Less than 24 hours after the coup that overthrew a democratically elected government in Ukraine and replaced it with the hand-picked US bumboy Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs had on its website a congratulatory press release that included this bit of weasel-speak;
Canada welcomes the appointment of a new government today in Ukraine. After the trauma of the past three months and the loss of so many lives, the appointment of a legitimate government is a vital step forward in restoring democracy and normalcy to Ukraine.
This does in fact tip the hand of the Harper gang in terms of their respect for democracy. Forget about it; legitimacy is conferred by appointment, not by the ballot box! And after the release of the infamous Pyatt-Nuland tapes, everybody knows who made the appointment.
But it's a done deal, and today Harper is off to spread best wishes among the "legitimate" rulers of the new albeit truncated Ukraine, led by the man who polled under 7% in the first round of the 2010 elections. Ah, but what's a few percentage points when you've got the votes that count in Washington!
Ironically, on the very day that Big Steve left to spread platitudes among the newly legit losers of Ukraine's last election, the Supreme Court of Canada had a few things to say about Harper's ham-fisted end-run around "rule of law" with the Marc Nadon Supreme Court nomination. If you recall, that was Harper's attempt to stack the Supreme Court with Harper-friendly stooges by nominating the unqualified Marc Nadon, and then trying to cover his tracks by retroactively changing the rules.
What they are in effect saying is, "hold the phone there, Big Steve... this ain't Ukraine!"
Showing posts with label Steven Harper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steven Harper. Show all posts
Friday, March 21, 2014
Monday, April 8, 2013
The Cardboard Lady; phonier than Phony Tony
The accolades accorded "The Iron Lady" are right next to mind-numbing.
David Cameron claims she "saved" Britain.
Steven Harper claims she ushered in an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity.
Gorbachev, Kohl, Clinton... everybody is paying homage today.
Here's a motherlode of stats on the British economy.
If you compare key stats from the year before she took up residence at 10 Downing to stats from the year after she left, you'll see she had some accomplishments.
Total government spending tripled during her tenure. That's a pretty dubious claim to fame for a slash-and-burn union-busting right-winger.
And while she did triple defense spending, public spending on health, education, and welfare grew even faster than military spending.
In the first five years of her reign unemployment doubled.
And of course, taxes on high earners were slashed.
And there is no question that over the course of her tenure the influence of organized labour was exponentially diminished if not outright extinguished.
As for the "era of peace and prosperity," the great victory in the Falklands did for Britain what the great victory over Grenada did for America; open the door to an era of hubristic imperial overreach that both countries pay a steep price for to this day.
Her most disappointing legacy is that she left the door open for "New Labour."
Without the bitter aftertaste left by the Iron Lady, Britons would never have elected Phony Tony.
Then they had a real neo on their hands, and they'll be paying for that gaffe for generations to come.
David Cameron claims she "saved" Britain.
Steven Harper claims she ushered in an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity.
Gorbachev, Kohl, Clinton... everybody is paying homage today.
Here's a motherlode of stats on the British economy.
If you compare key stats from the year before she took up residence at 10 Downing to stats from the year after she left, you'll see she had some accomplishments.
Total government spending tripled during her tenure. That's a pretty dubious claim to fame for a slash-and-burn union-busting right-winger.
And while she did triple defense spending, public spending on health, education, and welfare grew even faster than military spending.
In the first five years of her reign unemployment doubled.
And of course, taxes on high earners were slashed.
And there is no question that over the course of her tenure the influence of organized labour was exponentially diminished if not outright extinguished.
As for the "era of peace and prosperity," the great victory in the Falklands did for Britain what the great victory over Grenada did for America; open the door to an era of hubristic imperial overreach that both countries pay a steep price for to this day.
Her most disappointing legacy is that she left the door open for "New Labour."
Without the bitter aftertaste left by the Iron Lady, Britons would never have elected Phony Tony.
Then they had a real neo on their hands, and they'll be paying for that gaffe for generations to come.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Three Stooges renew vows in Washington
Curly, Obama, and Moe had a wee conflab at the White House today. They renewed their commitment to the war on drugs and free trade.
No, not the free trade in drugs, but free trade, as in General Electric is free to trade in your 35 dollar an hour job in the US for a three dollar an hour job in Monterrey.
Steve "Moe" Harper was mighty chuffed on the occasion of his second visit to the White House, as was the Canadian media. I guess it would hurt their feelings to point out that the CEO of General Electric has been there sixteen times.
"Steven goes to Washington" is today's big news story in Canada. You won't even find the story on CNN's US home page. The Mexican media mention in passing that Curly Calderon was in Washington today, but they generally don't mention Harper.
Think that's called "small-pond syndrome".
The small-pond guys inevitably get real excited by a visit to the White House. Nobody is a bigger fish in a smaller pond than Steven Harper.
So, the news was about nothing, other than the renewed commitment to the war on drugs. Mexico is taking a page out of Columbia's war-on-drugs handbook, and both Canada and the US now have free-trade agreements with Columbia, so they should be able to trade drug-war expertise freely among the four nations.
Harper made the point in his post-handshake press conference that the war on drugs hurts all North Americans and that we're in this fight together.
I don't know what Steve's been smoking, but even former hard line anti-drug guys have come around to the view that the war on drugs is hurting far more people a lot more than the actual drugs themselves.
But the three stooges agreed that the war needs more funding, more high-tech gizmos, bigger jails and tougher laws to bring it to a successful conclusion.
Good luck with that!
No, not the free trade in drugs, but free trade, as in General Electric is free to trade in your 35 dollar an hour job in the US for a three dollar an hour job in Monterrey.
Steve "Moe" Harper was mighty chuffed on the occasion of his second visit to the White House, as was the Canadian media. I guess it would hurt their feelings to point out that the CEO of General Electric has been there sixteen times.
"Steven goes to Washington" is today's big news story in Canada. You won't even find the story on CNN's US home page. The Mexican media mention in passing that Curly Calderon was in Washington today, but they generally don't mention Harper.
Think that's called "small-pond syndrome".
The small-pond guys inevitably get real excited by a visit to the White House. Nobody is a bigger fish in a smaller pond than Steven Harper.
So, the news was about nothing, other than the renewed commitment to the war on drugs. Mexico is taking a page out of Columbia's war-on-drugs handbook, and both Canada and the US now have free-trade agreements with Columbia, so they should be able to trade drug-war expertise freely among the four nations.
Harper made the point in his post-handshake press conference that the war on drugs hurts all North Americans and that we're in this fight together.
I don't know what Steve's been smoking, but even former hard line anti-drug guys have come around to the view that the war on drugs is hurting far more people a lot more than the actual drugs themselves.
But the three stooges agreed that the war needs more funding, more high-tech gizmos, bigger jails and tougher laws to bring it to a successful conclusion.
Good luck with that!
Friday, February 3, 2012
You know we're screwed when we're begging China to pay for our imperialist misadventures
The NATO worthies are all cutting and running from the Afghan quagmire. The face-saving strategy is to pretend we're keeping "trainers" back to train the so-called Afghan army.
That in itself should be the tip-off as to how disastrously the Afghan campaign has gone off the rails.
When and where has the losing side in any war been retained to train the army of the winning side? Did Israel hire on thousands of Egyptian trainers after the Six Day War?
Did Viet Nam hire on American trainers after those last helicopters left the roof of the embassy in Saigon?
Did any of the allied nations hire Italian trainers after the Italian campaign in WWII?
But for some reason we're supposed to believe that the folks who put the run to the best that NATO has to offer need the NATO nations to train their military.
A moment of reflection will lead to the conclusion that the supposed Afghan "training mission" has nothing whatsoever to do with training the Afghan military, and everything to do with maintaining Afghanistan's status as a vassal state.
As long as we keep their military dependent on us, we'll keep them as a customer for our weapons systems, and we'll be able to keep our bum-boy Karzai in place at least for the time being.
Problem for these NATO conquerors is they can't afford to keep their "trainers" in the country.
The cost of keeping a NATO-friendly army running is estimated to be at least 4 billion dollars a year. The Afghan resistance has driven NATO out with less money than it takes to keep my pick-up truck on the road.
But we're determined to keep a high-tech army trained and supplied? Why? Because it's our last lever of control over the country.
Canadian Defense Minister Peter "Pinocchio" MacKay today revealed that NATO will ask China for help in footing the bill. Now we know that there's something on the agenda for Harper's China visit next week other than begging the Chinese to buy our dirty oil.
We'll be begging them to save our butts in Afghanistan.
That in itself should be the tip-off as to how disastrously the Afghan campaign has gone off the rails.
When and where has the losing side in any war been retained to train the army of the winning side? Did Israel hire on thousands of Egyptian trainers after the Six Day War?
Did Viet Nam hire on American trainers after those last helicopters left the roof of the embassy in Saigon?
Did any of the allied nations hire Italian trainers after the Italian campaign in WWII?
But for some reason we're supposed to believe that the folks who put the run to the best that NATO has to offer need the NATO nations to train their military.
A moment of reflection will lead to the conclusion that the supposed Afghan "training mission" has nothing whatsoever to do with training the Afghan military, and everything to do with maintaining Afghanistan's status as a vassal state.
As long as we keep their military dependent on us, we'll keep them as a customer for our weapons systems, and we'll be able to keep our bum-boy Karzai in place at least for the time being.
Problem for these NATO conquerors is they can't afford to keep their "trainers" in the country.
The cost of keeping a NATO-friendly army running is estimated to be at least 4 billion dollars a year. The Afghan resistance has driven NATO out with less money than it takes to keep my pick-up truck on the road.
But we're determined to keep a high-tech army trained and supplied? Why? Because it's our last lever of control over the country.
Canadian Defense Minister Peter "Pinocchio" MacKay today revealed that NATO will ask China for help in footing the bill. Now we know that there's something on the agenda for Harper's China visit next week other than begging the Chinese to buy our dirty oil.
We'll be begging them to save our butts in Afghanistan.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Harperite homophobia leaves lesbians in limbo
Back in 2005 a couple of gay gals from away took advantage of Canada's newly minted same sex marriage legislation to tie the knot.
Alas, as is too oft the case, true love sometimes doesn't last, and this year our gay gals are looking for a divorce. Trouble is, the gals are from homophobic foreign states that don't recognize gay marriage. For reasons that remain obscure the federal government intervened in their divorce, and claimed that the original marriage was invalid because it was never recognized by our gay gals respective home turfs.
This is big news not only for the gay community, but the gay marriage industry. In Montreal alone gay marriage junkets from abroad are estimated to bring in 200 million dollars a year in economic benefits.
While the government's motives may be obscure, the think tank here at Falling Downs has a theory. The Harper government pride themselves on being manly manly men. They dangle from helicopters. They date and sometimes marry hot chicks. They autograph bombs. They are the leaders of the true north strong and free, dammit!
Steven Harper went into politics so he could be the leader of a country that punches above its weight. Instead, he's the leader of the gay marriage mecca of the world!
That's why the federal government interfered in that routine divorce.
Take a pill, Mr. Harper. We have plenty of examples in history to prove that there is not necessarily a conflict between reactionary politics and being, if not queer-friendly, at least queer. Ernst Rohm. Roy Cohn. Jorg Haider...
So get those government lawyers out of that divorce and leave those gays alone.
Alas, as is too oft the case, true love sometimes doesn't last, and this year our gay gals are looking for a divorce. Trouble is, the gals are from homophobic foreign states that don't recognize gay marriage. For reasons that remain obscure the federal government intervened in their divorce, and claimed that the original marriage was invalid because it was never recognized by our gay gals respective home turfs.
This is big news not only for the gay community, but the gay marriage industry. In Montreal alone gay marriage junkets from abroad are estimated to bring in 200 million dollars a year in economic benefits.
While the government's motives may be obscure, the think tank here at Falling Downs has a theory. The Harper government pride themselves on being manly manly men. They dangle from helicopters. They date and sometimes marry hot chicks. They autograph bombs. They are the leaders of the true north strong and free, dammit!
Steven Harper went into politics so he could be the leader of a country that punches above its weight. Instead, he's the leader of the gay marriage mecca of the world!
That's why the federal government interfered in that routine divorce.
Take a pill, Mr. Harper. We have plenty of examples in history to prove that there is not necessarily a conflict between reactionary politics and being, if not queer-friendly, at least queer. Ernst Rohm. Roy Cohn. Jorg Haider...
So get those government lawyers out of that divorce and leave those gays alone.
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