Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Waco Texas and Stephen Harper

Waco Texas and Stephen Harper

Aren’t we all glad that we don’t live in Waco, Texas?  The headlines screamed yesterday’s morning news (May 18th) in most news outlets that members of five different rival motorcycle gangs gathered in Waco Texas Sunday afternoon at a restaurant called Twin Peaks.  The result of the meeting left 9 gang members dead and 18 wounded.  165 or so of the bikers, left standing after the shooting was over, were arrested.  At this point there don’t seem to be any reports of police or non-combatants being injured.
 Why do I use the term “non-combatants” to describe the citizens who were just going about their daily business when the shootings erupted in Waco, Texas?  Isn’t “non-combatant” a term for a non- fighter participant in a war?  Yes, it is.  And that’s what we are in.  A war.  And a much bigger war than the loss of one Canadian soldier in Iraq; tragic as that was.  We’re talking about thousands of Canadian lives lost in the War on Drugs every year counting both users and sellers plus thousand more lives destroyed by crazy prison sentences for drug use or selling.  I say crazy because street drug addiction should be a medical matter.
 The War on Drugs is actually “A War on the People” of the country hosting the US War on Drugs.  The War on Drugs is a rot in the body of civil and criminal law.  In my opinion what we have seen so far of shootings over drug turf in Canada has been relatively speaking, small potatoes.  Thousands of Mexicans are trying to flee their country now because the drug war is destroying their economy and their lives.  Ditto thousands, millions of others trying to get out of their countries and desperate to escape war lords that are almost all involved with the illegal drug trade.  In parts of Mexico now the drug lords have taken over the running of entire towns and villages because the original civil infrastructure has been destroyed by gang wars.
 So far there has been no reportings of beheadings or mass graves connected with gang wars in the US or Canada, the likes of which the Mexican cartels seem to Indulge in.  But we in Canada are not immune from this same civil rot of society.   The combination of guns, drugs, corrupt politicians and banks who will gladly launder anybody’s dirty money do business here, too, but usually quietly, like good Canadians.   Prime Minister Harper destroyed the national gun register, of course, which would have been a valuable tool to combat the influx of guns into Canada, and is now trying to pass a bill that would prevent Quebec from having the records of their own provincial registry returned to them. There were previous assurances from the Harper government that this would be done.  Not only has this not been done, but it seems the RCMP has destroyed the records.  Harper’s response?  Well, he says he will just pass a bill that will make it okay for the RCMP to have destroyed Quebec’s gun records and this bill will be retroactive.   The man is a magician.  He can wave his magic wands and major laws that were previously operable in our society just cease to exist.

The longer the War on Drugs drag on means the richer the US munitions corporations get (the US is the largest maker of guns in the world) and the higher the piles of dead bodies will grow.    Paid off government officials and government hopefuls in the US vie for the American Rifle Association endorsement and money. The ARA pour huge amounts of money into the coffers of US politicians in order to fight off any kind of gun control in the US.  And of course the drug cartels love The War on Drugs and launder their obscene amounts of money in perfectly respectable North American and European banks.  So it comes back full circle to guns, drugs, corrupt politicians and banks. The War on Drugs is the biggest deadly and corrupt war going and will only get worse in the future until politicians act.  And they won’t until the people do.  And what do our own politicians have to say about The War on Drugs?  Should we ask them?

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Harper's Threats to Israel's Boycotters

Harper’s Threats to Israel’s Boycotters

Okay, let me get this straight.  Harper has announced that he and his government will severely punish anybody or any agency that signs onto the movement known as “Boycott, Divest and Sanction” (BDS). This organization, or movement, is aimed at encouraging Israel to do the right thing and stop treating its own Arab citizens as well as its Arab neighbours like dirt.  One way to do this is by boycotting Israel’s products and investments.  However, so far Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, backed up 200 per cent by our own Prime Minister says the BDS constitutes hate speech against Israel.  Furthermore, Netanyahu has pledged to continue with his practice of apartheid within Israel as well as the murderous methodical bombing of the Gaza strip (mowing the grass, as Netanyahu reportedly called it) whenever he feels it is warranted.  And Stephen Harper has pledged to Netanyahu that any Canadian who objects publically to this apartheid of Palestinians, and bombing of Gaza, especially by joining the BDS movement, will be prosecuted criminally by his government.  Harper says there will be zero tolerance for anyone who dares support BDS.  And that he will use Canadian hate crime legislation to back up his threats.

The man is precious.  He really is. Talk about illusions of grandeur. But we Canadians deserve this kind of treatment from a man who fits the description of a megalomaniac.  We just let him roll over us like a duck on the back of a June Bug.  Why?  Because we can’t believe how devious and delusional our Prime Minister actually is.  And how much he is guided by his Angelical Fundamentalist Christian Religion. Harper loves Israel so much that he took twenty-one Jewish rabbis’ with him to visit Israel last year along with along with ten evangelical ministers of Harper’s own religious persuasion.   Christian fundamentalists like Harper believe the Bible literally, including the book of Revelations.  This Biblical revelation explains that Jesus will return to earth when Israel is at war with its neighbours (Jews being God’s chosen people).  I believe this is the main reason Harper is so determined to get us into a deeper war in the Middle East.    Never mind that the Canadian economy is getting scarier every day, with Canadians living on credit cards, student debt crippling our young, housing out of sight for city populations, climbing unemployment and the stock market roaring not from increased Canadian production, but from corporations buying back their own stock to make the market prices rise even higher for the one per cent.


 I think we Canadians should demand a mental health test for all politicians when they become candidates for high public office.  And that would include an examination of religious beliefs.  Religious fundamentalists of any kind should be excluded from high public office.  Fundamentalist religions of any kind can make people crazy and give them the conviction that because they belong to the right sect that they are the special children of a powerful god and others are, well, dirt. Evidentially Stephen Harper considers the general Canadian population to be so stupid that we can be told anything and we’ll obey.  I don’t know about you, but for my part, I intend to find out pronto where I go to join the “Boycott, Divest, Sanction” (BDS) movement.