9/11 Scorecard, again

Here's a good summary of the effects of the 9/11 events on the western world:

http://www.unz.com/proberts/911-after-13-years/

and for further consideration:

http://original.antiwar.com/lucy/2014/09/12/never-learn-anything-from-911/

I'm struck by the level of ignorance, incompetence, greed, malevolence, willful blindness, political opportunism, and savagery that has been displayed by our governments in response to the 9/11 incident.

I am saddened by the degree to which our rights to privacy, freedom of association, free speech, freedom of movement, and basic rule of law have been subverted in the name of keeping us safe from the people whose resources and countries the west has been violently pillaging for over a century.

I despair over the opportunity costs that are associated with our governments' actions.  Canada has spent over $22 billion on its Afghanistan debacle.  That money could have been spent on medical research to eliminate things like malaria, leprosy, or even ebola.  It could have been used to create refineries so that the tar sands oil profits would stay within Canada and our energy independence assured for the relatively near future.  So many opportunities lost, along with our vaunted military capabilities that were dumped into the Afghan deserts.

We are behaving like stupid serfs inside an American empire.

Finally, some rational thinking about the Middle East ...

... and it is not uplifting:

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/07/22/beautiful_dream_of_israel_has_become_a_nightmare.html

Why is it that none of the loudmouth politicians/leaders who open their blood-stained mouths to justify their actions can see things as clearly as the author of the article above?

Perhaps they do ...

 ... and that is truly terrifying!

Your government is giving your country away to foreign corporations

Check out this article:

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Global-Action/Scholars-Speak-Out-Against-Troubling-Corporate-Courts-ISDS-in-TTIP

If the TIPP is signed in its current form, citizens will have no control over their own country's laws, assets, or resources but will be left to take care of all the residual damage that industries inflict on the lands in which they operate.

Wow!

John Hubbard, musician, RIP

I just learned of the death of one of my friends from Hong Kong, John Hubbard.  Here's one article:

http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1502519/blue-notes-robin-lynam

John was a great player who was also instrumental in the formation of The Discovery Bay Jazz Band (1996-1998) and introduced me to many of Hong Kong's finest players and its musical 'culture'.

I'll miss him.

Here's a pik of him with his Victoria Jazz Band at Grappa's Cellar in Hong Kong, Nov 2, 2011 when we revisited there.  Click on it to see it - in its full, grainy glory.

Chomsky clarifies the Snowden effect

Noam Chomsky reflects on what has been revealed by the Snowden documents.

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/24071-noam-chomsky-edward-snowden-the-worlds-most-wanted-criminal

Does anyone still believe that their government is working for the good of the little man?

What was won in Iraq?

Here is one version which resonates with me:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/23/iraq-the-biggest-petroleum-heist-in-history/

Big oil would seem to have a lot to answer for, according to this author.  I submit the same forces are driving many other foreign policy initiatives of the so-called western world.

The end of the republic?

If this is the case in the US, can Canada be far behind?

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/05/13/the-american-republic-is-dead/

Harper's boys have been only to happy to do everything that the US says and does so far, and I cannot conceive of them showing any restraint on his government's power grabs at this stage of the game.  Far too much money and resources still to be given to the corporations.

Another loss of our privacy, ...

... this time to the private sector that then sells the info to the government and police, and ANYBODY ELSE WHO PAYS.  Read on:

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/03/17/1756license-plate-tracking-database/

Here is how the ACLU sees this technology being marketed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZTWOL_U-OMg

It's nice to know that someone cares about what I'm doing, have done, and might do. 

Cancer harm is caused by doctors diagnosing it!

That remarkable conclusion is the sort of thing that results when people accept the reasoning described in the following article:

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/21/judge-tosses-muslim-spying-suit-nypd-saying-damages-caused-reporters-exposed/

Similarly, I suppose that someone embezzling your money causes you no harm until you become aware of the fact that the cash is gone.

More about our governments' love of free expression

Just in case you ever thought that our governments welcome debate and discussion, here's an article about recent activities designed to shield us from knowledge about the activities undertaken by taxpayer-funded organizations that claim to be working for our good:

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/18/snowden-docs-reveal-covert-surveillance-and-pressure-tactics-aimed-at-wikileaks-and-its-supporters/

A subtle thug is still a thug.

So here's how the first free trade thingy (NAFTA) panned out ...

for Canada and for workers:

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/21370-the-workers-scorecard-on-nafta

Wow!  Who would have guessed that the only beneficiaries of NAFTA would be corporations?  I bet that won't happen when the next pair of secretly negotiated free trade agreements kick in.

Your government working on your behalf (NOT!!!!)

Free Trade Pacts turn over your country to corporations

The secret negotiations being conducted wrt free trade agreements always contain what is called "investor-state" provisions which effectively mean that corporations can override any laws or regulations in any country if they might limit that corporation's possible profits.

Details are in this article:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/another-reason-hate-tpp-it-gives-big-content-new-tools-undermine-sane-digital

Some inconvenient truths about the west's involvement in Iraq

Here's a summary of what Iraq has experienced under the benevolence of the American influenced world.  Read it and be proud:

http://www.unz.com/article/the-american-legacy-in-iraq/

Canada did all it could to support this barbarity at the time, and still does to this day.  My tax dollars at work.

The usefulness of our military in Afghanistan...

has been summed up in this article:

http://www.unz.com/pcockburn/after-12-years-390bn-and-countless-dead-we-leave-poverty-fraud-and-the-taliban-in-afghanistan/

which reveals that the only thing that happened was we got to call our soldiers heroes for spending all that money to destroy an already destroyed country.  Hurray!!!  Bring on the drug lords.

Meanwhile, our own first nations do not have adequate drinking water, education or housing.  I guess the money wasted in Afghanistan would not have made any difference here at home.

Why do our politicians we not demand answers which explain why this happened?

Chris Hedges muses on the America that recently been revealed to us all

Some ideas worth considering

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/21052-chris-hedges-the-last-gasp-of-american-democracy

The same tendencies exist in Canada, Britain and most other former so-called liberal democracies in the world.

The insanity of the war on terror

Here is an article reacting to the recent LAX murder:

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/lax-shooting-not-a-random-event-110113

The extract below struck me as instructive:
 

"There is nothing "random" at all. We have chosen insanity over reason. We have done it with our eyes open. It is time for me to walk out of the airport now. I am leaving behind a terrible event. But I am not leaving behind something accidental. I am leaving behind what America has determined must happen from time to time, if we are to be a free people. I am leaving behind what America has determined is part of the cost of being an American. I am leaving behind the blood that I am told I must accept as part of the price of being a member of a free society. I am leaving behind a place of death, and I am joining my fellow citizens, as we make an odd pilgrimage out of a place that is now another altar of the blood sacrifice that I am told we must make, regularly, in order to be truly free. I am a free citizen, I am told, of the Republic of Murder, my rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Moloch."

 

Considering the trillions of dollars wasted on the war on terror over the last decade or so, why would the US not direct that money to solving the problem of gun deaths in the USA?  Certainly thousands more Americans are dead as a result of Americans 'randomly' shooting Americans than from any actual terrorists attacks.  Why are these dead people not given the same respect as the 9/11 victims?  Why has the US government taken away everyone's freedoms - the right to privacy, due process, habeus corpus, freedom from arbitrary arrest, search, seizure and even torture etc., etc.,  - in the futile attempt to reduce terrorist attacks, and yet they will not restrict anyone's right to bear arms inside the USA?

Pierce's article also reveals the depradation of the American love of freedom, when he doesn't even recognize the irony when he claims: "I am leaving behind the blood that I am told I must accept as part of the price of being a member of a free society."

 

You are no longer a member of a free society, Charles, you are living in the USA in 2013.

 

Here's why you cannot always trust the news you see, hear or read.

This little article is an important exposé of the shadowy censorship under which we all live:

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19759-wikileaks-mediastan-the-true-fifth-estate-bringing-the-first-amendment-to-the-world

The whole story is often never exposed, trivialities occupy the front page, and gross obscenities are hidden from view.

Our Government is breaking our laws

Consider this analysis of our Treaty obligations wrt spying, and we can only conclude that our government is carrying out illegal operations.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/10/martin_scheinin_u_s_u_k_surveillance_programs_violate_iccpr.html

The persecution of whistleblowers by government seems like Al Capone knocking off rival gang members.

Do you still believe in the rule of law or is the government free of such passé restraints?

Us vs Them: Where do you fit in?

Here is an interesting article by Chris Hedges that discusses how our world actually works these days:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_sparks_of_rebellion_20130930

He makes some very good observations and then presents us with the choice:  carry on into dystopia or change things so that humans can survive.

Occupy or Submit?  Your choice.

So you think bankers are your friends ...

Check out this under-reported (non-?) story from Geg Palast:

http://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo/

As Greg says:

"The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak's fantasy:  that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots to rip apart financial regulation across the planet.  When you see 26.3% unemployment in Spain, desperation and hunger in Greece, riots in Indonesia and Detroit in bankruptcy, go back to this End Game memo, the genesis of the blood and tears."