record that some authentic grass-roots NGOs have disassociated themselves from WCK on account of its proximity to the Department of Homeland Security and other US government entities. Looks like at least two of hottest docs at Hot Docs are straight out of the Empire's propaganda machine

Will we stand with our allies until the doomsday clock strikes midnight?

Back in early March, I wrote; It's not about Ukraine, the American Empire is fighting for survival. What was perhaps at the time only visible through the glass darkly, has been made manifest by the events of the past week. Biden, Blinken, Austin, and Pelosi have all openly said America will do all it can to ensure a Ukrainian victory in this war. Unlimited funding and unlimited weapons, whatever it takes. That’s an all or nothing stance on the part of the Empire. What only a few conspiratorially minded folks were thinking in March, is now official USA and “allies” policy. This also makes plain that this war is now a matter of life and death for the Putin regime. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that Russia holds the world’s largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons. So by all means, let’s up the ante! By this opened-ended ramp-up, the cretins of Empire have explicitly made this war a matter of life and death for themselves as well. They’ve now got to force a mighty humiliation on Russia, or lose all credibility in the eyes of the world. Canadians and other allies of Empire need to ask themselves if open-ended escalation is in their interests. Take a good hard look at that model of freedom, human rights, and social justice we’re blindly following. America is financially and morally bankrupt and its so-called democracy merely a plaything of plutocrats. Are we willing to follow them into the abyss? It’s high time we pulled back from the escalation track. Stop sending weapons, stop fanning the flames, and start bending our efforts to making peace. Otherwise, midnight could be closer than we think.

Ukraine's magical disappearing Nazis

Take a gander at Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral (ret’d) John Kirby, on the edge of a nervous breakdown as he discusses Russian depravity in Ukraine. Yup, the hardened military man has never before seen such heinous inhumanity. Maybe he should dust off his Abu Ghraib photo album. Kirby makes a point of dismissing the mentally unstable Putin’s claims that there are fascists in Ukraine. That’s become a standard trope throughout Western media. That’s why Globe & Mail “public editor” Sylvia Stead can dismiss Azov’s Nazi roots with the facile “we know there are no fascists in Ukraine because they elected a Jewish president.” That’s why today’s Sunday Star can bring us a 3/4 page story about the plight of the remnants of Azov trapped in Mariupol without even using the term “far right,” let alone “fascist” or “nazi.” The stench of Ukrainian fascism has been erased by an industrial-strength dose of the Washington-concocted disinfectant, “Nazi-be-gone.” But it was not always thus. Here’s a 2018 op-ed from Reuters; Ukraine's neo-Nazi problem. Note:If links not working,try Contrarian Ranter site at Substack. If google can't find it try Yahoo or Bing. Here’s a 2018 headline from The Nation; America's Collusion with Neo-Nazis. Here’s The Nation again, 2019; Neo-Nazis and the far-right are on the march in Ukraine. Here’s a 2019 photo-essay from The Guardian; Ultranationalism in Ukraine. Between 2014 and 2019, Amnesty International issued at least half a dozen reports documenting hate crimes by fascist elements in Ukraine, including attacks on ethnic minorities, LGBT groups, and political opponents. Several of those stories refer to the C14 group, which runs children’s summer camps in Ukraine. The “14” refers to the 14 words of the white supremacist slogan, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” But now it’s 2022, and abracadabra, Nazis be gone! John Kirby can’t find any. Joe Biden can’t find any. Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian ultra-nationalist Chrystia Freeland can’t find any, and certainly no journalist working anywhere in mainstream Western media can find any. All that Nazi talk was just Russian propaganda! So let’s rustle up a few more billions in military aid for those plucky patriots of the Azov Battalion before it’s too late. They’re fighting for our shared values, after all!