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!

Google makes Chrystia Freeland Prime Minister of Canada

I just googled Christia Freeland and the first thing that comes up reads; "The Honourable Chrystia Freeland | Prime Minister of Canada." Her Wikipedia is the second of 950,000 results.

The link takes you to a gov't website, where it's clarified that she's the Deputy PM, not the PM. So why that Google tomfoolery?

In my recent post, Why billionaires invest in journalism, I mentioned that Chrystia considers Google boss Eric Schmidt a personal friend, according to her book "Plutocrats."

Maybe that explains it.

Freeland's world

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are both disciplined, dogged millionaires who describe their more popular wives as their better halves, hold degrees from Harvard Law School, and have a preference for data-driven arguments rather than emotional ones. Both men struggle to connect with the grassroots of their parties, coming across as cold and robotic.

That's a taste of Chrystia Freeland's analytical prowess from her 2012 book, "Plutocrats; the rise of the new global super-rich and the fall of everyone else." I'd never read it, but Santa was kind enough to drop off a copy yesterday.

Written a couple of years before being recruited by Team Trudeau's Liberals, the book gives some insights into the life of our now Deputy Prime Minister. Chrystia was a busy gal back in her journo days. There's a couple of thousand billionaires loose on planet earth, and she name-drops most of them here. They're mostly hard-working folks who built their own fortunes. They just happened to have the right skill-sets to surf the revolutionary wave of algorithms, AI, and automated trading that define the modern era.

It's a slow day when Chrystia isn't having breakfast with a billionaire CEO or lunch with a Silicon Valley billionaire or dinner with a billionaire Russian oligarch or moderating an expert panel of billionaires at Davos.

She loves billionaires and they love her back. In her acknowledgements she informs the reader that "many members of the global super-elite have helped me to understand their world and some have become friends." There follows a list of a dozen of her billionaire friends, starting with George Soros.

Maybe that explains why her book doesn't have much of a critical perspective. Billionaires are just nice folks who are really smart and well-educated and happen to have a lot of money. Nothing to see here, folks.

Having followed Chrystia's political career for a few years, she strikes me as a lightweight, in over her head. That was especially obvious in the Global Affairs portfolio. That's not a surprise when you consider her superficial comparison of Barry and Mittens above.

Romney was a seasoned slash-and-burn hedgie with at least hundreds of millions worth of assets. Obama was a college professor who barely squeaked into millionaire territory on the strength of a book deal. Painting both as "dogged millionaires" is silly and dishonest. So is the claim that both were cold and robotic. Romney, maybe. Obama, not so much.

Nowhere does she suggest that billionaires are a threat to democracy. In the USA, it's fair to say that the billionaire class has more or less bought the political system, lock, stock, and barrel. In Canada we're running a little behind, but it'll take a concerted effort to avoid ending up in the same dismal place.

Don't expect Chrystia Freeland to be part of that effort.