There's certainly nothing new about war profiteering. Google "war profiteering" and you'll be taken back to the civil war. It was good business then and it's even better now.
The German Krupp munitions and steel conglomerate got a royalty for every bomb the Allies dropped on Germany in the WW2, due to the "intellectual property" they owned in munitions and steel. Obviously a state of war ramps up the sale of munitions and steel like nothing else. War may be bad for children and puppies, but it's damned good news for your purveyors of guns and bullets and munitions and steel.
Munitions and steel do particularly well when you're the hegemon who can deal the tools of death to both sides in any conflict you may succeed in stirring up. Take the Middle East for example. American taxpayers fund billions in military "aid" to Israel to permit continuous war against the resident enemy, the Palestinians. But just to be fair and balanced, America also sells billions upon billions of weaponry to Arab states in the region.
That may not be good for the neighborhood, but it's damned good news for the American weapons industry who profit from this armament proliferation.
Just recently Obama announced a new procurement plan to source half a billion in US weapons for imaginary "moderates" among the Syrian rebels. There can be no serious person who imagines that such a fiction as a "moderate Syrian rebel" actually exists. Those weapons are destined for the real Syrian opposition, which has of late been running roughshod not only over those "moderates", but over Iraq as well, and are even taking their fight into Lebanon.
It won't be long before the Islamic State is using their US supplied weaponry against the US supplied weaponry of Israel.
But even before that happens, we've got to dispatch a rush order of Hellfire missiles to our bumboy in Baghdad, so he can, at least for a little while, fend off those bad guys who are using American weapons against him.
Oy, what a mess! Looks like the only winners in this scenario are the Yankee weapon purveyors!
Yes, everything will be record profits until America's client states turn those guns and bombs on America...
At which point we will gain some insights into why this is the suicide stage of capitalism.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Saturday, August 2, 2014
"Unknown Amazon Tribe" emerges from jungle wearing backwards baseball caps
Ya right!
Look for their soon-to-be-released CD entitled "Jungle Jam", by Unknown Amazon Tribe.
How do you spell "bogus?"
The suicide stage of capitalism
Capitalism's glory days are fast fading in the rear-view mirror. All the low-hanging fruit has been plucked. The easy oil, the easy timber, the easy gold and silver are long gone.
But capital needs to be deployed somewhere. Therefore, once the possibility of more Oklahoma gushers was exhausted, you got offshore drilling. That got us underwater gushers, which sometimes kept gushing even when equipment breakdowns prevented the capture of that oil.
BP's Deepwater Horizon catastrophe may have destroyed the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem for the next thousand years, but that was an accident, not a deliberate strategy.
That is where it differs from the next stage of exploiting ever higher hanging fruit. With offshore drilling we may have been taking foolish risks, but we were still basically drilling a hole in the earth to let the oil come out.
Fracking is an entirely different matter. We are not drilling a hole to "let" the oil and gas out; we are using industrial-scale technology to drill holes, into which we pump poisons under tremendous pressure, to force out oil and gas that doesn't want to come out.
How any person with an ounce of sense can let this pass is a mystery. Maybe it's the reassurances of all those industry experts. Maybe it's the promise of easy money. Maybe it's the promise of jobs.
Whatever it is, entire national economies are doubling down on a process that entails grave long-term risks in return for short-term gains.
UK PM David Cameron recently declared his country wide open for fracking. Poland's Tusk has gone down the same road. Hopefully local opposition can stop the madness.
Fracking is also part of the salvation strategy being foisted on the hapless Ukrainian people by their "friends" in Washington. No less a Washington insider than the son of VP Biden is helping to bring fracking to Ukraine.
While industry shills continue to deny it, there is a rapidly accumulating body of evidence linking fracking to contamination of groundwater and to seismic events in American states that have permitted the practice.
We can survive without oil. We cannot survive without water. Water resources must, in a sane world, trump the need for capital to maximize its profits.
But capital needs to be deployed somewhere. Therefore, once the possibility of more Oklahoma gushers was exhausted, you got offshore drilling. That got us underwater gushers, which sometimes kept gushing even when equipment breakdowns prevented the capture of that oil.
BP's Deepwater Horizon catastrophe may have destroyed the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem for the next thousand years, but that was an accident, not a deliberate strategy.
That is where it differs from the next stage of exploiting ever higher hanging fruit. With offshore drilling we may have been taking foolish risks, but we were still basically drilling a hole in the earth to let the oil come out.
Fracking is an entirely different matter. We are not drilling a hole to "let" the oil and gas out; we are using industrial-scale technology to drill holes, into which we pump poisons under tremendous pressure, to force out oil and gas that doesn't want to come out.
How any person with an ounce of sense can let this pass is a mystery. Maybe it's the reassurances of all those industry experts. Maybe it's the promise of easy money. Maybe it's the promise of jobs.
Whatever it is, entire national economies are doubling down on a process that entails grave long-term risks in return for short-term gains.
UK PM David Cameron recently declared his country wide open for fracking. Poland's Tusk has gone down the same road. Hopefully local opposition can stop the madness.
Fracking is also part of the salvation strategy being foisted on the hapless Ukrainian people by their "friends" in Washington. No less a Washington insider than the son of VP Biden is helping to bring fracking to Ukraine.
While industry shills continue to deny it, there is a rapidly accumulating body of evidence linking fracking to contamination of groundwater and to seismic events in American states that have permitted the practice.
We can survive without oil. We cannot survive without water. Water resources must, in a sane world, trump the need for capital to maximize its profits.
Friday, August 1, 2014
Kiss my non-herniated ass
My pal RS spent a lovely few days at the Shouldice Hospital to have a hernia repaired.
To those who have never suffered a hernia, I should point out that the Shouldice Hernia Hospital is one of the top spots in the world to get your hernia fixed up.
It was until recent times known as the "Shouldice Clinic."
If you've never heard of it, it's because you've never had a hernia.
That such an outpost of privatized health care should continue to thrive in the Socialist Republic of Toronto speaks volumes.
As in they really know from hernias.
Now I don't mean to disparage my pal RS. He's a nearly famous writer/photog/artiste who once had a Juno nomination. But, for fucks sakes, he got a hernia lifting a pencil!
And he's told me time and again that I am courting hernia disaster with my shenanigans around Falling Downs.
I was thinking about this the other day, as I was lifting two-foot diameter rounds of dead elm firewood into the back of the truck.
It's all in how you lift it. Lift with your legs, not with your back! That's the secret of staying out of the Shouldice Clinic!
I lifted a good dozen of those into the back of the truck, and next week I'll be lifting them into the wood splitter.
The smaller ones might be around 150 pounds, and they go up to well over 200.
RS and all the other nay-sayers truly believe that a man my age is inviting a trip to the Shouldice Hospital with these feats of strength...
They can kiss my non-herniated ass...
It's all about lifting with your legs.
To those who have never suffered a hernia, I should point out that the Shouldice Hernia Hospital is one of the top spots in the world to get your hernia fixed up.
It was until recent times known as the "Shouldice Clinic."
If you've never heard of it, it's because you've never had a hernia.
That such an outpost of privatized health care should continue to thrive in the Socialist Republic of Toronto speaks volumes.
As in they really know from hernias.
Now I don't mean to disparage my pal RS. He's a nearly famous writer/photog/artiste who once had a Juno nomination. But, for fucks sakes, he got a hernia lifting a pencil!
And he's told me time and again that I am courting hernia disaster with my shenanigans around Falling Downs.
I was thinking about this the other day, as I was lifting two-foot diameter rounds of dead elm firewood into the back of the truck.
It's all in how you lift it. Lift with your legs, not with your back! That's the secret of staying out of the Shouldice Clinic!
I lifted a good dozen of those into the back of the truck, and next week I'll be lifting them into the wood splitter.
The smaller ones might be around 150 pounds, and they go up to well over 200.
RS and all the other nay-sayers truly believe that a man my age is inviting a trip to the Shouldice Hospital with these feats of strength...
They can kiss my non-herniated ass...
It's all about lifting with your legs.
Canada condemns Hamas' resistance to IDF invasion
Canada, a virtual nullity on the world stage after eight years under the Harper regime, has once again showcased its pro-Israel bona fides with this press release from FM John Baird:
Baird Condemns Hamas for Broken Ceasefire
August 1, 2014 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement:
“Canada is appalled that Hamas, only hours into the ceasefire, has yet again blatantly violated this agreement.
“The abduction by Hamas of an Israeli soldier is a disgraceful and repugnant act and once again shows Hamas’s complete disregard for peace and the well-being of the Palestinian people.
“Hamas has lost all credibility, and we must continue to work to isolate this terrorist organization that values death over peace.
“The people of Gaza have suffered greatly under Hamas’s reign, and it is high time that their needs are put first over their rulers’ blind ambition.
“Further violence could have been avoided if Hamas had immediately laid down its arms and demilitarized Gaza.
“Israel will now be forced to continue defending itself as long as Hamas continues its rocket attacks against civilians and its campaign of terror through its vast tunnel network; Hamas will be solely to blame for any further loss of life.
“Canada mourns the loss of life in Gaza and Israel and hopes that Palestinians and Israelis will one day soon realize true peace and security.”
There you have it. That invading soldier was not captured, he was "abducted".
Capturing an enemy soldier is "disgraceful and repugnant."
Capturing an enemy soldier is "disgraceful and repugnant."
We must continue to work to isolate the democratically elected government of Gaza.
Further violence could be avoided if only Hamas acquiesced to unhinged Israeli brutality.
Only Hamas is to blame for further Israeli-incurred Palestinian deaths from IAF missiles and rockets and IDF tank shells, mortars, and rockets.
But of course we mourn the loss of life etc...
Bullshit like this is why Canada has lost all credibility on the world stage.
Harper gang wastes no time in slamming Native leaders for "excessive" pay
There was outrage across the land today as Canadians learned that the Chief of a tiny Native band in BC took home a whopping $914,000 last year!
OH MY GOD!!! There's white guys on Bay street barely bringing in 900K!
The horror!
These headlines are the result of new disclosure rules mandated by the Harper regime under the First Nations Financial Transparency Act.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt wasted no time weighing in on the scandal. He knows intuitively, without looking at any facts, that this is completely unreasonable, and expresses his hope that band members will "take care of the situation".
What is he implying? Lynching Chief Giesbrecht?
Notice how Valcourt is able to squeeze his concern for "taxpayer dollars" into a brief interview three times?
He wants to make sure that the drooling rednecks who make up Harper's base get the message that the Harper gang respects their hard-earned dollars and is gettin' tough on them thieving Indians
According to the Globe and Mail, Chief Giesbrecht makes a basic salary of $4,800 per year, which strikes me as modest in the extreme. He earns a further $80,000 as the band's Economic Development Officer, which is definitely on the low end for folks with that job title. The balance of his income is from a 10% commission he earned on a land use agreement that brought over eight million dollars to the band.
Given that hedge fund managers on Bay Street typically take a 20% commission on any profits they make, why would anyone, based on the facts available, begrudge Chief Giesbrecht a fee of half the going rate?
Because he's an Indian?
The other noteworthy fact to keep in mind is that the Kwikwetiem First Nation was one of the very few to file their financial statements by Tuesday's deadline. When other bands see how playing along with this intrusive and racially-motivated legislation results in being slandered by cabinet ministers and national media, they may want to reconsider.
OH MY GOD!!! There's white guys on Bay street barely bringing in 900K!
The horror!
These headlines are the result of new disclosure rules mandated by the Harper regime under the First Nations Financial Transparency Act.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt wasted no time weighing in on the scandal. He knows intuitively, without looking at any facts, that this is completely unreasonable, and expresses his hope that band members will "take care of the situation".
What is he implying? Lynching Chief Giesbrecht?
Notice how Valcourt is able to squeeze his concern for "taxpayer dollars" into a brief interview three times?
He wants to make sure that the drooling rednecks who make up Harper's base get the message that the Harper gang respects their hard-earned dollars and is gettin' tough on them thieving Indians
According to the Globe and Mail, Chief Giesbrecht makes a basic salary of $4,800 per year, which strikes me as modest in the extreme. He earns a further $80,000 as the band's Economic Development Officer, which is definitely on the low end for folks with that job title. The balance of his income is from a 10% commission he earned on a land use agreement that brought over eight million dollars to the band.
Given that hedge fund managers on Bay Street typically take a 20% commission on any profits they make, why would anyone, based on the facts available, begrudge Chief Giesbrecht a fee of half the going rate?
Because he's an Indian?
The other noteworthy fact to keep in mind is that the Kwikwetiem First Nation was one of the very few to file their financial statements by Tuesday's deadline. When other bands see how playing along with this intrusive and racially-motivated legislation results in being slandered by cabinet ministers and national media, they may want to reconsider.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
The toxic mischief of the First Nations Financial Transparency Act
The Harper government spins the First Nations Financial Transparency Act as something they just had to do to let the native street see how high on the hog their leadership have been living. The implication being that us white folks are overwhelmingly generous to you Indians, and the only reason many of you live in squalor and deprivation is because your leaders are pocketing the money.
Bullshit!
The First Nations Financial Transparency Act is intended to foment discord in the native community while at the same time inciting the racist elements in the broader Canadian society. You know the Ezra Levant crowd is going to be mining the financial reports for salacious anti-native propaganda for years, which is exactly what the Harper gang had in mind when they drafted this legislation.
I have no doubt that some troubling examples of self-dealing and fiscal abuse will emerge, but guess what?!...
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/29/alison-redfords-alleged-ghost-flights-and-faked-manifests-take-scandalous-behaviour-to-a-new-level/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/17/mike-duffy-to-be-charged-by-rcmp-suspended-senators-lawyer-says/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charbonneau_Commission
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2014/07/29/toronto_mayor_rob_ford_still_doesnt_understand_conflict_of_interest_editorial.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/mulroney-tried-to-cover-up-cash-payments-he-received-in-hotel-rooms-schreiber-1.648379
I could go on and on and on...
Bullshit!
The First Nations Financial Transparency Act is intended to foment discord in the native community while at the same time inciting the racist elements in the broader Canadian society. You know the Ezra Levant crowd is going to be mining the financial reports for salacious anti-native propaganda for years, which is exactly what the Harper gang had in mind when they drafted this legislation.
I have no doubt that some troubling examples of self-dealing and fiscal abuse will emerge, but guess what?!...
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/29/alison-redfords-alleged-ghost-flights-and-faked-manifests-take-scandalous-behaviour-to-a-new-level/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/17/mike-duffy-to-be-charged-by-rcmp-suspended-senators-lawyer-says/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charbonneau_Commission
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2014/07/29/toronto_mayor_rob_ford_still_doesnt_understand_conflict_of_interest_editorial.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/mulroney-tried-to-cover-up-cash-payments-he-received-in-hotel-rooms-schreiber-1.648379
I could go on and on and on...
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