What have Canadian sanctions on Venezuela oil got to do with
the rise in the price of Canadian gasoline?
Isn’t this rise just a normal kind of pre-summer scalping that we endure
every year? No, this time is
different. This time the price gouging
has to do with the very nature of oil, and the nature of the oil sanctions
imposed by the US.
There are two kinds of oil: light sweet and heavy sweet
crude. The US has lots of light sweet,
but must import the heavy sweet crude to mix with their own lighter crude to meet
IMO (International Maritime Organization) standards. Guess who formally supplied the US with most
of this valuable mix. Why, Venezuela and
Iran, of course. Iran is also considered in drastic
need of a regime change by the US war hawks and may not have to wait long for
their turn of the screw. In the
meantime, because of the difficultly of the existing sanctions already put on
Venezuela by the US and by Canada, heavy oil is at a premium. This puts pressure on the price of gasoline
and Canadian gas pumps, as well as American ones, will increasingly reflect
this pressure in the coming months. In my opinion Canadians are going to pay in
more ways than one for slapping sanctions on Venezuela. There is another irony…we are sitting here in
Canada with an enormous amount of heavy crude (the oil sands) but no delivery
systems. If so many people weren’t suffering by these sanctions on Venezuela,
and increasingly in Canada, I would almost laugh at the pompous, arrogant US
war hawks. As both US Republicans and Democrats agreed to these sanctions I think
the “Land of the Free” as a whole is nursing vipers in its bosom. And Trudeau
is trying his very best to join that club of vipers.
Of course, this title is sarcasm. When Jody Wilson-Raybold and Jane Philpott vanished
from Trudeau’s cabinet I think they left a serious integrity void in that make-believe
feminist stronghold. Integrity means not
accepting bad ideas when you know they are bad ideas, or try to pretend you
know something when you don’t. Like our
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland. She speaks with such authority and more
than a little righteous indignation when setting us all straight about Venezuela
and President Maduro. She says Maduro is
an evil dictator and this is why Canada must throw our weight behind the US
demand for regime change there. Regime change that must be done in order to
help save the poor suffering people of Venezuela.
I don’t buy it. And I
don’t think a lot of other Canadians do, either. Many of us think it’s about
Venezuela’s extensive oil fields. But no, Freeland insists, it’s about the poor
suffering people there. That’s why
Canada has had to slap on more sanctions, along with the Americans, against Venezuela.
To ramp up the suffering of Venezuelans. Venezuelans will evidentially have to
suffer a great deal for snubbing Trump’s choice for president of Venezuela, and
for refusing to kick out Maduro. They
must be taught that Donald Trump is president of the entire world. In my
opinion this is rather like a man starving a dog over an extended period of time
and then deciding to shoot the dog because he looks so bad. Especially when the
dog, even with his ribs sticking out, has been guarding the oil.
Donald Trump and his
enforcers covet this oil.
Enforcers? Who are they? The men who surround Trump and threaten the
rest of the world. They act like
enforcers act everywhere they are…do this or that or we will break your legs
and maybe kill you and your mother. Then we will sow your fields with salt. Or something of this nature. These men are in
the news constantly making enforcer threats, Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and
Elliot Abrams. They all love to bully
from the pulpit of the Pentagon with the knowledge of the full weight of
American fire power behind them. Experienced enforcers all, they never met a
plundering war for booty they didn’t like.
Mike Pence, US vice president is somewhat less seen before the cameras,
but certainly joins in the aspirations of the rest. His Evangelical religion allows for constant
wars before the rapture can descend. Especially wars concerning Israel. Netanyahu
is an honorary cheerleader of the enforcer’s club. He depends on Trump’s enforcers to back him
up while he uses live ammunition on the Palestinian protesters claiming the
right of return, and bemoaning Trump’s seeming hesitation to begin bombing
Iran. Sure, they are all up for bombing
Iran. They all hate Iran. But first, they dream of sacking Venezuela.
Freeland, in Canada’s name, recognizes as president of Venezuela
a brash young man who goes by the name title of Juan Guido, President of Venezuela. President of Venezuela? Who elected him
president? Nobody in Venezuela. Except himself. He elected himself. But I don’t think it was
really his own idea. As brash and pompous
as he is, he would not have done such a thing, or even thought of it, were he
not totally sure of powerful forces behind him that could bring such a plan to
fruition. He was introduced to the world
as interim president of Venezuela by the residing President of the World,
Donald Trump. Our Prime Minister, Justin
Trudeau, almost fell over his own feet to be the first to follow suit. Of
course our Minister of Foreign Affairs tries to make more sanctions against
Venezuelans sound like a sweet, womanly thing she is doing to help the Venezuelan
people. In my opinion, Chrystia Freeland
is dumber than a stick about Venezuela. In
reality, by doing her bit to try to force regime change in Venezuela she is serving
Trump and his enforcers, not Canadians. Next time…oil, class and race in Venezuela,
why Maduro is holding on, and why Canadians are paying more for gas.
As I write this there are riots in the streets of Ecuador
protesting the arrest of Julian Assange.
Thank the human will to find the good and the free, wherever it lives, that
there are people in the streets somewhere protesting the threatened demise of
freedom of speech. But nothing from
Canada. Nada. Not a peep of concern for Freedom of speech
here. Trudeau obviously must abide by directions
from Trump. He seems to tremble in fear
of being severely chastised by Trump once again. When rebuked for even bringing
up the subject of gender balance while in trade discussions, Trump called
Trudeau “weak”. Trudeau cowered like a
whipped puppy. I doubt Trudeau will ever mention gender equality again to the
Americans, especially when discussing with Trump what Canada should do about any given issue to put Trudeau
policies more in line with the US
agenda.
Nevertheless, with
the arrest of Assange we are all in danger of letting what is left of our right
to freedom of speech slip away. This
danger is omnipresent. We hear it in all
directions. From Israel we hear their demands that any criticism of Israel should
be labelled as hate crime. Furthermore, Israel
insists the US government must adhere to Israel’s further demand that every
state government in the US must require signatures of promises not to join or
sympathize with the BDS movement before they give out state contracts. The BDS
movement calls for a boycott of Israeli goods until Israel stops tormenting the
Palestinians to death. But Trumps loves
Netanyahu. He seems willing to give
Netanyahu all he wants to prove his heart felt devotion, he will give away land
(the Golan Heights) that doesn’t belong to Trump or Netanyahu, change embassy
locations, support continuous Israel settlements on other Palestinian lands
(the West Bank) that doesn’t belong to either of them, and support the shooting
of unarmed protestors with live ammunition. Yes, I know that the young Palestinians
are throwing sticks and stones but that doesn’t compute with live ammunition. Another thing that chokes me is that Netanyahu
has been able to seduce Trump into forcing Americans to defile and reject their
own Constitution…the first Amendment anchors freedom of speech as vital to American
freedom. It reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, of prohibiting the free exercise therefor; or abridging the freedom
of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition government for a redress of grievances”.
And what does the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
say about freedom of speech? In section 2:
“Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: a. freedom of
conscience and religion; b. freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression,
including freedom of the press and other media of communication; c. freedom of
peaceful assembly; and d. freedom of association”. Sounds wonderful, right? Then why have we been made so fearful of our
own rules and laws? Scared, like little
mice, to speak up, to riot in the streets as the Ecuadorians are doing to try
to save their rights to free speech, as well as those of Julian Assange and
Chelsea Manning.
We all need freedom of speech. To try to make some speech criminal according
to who is doing the speaking is not freedom.
It is state censorship. If I
criticize Israel I am called anti-Semitic.
If I find fault in Islam’s treatment of women I am labeled an Islamophobe.
If I find fault with Christianity,
especially what I call the toxic fundamentalist kind that needs war (especially
a great world destroying one) so that the “rapture” will descend upon them, I
am told I shouldn’t say such things, or else I’m called names. My point is that all of these religious leaders
think they have the one true, correct message straight from a higher power and
if we don’t agree we will be severely punished.
These religious organizations all affect governments. They affect how our laws are made, what our
values are considered to be, what is taught in our schools. They must be discussed
in open forums and to do this we must be able to say what we think of the
world, how it is being formed, what is happening to the climate, what all
of the never ending wars are really
about, and what is happening to the evolution of the human species. We cannot do this without freedom of speech
and association. Julian Assange and Chelsea
Manning are my heroes. I am very happy
to see they are also considered heroes by many people in Ecuador. It is
wonderful to know that these people, so far from us, recognize that freedom of
speech is necessary to human life. I
hope these Ecuadorians take good care of themselves. We need them as examples of people yearning
for freedom who are strong enough to put their lives on the line.
