Helpless Ukraine is world's 4th largest weapons exporter

That's according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

That didn't stop Senator John McCain from showing up on Face the Nation yesterday to plead for US arming of Ukraine, which is probably just more evidence that McCain inhabits a peculiar time warp wherein the clock is forever stopped a few seconds before midnight and the Ruskies could at any moment trigger the final showdown between the Nations of Virtue and the Evil Empire.

McCain's fantasyland aside, there can be no doubt that the last thing Ukraine needs is more weapons. Nor does it need the kind of belicose talk that never stops coming from the mini-McCains in Ottawa, Mssrs Baird and Harper.

Yatsenyuk took to the airwaves the other day to offer the east of the country more autonomy. That's the official Russian position, and marks the kind of compromise that unfortunately isn't allowed to get traction when the war-mongers and Putin-haters like Harper, Baird, and McCain are vacuuming up all the oxygen in the arena of international public debate.

Ukraine is an economic basket case because for twenty years it has been systematically looted by its own oligarchy. Once "the people" of Ukraine are left to steer their own course, as opposed to being a pawn in America's quest for perpetual Empire, they will find their way. A glance at a map will suggest that they may well have more reasons to have closer ties to their Russian neighbours than to their self-proclaimed champions in the West.

What is Canadian PM Harper talking about when he talks about democracy?

The reason I frame that as a question is because I don't know.

I'm of a generation that was indoctrinated to believe that the ballot box, whatever its shortcomings, was a step forward from the bad old days of mob rule.

And it makes a certain amount of sense. Y'all put the guns down and go for a vote, and if you don't like the way the vote went, well, you suck it up and get out there and work really hard to make sure the result is different in four or five years.

What you don't do is pick up the guns and undo what just happened at the ballot box.

Stephen Harper has a record that suggests he's all about picking up the guns if you're not happy with what happened in the polling booth.

When Hamas won an election in Gaza in 2006, deemed free and fair by the international observers on the ground, Harper was the first international leader to denounce the result. Democracy is great, but only when the voters vote the right way.

When the democratically elected Manuel Zelaya was pushed aside in favour of the oligarchs in Honduras in 2009, the Harper government spoke of the putsch as a "restoration of democracy" and went on to sign a free trade deal with the new non-elected government. Democracy is great, but only when people vote responsibly.

Canada's response to the overthrow of Egypt's Morsi  was this;

Canada firmly believes that implementing a transparent democratic system that respects the voices of its citizens, and that encourages and respects the contributions of civil society and all other segments of the population—including religious minorities—is the best way to restore calm and give all Egyptians a stake in the future stability and prosperity of Egypt.
"On behalf of all Canadians, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the political violence of the past several days and wish a speedy recovery for those injured.
"All Egyptians have the right to live in a free, democratic and secure society"

Overthrowing a democratically elected government is "implementing a transparent democratic system."

You have to love that last line (this comes from the website of Canada's Dept. of Foreign Affairs); it's OK for the army to overthrow the democratically elected government because "all Egyptians have the right to live in a free and democratic society..."

What the fuck is that? Orwell must have had a orgasm right there in his grave!

Which brings us to Ukraine. The government of the unelected "Yats" Yatsenyuk, the result of the Nuland-Pyatt putsch well documented everywhere, was not yet 24 hours old before John Baird was on the ground in Ukraine extolling the virtues of democracy!

Mr. Baird! Mr. Harper! "Democracy" is what it's called when you elect a government...

Overthrowing an elected government is commonly known as something else!