Why is Larry Fink long China and short American Empire?

Read something to that effect at Zerohedge. Maybe Larry knows something we don't?

There's a school of thought out there posits current US policy vis-a-vis Russia so utterly stupid, self-defeating, and suicidal, that it can't possibly be accidental.

They're deliberately trying to crash the US economy, and those of our European satrapies.

That would seem to give some credence to the conspiracy theory the pandemic was intended to do that.

Crash the economy so Klaus and the gang can pull the switch on their "reset."

Alas, that campaign was badly mismanaged, nowhere more so than in America.

War with Russia is Plan B.

Don't know if I buy that.

Maybe America's best and brightest really are that stupid and arrogant.

What happened to all the love we had for those PSWs working in retirement homes and long-term care?

Not long ago, in the early days of the covid panic, the working conditions of PSWs employed in those facilities came under scrutiny.

We were appalled. 

Poverty wages.

An industry-wide practice of providing only part-time work (to avoid having to pay benefits), resulting in workers carrying the virus from one facility to another as they tried to stitch together a living wage from multiple part-time jobs.  

Important people in government and media vowed things would change.

It's time we treated these essential workers with respect!

Benefits!

Sick days!

A living wage!

Two years later, I check out some current PSW jobs available around town. Happy to report there seem to be more full time gigs on offer, although there's still plenty of places hiring part-time only.

So how is the poverty wages thing going?

Here's a posting at the Canada Job Bank for a PSW job at Seasons, reputed to be the priciest retirement joint in town.

Seasons is a for-profit chain that operates 22 "retirement communities" in Alberta and Ontario. According to their website, they won a "Great Place to Work certification in 2021, for the second year in a row."

Seriously?

They're offering fifteen bucks an hour. 

The local McDonalds offers a higher starting wage, no First Aid Certificate, CPR Training, or criminal record check required!

NATO declines request to send F-35 fighters to Ukraine, sends best wishes instead

The prevailing Ukraine war narrative is causing major cognitive dissonance. 

On the one hand, this is the greatest threat to humanity since WWII. A sovereign state in Europe has invaded another sovereign state in Europe, surely a calamity, an outrage, worst thing since Hitler, etc.

On the other, actually fighting the invader is out of the question. Instead, we will crush him with "sanctions from hell."

If you're a fan of Hitler analogies, this would be where you recall how Hitler was stopped dead in his tracks by sanctions, right?

Fact check this; NATO will not interfere because the serious people know their combined military is no match for Russia's military.

Simple as that.

Which makes you wonder if they're effectively deploying their massive military budgets, collectively approx 15X the Russian military budget.

We're told Putin's war is a failure. Russian forces are bogged down. It's becoming a quagmire.

No, it isn't!

Every day Putin is "bogged down" is another day the NATO and EU ramp up the tensions amongst one another. Some of the more independently inclined are realizing the "sanctions from hell" are gonna be way more hellish on their own people than on Russia.

NATO was always USA directed. When it's raison d'etre dissolved in 1991, it should have been too. Instead, it was co-opted as America's foreign legion.

That foreign legion has made much mischief in various weak and defenceless nations in the three decades since.

This is the first time they've met a serious adversary.

That's why they're sending best wishes instead of F-35s

All Putin has to do is stay "bogged down" a few more weeks, and USA-NATO credibility will totally evaporate. The more the price of gas goes up, the less closely we'll stand with Ukraine.

PM Fluffy uses Ukraine crisis presser to brag about how long he's known Her Majesty

Trudeau jetted to London today for a meeting with Boris and the Dutch PM. It was all about getting their ducks in a row and their narratives aligned in the ongoing Ukraine emergency. If the headlines are half-way accurate, this is indeed the gravest global geopolitical crisis in seventy-five years.

Check out how our PM handles the press conference.

He's not answering questions. He's spewing Liberal Party platitudes for benefit of the home audience.

Note how he wows his fan base by switching back and forth between English and French. Frankly, that's not good enough, Justin. I'd assumed you knew by now those aren't our only two founding languages.

Thanks to real-time translation, making comments in French and then saying the same thing in English is completely redundant. There was a Globe & Mail reporter on the scene, so this was Justin playing to the home audience.

Meanwhile, his Dutch counterpart, who apparently thought he was at a serious diplomatic confab, simply spoke English throughout.

For my money, where Justin really showcased his diplomatic savvy was his reminiscence, apropos of exactly nothing, of his 45 year relationship with the Queen...

What?

Get serious, dude!

The day Dad talked to a banana

Back in the day, before everybody had a cellphone in their pocket, my folks had a phone on the kitchen counter.

Next to the phone, they had a fruit bowl.

One night at dinner, the phone rings. Dad gets up from the table, picks up a banana, and says "hello?"

That was at least thirty years ago. We laughed uproariously, but there was also a dark edge.

Has Dad taken the on-ramp to the dementia highway?

The dude is gonna be 90 this year, God bless him!

And all the marbles are still rolling in the right direction.

I bring this up because we've recently been wondering where I am with respect to that on-ramp.

This afternoon me and the Farm Manager settled in front of the TV to binge watch the doc about Janet Jackson. I was never a fan, but I have a new respect for her now.

This went on most of the afternoon, and at some point I felt I needed a snack.

Fixed myself a dish of pickled beets, a pickled egg, and a slab of blue cheese on caraway rye toast.

And what a tasty snack!

But back to the point. I got up to wash up my dish, got to the sink, and realized I forgot to bring the dish.

The other day, I got up from my usual perch in front of the fire, meaning to grab a beer out of the fridge.

On the way to the fridge, I thought maybe I'll step out for a breath of fresh air before I get the beer.

I was back on the couch before I remembered I forgot the beer.

So I get up again. Bruno is by the kitchen door with his throw-toy. I figure I'll just step out and entertain him a bit. The Big Boy makes me laugh out loud multiple times per day.

It's the least I can do.

Fifteen minutes later, I take my place in front of the fire again...

Oh, for fucks sakes!

Still no beer!

I don't know what that means for the long term. 

Plenty of dementia on Mom's side.

None on Dad's side.

Another reason I just want to be like you, Dad!

You know you jumped the shark when Ovie is getting death threats because of Putin's war

The Washington Capitals now provide a security detail for Alex Ovechkin, one of the greatest NHL stars of all time. 

Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia. Ten days ago he ordered his military into another sovereign nation, considered an act of war. Putin should be held accountable.

What does that have to do with hockey players, opera singers, symphony conductors, F-1 drivers, or disabled kids at the para-Olympics?

Does anybody imagine Putin consults Ovie on matters of Russia's foreign policy?

Our hypocrisy stinks.

When have we ever held baseball players from Cuba or Venezuela to account for Castro or Maduro? Or elite Chinese classical musicians for the human rights abuses of the Chinese government?

In 2015, Saudi Arabia launched a war on Yemen, with the full connivance of the nations now condemning “Russian aggression.” It is a war that continues to this day, with estimated civilian casualties north of 300,000.

In 2018, Saudi government operatives murdered and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. UK/USA support for the illegal war on Yemen didn’t skip a beat.

Three years later the Saudi’s were allowed to buy a football club in England’s Premier League.

Most disturbing, this unhinged anti-Russia hate is actively promoted by our media overlords.

Cathal Kelly uses his bully pulpit at the Globe & Mail to demand Russian NHLer’s “pick a side.”

Facebook lets the fascist Azov Battalion out of their hate-group ban.

Why? 

Certainly not to lower the temperature.

Putin should be held accountable.

Beyond that, we in the collective “West,” who long ago squandered any claim we may once have had on the moral high ground, should be ashamed of the hate campaign we are waging on Russians.

Ukrainian granny knocks Russian drone out of sky with jar of pickles

It must be true. The Farm Manager read it on Facebook.

When I'm rooting around on the internet, looking up background on stuff I might write about, I often see Facebook as a corporate partner or sponsor of this or that fact-checking initiative, think tank, peace institute, war college, community event, foundation... etc.

Facebook is everywhere. At this very moment a neighbour just posted he's tapping the maple trees. 

That's the insidious thing about Facebook. 

I know my neighbour. I know he taps the maple trees every spring. His social media post can and will be confirmed by my next walk up the side-road. 

Same with a lot of other local stuff folks put on Facebook. It's generally true. We know that because you can drive by the posters house and see the tree that fell over in the wind storm. 

That's how we get comfy-cozy with a corporate behemoth that does not necessarily have our best interests at heart. 

Once you trust Facebook with the local things you know are true, the idea that an elderly woman in Ukraine knocked a Russian military drone out of the sky by hurling a jar of pickles at it, seems plausible.

It's a feel-good story, if nothing else.

Behind the feel-good story is the stark reality that Facebook has enormous influence in shaping public opinion. 

We should pay a little more attention to how that enormous influence is being deployed.