Was Chrystia Freeland “kicked upstairs”?

Was Chrystia Freeland “kicked upstairs”?

Yes, I do think our new Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland was recently “kicked upstairs”.  As I understand it, being “kicked upstairs” is a political phrase used when a minister is making a mess of his or her present portfolio but instead of being outright sacked is presented as being given a promotion.  And certainly Freeland was a rotten Foreign Affairs minister.  As long as Trudeau stays healthy and has excellent bodyguards I don’t think Freeland can continue to damage Canada in her new post as Deputy Prime Minister. At least not to the extent that she was dragging Canada down to meet and even surpass the American contempt for the Palestinian people and the sickening elevation of the Trump-Netanyahu Jewish state over all other considerations.

Perhaps the past election showing Trudeau’s drop of popularity in Canada and with other nations was a “woke” moment for him.  How could he maintain Canada’s reputation as a fair and balanced nation with a Foreign Affairs minister like Freeland who refused to even speak to Russian diplomats?  What kind of a Foreign Affairs Minister was she when Russia had to withdraw her diplomats from Canada because of utter lack of communication with Freeland?  So thank you, Mister Prime Minister, for doing what you had to do to get Madam Freeland out of the Foreign Affairs office.  But what is our new foreign minister like?

So far, so good.  A new page has been turned. Another reason for ousting Freeland from foreign affairs was that Trudeau wants a seat on the United Nations Security Council. He would never have had a chance for that seat with Freeland representing Canada.  But Francois–Phillippe Champagne? Ah, a more reasonable choice for Foreign Affairs.  No Russia baiting or Israeli Old Testament bible thumping here. The Centre for International Governance Innovation constructs Champagne as “not an intellectual, but an operator, someone who delivers… He (Champagne) stood out in Ottawa for his good grasp of his files, his interpersonal skills with Cabinet colleagues and his diligence in the House”.  That’s a relief. May the gods that be deliver us all from politicians like Chrystia Freeland who think they are - or act as if they are - indeed intellectuals, when actually they are ideologues. In contrast Champagne is a graduate in international law.  He was initially appointed Minister of International Trade with the important responsibility of steering Free Trade agreements with Europe, Asia-Pacific and many other countries. 

Time will tell, but I am just so happy that Trudeau, by kicking  Chrystia Freedland upstairs, has thus prevented her from further tearing apart Canada’s good reputation for being fair minded and reasonable. 

Is there Justice beyond the Grave for Jeffery Epstein’s victims? (Nov.18, 2019)

Is there Justice beyond the Grave for Jeffery Epstein’s victims? (Nov.18, 2019)

Jeffery Epstein, the notorious child rapist and suspected blackmailer who recently died in his jail cell, probably does not lie so easy in his grave.  And Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former friend, partner, and alleged madam, probably isn’t resting all that easy above ground, either. Not that anybody but her lawyers, and I suspect probably both the CIA and Mossad (Israeli intelligence), know where she is hiding out.  However, she is alive as she and her lawyers have just asked for a one month extension from a federal judge in Manhattan on a court matter.  What is this court matter?

 

Apparently, Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team has just applied for a 30-day extension as they prepare to argue that the court should not unseal documents from Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s now-settled defamation lawsuit against Maxwell. The order to release more than 2,000 previously sealed documents came from U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska in August. While Giuffre’s attorneys have fought to have significantly more pages unsealed by the court, Maxwell’s lawyers have tried to block the release of new information, arguing that the documents “do not fall under the definition of judicial documents, and therefore are not subject to the presumption of access by the public”…and that “hundreds of currently redacted non-party names may be publicly released”.

 

Well, we shall see.  The court had ordered that both parties in a previous hearing were to write letters to the judge outlining their positions by no later than Nov. 16.  Now Maxwell’s lawyers wants another month extension.  Will she get it?  Is this whole thing just a show?  Could it be that all the famous names involved and their backers have no intention of being exposed and will do just about anything to stop it?  Even murder?

The New Kid on the Block

There’s a new kid on the block called The BC Ecosocialists. It’s a new political party and bills itself as being “left of the NDP and greener than the Greens”.  This new kid speaks my language with only a few reservations.  Nothing is perfect.  But in my opinion, this party might very well have some legs.  Here’s their constitution:

 The purposes of the party are:

1. to utilize our legal status as a political party to respond to the extinction event including

   1. fielding candidates for public office with the intention of winning elections

   2. fielding candidates for public office as a means of building social movements and giving them greater voice

   3. threatening to field candidates for public office to obtain concessions from those holding state power

   4. using the electoral process to witness against the extinction event

2. to work collaboratively with social movements that also seek to arrest the extinction event

3. to participate as part of a global movement of political parties and social movement groups that

   1. seek a carbon-neutral future

   2. seek to dismantle capitalism

   3. oppose austerity

   4. oppose the global death cult that is mobilizing forces of fundamentalism, racism and nationalism to accelerate the extinction event and cause the deaths of migrants seeking to escape its consequences

4. offer an analysis of the extinction event and its causes that recognizes

   1. the synergistic interaction among forces of white supremacy, male supremacy and bourgeois supremacy to both magnify one another and accelerate the extinction event

   2. the fact that the capitalist system is driving the extinction event and that it must be dismantled rather than reformed

   3. that cultural and social practices and institutions are powerful forces that we must change in order to address the extinction event and that these forces affect and are undergirded by a material reality

5. develop public policy and seek democratic support for said policy for implementation by any government at any level recognizing

   1. the precautionary principle

   2. the recognition that ideas of “sustainable development” and “sustainability” are no longer available due to the acceleration of the climate crisis through feedback mechanisms

   3. that struggles against oppression of human beings are inextricable from the struggle to save the planet

6. work to arrest and reverse the local processes of ongoing colonization and genocide called British Columbia and Canada and seek a just relationship with First Nations

We affirm that these things are possible because we affirm

1. that human beings possess a universal common sense and, with the most basic critical thinking and literacy skills, are able to evaluate and adopt policies to address the extinction event democratically

2. our faith that humanity can acknowledge our collective danger, share the losses and rise to the occasion.

Is this new party speaking your language, too? Or at least heading in the right direction? We’ll have to find out. The BC Ecosocialists can be reached at http://www.bcecosocialist.ca.