I don't mean that in an unkind way. One of the best gigs I ever had was at Saint John Shipbuilding twenty-five years ago, and while that experience didn't exactly dispel the above stereotype, I'd have to say that for the most part we were happy semi-literate drunks!
What brought about my reminiscing was finding this consultant's report estimating the economic impact of the combat vessel construction program on the greater Halifax region. Table 1 on page 10 breaks down the consumer spending impact that the Combat Vessel Project will have. "Reading materials" is the smallest category on the list, accounting for $1.6 million per year.
Education gets 6.8 millions.
Personal care tops that at 7.6... all of these trumped by tobacco products and alcoholic beverages at over $10 millions per year!
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
As Canadians cut and run from Afghanistan, top General admits Taliban still have "some influence"
When you read this, you realize that Maj-Gen Dean Milner is the kinda guy who is going places.
Nosiree, the Afghan adventure has not been an abject failure!
Nosiree, the Afghan adventure has been well worth every one of those 158 Canadian dead.
Just look at all those Afghan schoolgirls going to school!
The Major General's ruminations are beyond pathetic. The last time Afghan schoolgirls went to school in significant numbers was in the bad old days when Afghanistan was aligned with the Soviet Union.
That's when Afghan women were university professors and lawyers and cabinet ministers.
But we fixed that good.
It was the US who brought the neanderthal Talib fundamentalists to prominence.
Milner's comments need to be read against a background of previous proclamations from Canada's do-gooders.
It was General Hillier who got himself way offside with his uncouth remarks about killing those Taliban scumbags. To hear him talk, you'd think he and his ubermensch crew were gonna have those Talibs sorted out within weeks.
That was followed by numerous proclamations from Big Steve himself about how Canada does not cut and run etc.
All the while, the complacent Canadian media played a patriotic background role, cheering on the cheerleaders and celebrating kites and bicycle paths in Kabul.
Which brings us to the present moment.
The Major General in charge of Canada's retreat claims we have won a great victory.
But he acknowledges that the Taliban, Hillier's "murderers and scumbags," still have some influence.
Sorry Mr. Milner.
It's not that they have "some influence."
They won the war.
You lost.
Nosiree, the Afghan adventure has not been an abject failure!
Nosiree, the Afghan adventure has been well worth every one of those 158 Canadian dead.
Just look at all those Afghan schoolgirls going to school!
The Major General's ruminations are beyond pathetic. The last time Afghan schoolgirls went to school in significant numbers was in the bad old days when Afghanistan was aligned with the Soviet Union.
That's when Afghan women were university professors and lawyers and cabinet ministers.
But we fixed that good.
It was the US who brought the neanderthal Talib fundamentalists to prominence.
Milner's comments need to be read against a background of previous proclamations from Canada's do-gooders.
It was General Hillier who got himself way offside with his uncouth remarks about killing those Taliban scumbags. To hear him talk, you'd think he and his ubermensch crew were gonna have those Talibs sorted out within weeks.
That was followed by numerous proclamations from Big Steve himself about how Canada does not cut and run etc.
All the while, the complacent Canadian media played a patriotic background role, cheering on the cheerleaders and celebrating kites and bicycle paths in Kabul.
Which brings us to the present moment.
The Major General in charge of Canada's retreat claims we have won a great victory.
But he acknowledges that the Taliban, Hillier's "murderers and scumbags," still have some influence.
Sorry Mr. Milner.
It's not that they have "some influence."
They won the war.
You lost.
It's time to nationalize Canada's railroads
It has taken an act of parliament to coherce Canada's rail duopoly to move prairie grain to ports for export.
Apparently the invisible hand of the free market wasn't enough.
Coming from the corporate bag-lickers in the Harper gang, this market intervention could not have been easy.
They are in effect acknowledging that the "free market" doesn't work.
Which it obviously doesn't.
Both of Canada's national railways were built with huge public give-aways in the form of land concessions and cash hand-outs. The railways have been more than happy to keep the land and keep the handouts. They've not been that happy about keeping up their end of the bargain.
Their end of the bargain was to provide rail transport of both people and commodities from coast to coast. Those railway ties were the ties that bound Canada together.
CP Rail had a wildly self-promoting letter in major Canadian papers the other day signed by Hunter Harrison, the American who has presided in turn over the demise of both CN and CP. The letter was an apology for the cold weather. That's why CP hasn't been able to ship last year's grain crop.
Hunter neglected to mention that since he arrived at CP Rail, 400 locomotives and over 10,000 rail cars have been idled.
I'm no expert on how railways work, but I have a hunch that idling 400 locomotives and 10,000 rail cars would reduce the amount of product a railway could carry.
Which would go a long way towards explaining why Canada's 2013 grain harvest is rotting in grain elevators instead of being shipped to market.
Curiously enough, one never encounters stories about Bakken crude not being able to find rail cars to take it to market.
Apparently the invisible hand of the free market wasn't enough.
Coming from the corporate bag-lickers in the Harper gang, this market intervention could not have been easy.
They are in effect acknowledging that the "free market" doesn't work.
Which it obviously doesn't.
Both of Canada's national railways were built with huge public give-aways in the form of land concessions and cash hand-outs. The railways have been more than happy to keep the land and keep the handouts. They've not been that happy about keeping up their end of the bargain.
Their end of the bargain was to provide rail transport of both people and commodities from coast to coast. Those railway ties were the ties that bound Canada together.
CP Rail had a wildly self-promoting letter in major Canadian papers the other day signed by Hunter Harrison, the American who has presided in turn over the demise of both CN and CP. The letter was an apology for the cold weather. That's why CP hasn't been able to ship last year's grain crop.
Hunter neglected to mention that since he arrived at CP Rail, 400 locomotives and over 10,000 rail cars have been idled.
I'm no expert on how railways work, but I have a hunch that idling 400 locomotives and 10,000 rail cars would reduce the amount of product a railway could carry.
Which would go a long way towards explaining why Canada's 2013 grain harvest is rotting in grain elevators instead of being shipped to market.
Curiously enough, one never encounters stories about Bakken crude not being able to find rail cars to take it to market.
Washington consolidates control over global jihad
The Muslim Brotherhood is officially on the shit list.
We know that because Saudi Arabia has officially declared them a terrorist group. These notions don't spontaneously pop into King Abdullah's head out of nowhere.
The Brotherhood has in fact been nothing like a terror group. What the Saudi move means is that there is a bit of rebranding going on in the world 'o jihad. The al-Nusra Front and al-Qaeda have also been placed on Riyadh's Washington dictated verboten list.
This move is part and parcel of the news two days ago that most of the GCC were recalling their ambassadors from Qatar. Qatar has become the rogue state sponsoring not only the Brotherhood, but various other free-lance conglomerations of jihadis who operate outside of official US-Saudi oversight.
There was a time when Saudi money flowed freely to the many iterations of jihad terror around the Middle East and beyond. Saudi Arabia was the primariy financier of al-Qaeda for years. Bin Laden himself was financed out of Saudi Arabia.
Those days are now officially over. What brought about this U-turn?
The free-for-all in Syria. When Assad failed to follow the Washington script for regime change, random jihadi groups were given a green light to join the fray. Those myriad free-booters have proved to be well beyond the control of their financial backers, and as a result international jihad has a PR problem and their backers are pissed off.
Hence the current crack-down and consolidation.
Does the fact that Saudi Arabia has condemned al-Nusra and al-Qaeda mean we have won the war on terror?
Not at all. It means that terror groups have to buck up and do the bidding of their financial backers. No more of this random free-lance stuff where kids from Minneapolis and Winnipeg morph into "al Qaeda leaders" within six months of leaving Minneapolis and Winnipeg.
Where does that leave the Brotherhood?
The MB has been stomped on, persecuted, prosecuted, and driven underground for years. Its rise to legitimacy in Egypt and Turkey was never more than tenuous, as Morsi has found out and Erdogan will soon. It will continue as an underground organization.
Does this mean the end of al Qaeda and radical Islam? Hell no! This isn't about ending radical Islamist terror; it's about getting it under control.
Wahhabi zealots who once worked under the al-Qaeda or al-Nusra banners are simply being rebranded. Those who don't play ball and accept the US-Saudi directorship can count on a) being left out of the money & materiels supply chain, and b) finding themselves running zig-zag patterns in the desert as they try to avoid the drones with their names programmed into the guidance systems.
Once firmly under control, the jihadi hordes will be reliable allies. We'll finally be able to give them the kind of support we've been giving them all along, but now we'll be able to do it in the open.
They are an invaluable resource in the tool kit of Empire.
We know that because Saudi Arabia has officially declared them a terrorist group. These notions don't spontaneously pop into King Abdullah's head out of nowhere.
The Brotherhood has in fact been nothing like a terror group. What the Saudi move means is that there is a bit of rebranding going on in the world 'o jihad. The al-Nusra Front and al-Qaeda have also been placed on Riyadh's Washington dictated verboten list.
This move is part and parcel of the news two days ago that most of the GCC were recalling their ambassadors from Qatar. Qatar has become the rogue state sponsoring not only the Brotherhood, but various other free-lance conglomerations of jihadis who operate outside of official US-Saudi oversight.
There was a time when Saudi money flowed freely to the many iterations of jihad terror around the Middle East and beyond. Saudi Arabia was the primariy financier of al-Qaeda for years. Bin Laden himself was financed out of Saudi Arabia.
Those days are now officially over. What brought about this U-turn?
The free-for-all in Syria. When Assad failed to follow the Washington script for regime change, random jihadi groups were given a green light to join the fray. Those myriad free-booters have proved to be well beyond the control of their financial backers, and as a result international jihad has a PR problem and their backers are pissed off.
Hence the current crack-down and consolidation.
Does the fact that Saudi Arabia has condemned al-Nusra and al-Qaeda mean we have won the war on terror?
Not at all. It means that terror groups have to buck up and do the bidding of their financial backers. No more of this random free-lance stuff where kids from Minneapolis and Winnipeg morph into "al Qaeda leaders" within six months of leaving Minneapolis and Winnipeg.
Where does that leave the Brotherhood?
The MB has been stomped on, persecuted, prosecuted, and driven underground for years. Its rise to legitimacy in Egypt and Turkey was never more than tenuous, as Morsi has found out and Erdogan will soon. It will continue as an underground organization.
Does this mean the end of al Qaeda and radical Islam? Hell no! This isn't about ending radical Islamist terror; it's about getting it under control.
Wahhabi zealots who once worked under the al-Qaeda or al-Nusra banners are simply being rebranded. Those who don't play ball and accept the US-Saudi directorship can count on a) being left out of the money & materiels supply chain, and b) finding themselves running zig-zag patterns in the desert as they try to avoid the drones with their names programmed into the guidance systems.
Once firmly under control, the jihadi hordes will be reliable allies. We'll finally be able to give them the kind of support we've been giving them all along, but now we'll be able to do it in the open.
They are an invaluable resource in the tool kit of Empire.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Russian troops in Canada?
As a matter of fact, there's nine of them here on an official exchange.
The Harper gang has just kicked them out!
What a resounding blow for democracy!
They were doing what?... teaching Russian language courses to the Canadian military?
Or learning French and English?
All things considered, would it not be a better idea to keep up with that training?
The Harper gang has just kicked them out!
What a resounding blow for democracy!
They were doing what?... teaching Russian language courses to the Canadian military?
Or learning French and English?
All things considered, would it not be a better idea to keep up with that training?
As Canada flirts with fascists swastika cartoon creates big stink
No serious person can doubt that Canada has moved well to the right under the leadership of the Harper gang.
How far?
Free trade deals with neo-fascist regimes have been the order of the day.
Just last week Foreign Minister John Baird sat down with the leader of a far right party in Ukraine that has indisputable ties to neo-fascist elements in that country.
All of which has gone more or less unnoticed in Canada and uncommented on in Canadian media.
But let an obscure small-town newspaper with a miniscule circulation publish a cartoon featuring the swastika flying over the parliament buildings, and all hell breaks loose.
Methinks we doth protest too much.
How far?
Free trade deals with neo-fascist regimes have been the order of the day.
Just last week Foreign Minister John Baird sat down with the leader of a far right party in Ukraine that has indisputable ties to neo-fascist elements in that country.
All of which has gone more or less unnoticed in Canada and uncommented on in Canadian media.
But let an obscure small-town newspaper with a miniscule circulation publish a cartoon featuring the swastika flying over the parliament buildings, and all hell breaks loose.
Methinks we doth protest too much.
NATO oopsie vaporizes Afghan Army platoon
Now that "complete withdrawal" of occupation forces that have been in Afghanistan since 2001 is looking like it might actually mean complete withdrawal, the forces of righteousness are faced with a bit of a quandry.
It's frightfully expensive to haul all their kit out of there.
It's way cheaper to just drop a half-ton Paveway somewhere in-country than ship it to Turkey or Syria or Ukraine, or God forbid, back to the US.
That may have contributed to the decision to drop one on an Afghan army unit the other day. Nobody's gonna have to pay to ship that sucker anywhere.
Besides, it's a bit of payback for all that blue on blue action the towellers have bestowed upon us these past few years.
At least it wasn't a wedding party!
And we wonder why they hate us?
It's frightfully expensive to haul all their kit out of there.
It's way cheaper to just drop a half-ton Paveway somewhere in-country than ship it to Turkey or Syria or Ukraine, or God forbid, back to the US.
That may have contributed to the decision to drop one on an Afghan army unit the other day. Nobody's gonna have to pay to ship that sucker anywhere.
Besides, it's a bit of payback for all that blue on blue action the towellers have bestowed upon us these past few years.
At least it wasn't a wedding party!
And we wonder why they hate us?
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