A brief respite from Yellow Peril hysteria

Charles Burton, a frequent anti-China ranter in the pages of the Globe and Mail, was at it again yesterday. Four paragraphs in, the reader is treated to this bit of speculation, "...the unlikely coughing canary in the coal mine of potentially cataclysmic global strife lies in China's recent diplomatic blitz against our plucky Commonwealth cousins in Australia."

There follows a list of "achievements" our plucky cousins have scored in their campaign to alienate their most important trading partner, a self-defeating policy if ever there was one. Charles recommends we show our own pluck by standing in solidarity with our cousins by buying Australian wine over the holiday season.

Burton is advertised as a Senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an outfit financially supported by a bevy of A-list Big Pharma and Big Oil multinationals,  a variety of foundations, and the governments of Latvia, Japan, Taiwan, and the US. Its influence in Canadian media is deep and broad. There's rarely a day goes by when one or more MLI "fellows," "advisors," or "experts" don't have their China-bashing or Russia-bashing articles published in the Globe and Mail or on the CBC, or both.

Here's a timely rebuttal to Burton's warmongering by Tony Kevin, a former Australian diplomat, and one of the few Aussies with the pluck to speak out against the prevailing US driven anti-China hysteria: Australia sabotaged its own interests in China relations.

Since we're flirting with "potentially cataclysmic global strife," maybe we should call a time-out on the trash talk and take a moment to consider a point of view you'll not find at the CBC and the Globe and Mail. Maybe it will help us avoid the cataclysm. 

Greasing the skids for war on China

The Yellow Peril demonization pogrom continues apace in Canadian national media. At the Globe and Mail it fell to Campbell Clark to carry the can today; "Canada must embrace Biden's China alliance."

There's an obvious typo in the title; it's an anti-China alliance Biden is crafting, and he's hot to trot. In fact, in his first call with Justin after the election, and apparently Campbell was on the line, Biden was "effusive about working with allies."

How effusive was he? Not effusive enough. Mr. Clark suggests we "should be pushing" Biden in the right direction lest he waver in his resolve to confront the Yellow Peril, "we" being the allies who have shivered through four years of darkness waiting for the light of freedom to shine again in Biden's City on a Hill.

Meanwhile, over at the CBC, Evan Dyer wants us to follow Australia's lead and ramp up the Yellow Peril rhetoric. Perhaps if we join Australia in pushing back against Chinese aggression it'll stiffen Biden's spine? That's a somewhat unlikely scenario. Canada and Australia together spend about 7% of what the US spends on "security" every year. Fortunately, the prospects of pipsqueak me-too nations like Canada and Australia bringing China to heel are purely imaginary.

After four years in the shadow of the Orange Ogre, The Nations of Virtue are uniting again behind the leadership of the Exceptional and Indispensable Nation, the nation with the most powerful military machine in history.

Be afraid.

Gallipoli Shmallipoli

There's a whole lotta glory being shone on the bloodbath that was Gallipoli today.

Maybe the gate-keepers of the news decided that we need to "honour" a bloodbath from 100 years ago to help us into the correctly receptive frame of mind to become willing accomplices to the next bloodbath.

I heard the unctuous turd Tony Abbott on the radio today ruminating about how Gallipoli forged Australia into a nation.

No doubt.

He's one to keep an eye on, that Abbott. With respect to the treatment of indigenous people and would-be refugees he makes our own dear leader look like a liberal, if such a thought is conceivable.

At least they have a decent minimum wage.

Australia busts teen terror cell

Yup, it's come to this.

The entire nation of Australia is at risk due to a bunch of wayward teens hooking up with the Towelheads of Terror.

Heretofore the worst you had to fear from wayward teens was they were gonna find your stash or steal your booze. Or get knocked up.

But it's a whole new very scary time, ain't it?

Mind you, that Abbott fellow seems inclined to milk any imaginary threat even more enthusiastically than our very own Big Steve, so maybe we shouldn't be taking this stuff at face value...

This week, terror teens...

Next week, terror tots.

Don't say I didn't warn you.