"In 2011 the five largest oil companies made $137 billion"
Monday, June 18, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Omnibus Scandalbus
Recently Canadians have begun to take notice of the Harper Conservatives' tactic of piling dozens or hundreds of pieces of legislation into one supersized bill, so that most of what is in it slips under the radar of public scrutiny and accountability. Much of the content of this legislation goes unnoticed and undebated, as has been well documented in the case of the 2012 omnibus budget bill, for example.
What many of us haven't noticed, unfortunately, is that they have brought this same tactic into play in another sphere of politics. This would be the always fertile branch of creative corruption and scandals.
Rather than throw all their transgressions and wrongdoings into one or two baskets, such as the Liberals or previous Conservative governments have done, so that the opposition can yammer on about them for years or decades, the Harper Cons have perfected an excellent new strategy.
The new strategy is called the "Omnibus Scandalbus". The Omnibus Scandalbus has room for all the Conservative MPs to ride in luxurious comfort (no need to upgrade your seat, Bev Oda!), while reflective windows and tight security protect the MPs from any prying curiosity seekers or journalists.
All questions for any passengers, from accredited stylists and party enthusiasts, are to be submitted a month in advance and will answered by a professional bus driver most knowledgeable in right turns and obstructions.
The Omnibus Scandalbus is a highly efficient means of scandal management pioneered by Harper's brilliant strategists, enabling the Conservative government to ride in air-conditioned comfort, while, all around outside, the cacophony of a supersized gaggle of scandals fades into the innocuous hum of background noise.
What many of us haven't noticed, unfortunately, is that they have brought this same tactic into play in another sphere of politics. This would be the always fertile branch of creative corruption and scandals.
Rather than throw all their transgressions and wrongdoings into one or two baskets, such as the Liberals or previous Conservative governments have done, so that the opposition can yammer on about them for years or decades, the Harper Cons have perfected an excellent new strategy.
The new strategy is called the "Omnibus Scandalbus". The Omnibus Scandalbus has room for all the Conservative MPs to ride in luxurious comfort (no need to upgrade your seat, Bev Oda!), while reflective windows and tight security protect the MPs from any prying curiosity seekers or journalists.
All questions for any passengers, from accredited stylists and party enthusiasts, are to be submitted a month in advance and will answered by a professional bus driver most knowledgeable in right turns and obstructions.
The Omnibus Scandalbus is a highly efficient means of scandal management pioneered by Harper's brilliant strategists, enabling the Conservative government to ride in air-conditioned comfort, while, all around outside, the cacophony of a supersized gaggle of scandals fades into the innocuous hum of background noise.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Japan PM to Restart Nuclear "Under Intense Pressure from Banks"
The PM of Japan has approved restarting nuclear reactors despite public opinion running at over 70% against the move.
According to this report in Bloomberg, the decision was taken under "intense pressure from banks". With the peak summer season approaching, there has been concern that electricity shortages could result in slowdowns at factories.
Meanwhile, there are new reports of radiation entering the global food chain from the Fukushima disaster.
Procedures to restart reactors are said to be beginning immediately.
According to this report in Bloomberg, the decision was taken under "intense pressure from banks". With the peak summer season approaching, there has been concern that electricity shortages could result in slowdowns at factories.
Meanwhile, there are new reports of radiation entering the global food chain from the Fukushima disaster.
Procedures to restart reactors are said to be beginning immediately.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Quebec tuition fees among the highest in the world
Surprise, surprise! As usual, the media has been giving us the wrong dope.
This time, it's the intrepretation fed to us by the corporate media regarding the student "strike" in Quebec that has been going on for the past few months.
From the very beginning, our media, even the CBC, has
entirely ignored the details of the students' position, to the extent that most
of us, myself included, have been led to believe that they are probably
being unreasonable. Rebels without a cause, as Jacques Villeneuve called
them.
That's because, as the media has repeated dozens if not
hundreds or thousands of times, that "Quebec already has the lowest
tuition fees in Canada / North America" by far.
What the media has failed to deliever is a
comprehensive comparison of our tuition fees with those in other
countries besides the U.S.
I myself tried to look up this info and did find that
one or two Scandanavian countries have nominal tuition fees. But I
didn't readily find anything about our major G8 partners like France and
Germany.
Finally, a day or two ago, the following link was included with a CBC story (120 or so days into the student strike):
I also found another so-called comparison today ~ this
also looks like a "promo" for charging higher tuition fees, but the
reality of low tuition fees in may countries is evident:
So, bottom line, it turns out that the vast majority of
developed countries in the world have tuition fees that are much lower
even than Quebec's. Only the U.K. and a couple of other countries around
Europe have tuition fees anywhere near as high as ours.
It is a known and proven fact that higher tuition fees
work as a deterrent to low and middle class individuals pursuing an
education (everyone's "I put myself through college..." stories
notwithstanding)
So, what about it? Despite the extremely skewed
presentation of the situation our media gives us, it seems that the
Quebec students at least have a sound basis on which they are making
their demands.
As a sidebar, we already know what a failure the U.S.
profit-driven healthcare system is. U.S. healthcare costs being anywhere
from 50-100% higher than all other countries, yet their life expectancy
is substantially lower than Canada and many other developed countries.
Perhaps we need to rethink our approach to higher education?
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Could Someone Bring Down e-Commerce?
Is it possible to prevent technology from running out of control?
Is it already out of control?
It may be that we won't know the answers to those questions before it is too late.
Case in point:
Do a google search for "Accept PP/CreditCard ,One World One Price", in quotes.
This will bring up 100,000s into the millions of results.
Every single result is another page or profile of an extremely dubious (to give the benefit of the doubt) selling site. The sites in question contain thousands of pages of copyrighted material listed for sale without the knowledge of the copyright owners, complete with famous logos, icons and trade names of numerous familiar and reassuring corporations and e-commerce entities. The sites include a mind-boggling array of domain names and sub-domains, some of them, at least, indicating (or appearing) that they utilize a well-known new generation domain name server that is known for secure hosting features. Each individual site contains a number of confidence building features, right down to a phony online chat window that says something like "Mandy Johnson is standing by to answer your questions".
The activities of this site have come to the forefront because of apparent unauthorized use of thousands of pages of material from one high profile e-commerce site in particular, although there could be any number of other transgressions.
The concerning part about this is the apparent automated duplication of the site over massive numbers of domains and sub-domains. It is presumed that, if the site is indeed illegitimate, it will eventually be closed one way or another.
But the question must be asked, what if someone, with access to near-free labour, decided to pull a scam in this same spirit ~ but actually did a better job of it? What if they built it to be really convincing and created a thousand or a million clones simultaneously?
Is it already out of control?
It may be that we won't know the answers to those questions before it is too late.
Case in point:
Do a google search for "Accept PP/CreditCard ,One World One Price", in quotes.
This will bring up 100,000s into the millions of results.
Every single result is another page or profile of an extremely dubious (to give the benefit of the doubt) selling site. The sites in question contain thousands of pages of copyrighted material listed for sale without the knowledge of the copyright owners, complete with famous logos, icons and trade names of numerous familiar and reassuring corporations and e-commerce entities. The sites include a mind-boggling array of domain names and sub-domains, some of them, at least, indicating (or appearing) that they utilize a well-known new generation domain name server that is known for secure hosting features. Each individual site contains a number of confidence building features, right down to a phony online chat window that says something like "Mandy Johnson is standing by to answer your questions".
The activities of this site have come to the forefront because of apparent unauthorized use of thousands of pages of material from one high profile e-commerce site in particular, although there could be any number of other transgressions.
The concerning part about this is the apparent automated duplication of the site over massive numbers of domains and sub-domains. It is presumed that, if the site is indeed illegitimate, it will eventually be closed one way or another.
But the question must be asked, what if someone, with access to near-free labour, decided to pull a scam in this same spirit ~ but actually did a better job of it? What if they built it to be really convincing and created a thousand or a million clones simultaneously?
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Quebec Total Ban on Fracking as USGS Links it to Earthquakes
Last Tuesday the Quebec environment minister announced an absolute ban on fracking while the process is studied.
That move is looking like a stroke of genius today, as the U.S. Geological Survey is releasing a report showing an unprecedented increase in earthquakes occurring in the U.S. heartland.
The study identifies a six-fold increase of magnitude 3.0 or higher quakes that has occurred since 2001 in the U.S. heartland. Significantly, the scientists say that the cause of the increase in seismic activity is almost certainly manmade.
Quebec has been shown to have significant natural gas reserves in the St. Lawrence Valley that could potentially be accessed using the fracking technique. The process involes horizontal drilling and underground blasting with high pressure mixtures of waste water and chemicals to release gas trapped in shale formations..
There has been a moratorium in effect in Quebec since last March. However the new ban will include even experimental fracking designed to test the process. Testing will now occur only in the lab.
Last month, a series of small earthquakes in Ohio was blamed on fracking.
That move is looking like a stroke of genius today, as the U.S. Geological Survey is releasing a report showing an unprecedented increase in earthquakes occurring in the U.S. heartland.
The study identifies a six-fold increase of magnitude 3.0 or higher quakes that has occurred since 2001 in the U.S. heartland. Significantly, the scientists say that the cause of the increase in seismic activity is almost certainly manmade.
Quebec has been shown to have significant natural gas reserves in the St. Lawrence Valley that could potentially be accessed using the fracking technique. The process involes horizontal drilling and underground blasting with high pressure mixtures of waste water and chemicals to release gas trapped in shale formations..
There has been a moratorium in effect in Quebec since last March. However the new ban will include even experimental fracking designed to test the process. Testing will now occur only in the lab.
Last month, a series of small earthquakes in Ohio was blamed on fracking.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Wildrose Tainted by Association with Harperism?
Danielle Smith: A wildflower blooming virtuous and free on the Prairie...
or a programed-from-youth apparatchik of big oil corporatocracy and U.S. Republicanism?
A legitimate enough question.
If only it were the only question.
The problem for Wildrose is that the federal Conservatives are not only their ideological "soulmates". The Conservatives also now stand accused of crimes against Canada: perpetrating election fraud in ridings across the country, and deliberately misleading Parliament on the question of procuring billions of dollars worth of fighter jets.
The links, ties and parallels between Wildrose and the federal Conservatives run broad and deep and are well described in yesterday's Globe and Mail article by Gary Mason, even if it only scratches the surface.
University of Calgary political science professor Tom Flanagan, who has served as a mentor for both Danielle Smith and Stephen Harper, is the same guy who called for the assassination of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. (and later "withdrew" the comment)
Flanagan also wrote two books on property rights (Theories of Property: Aristotle to the Present and Beyond the Indian Act: Restoring Aboriginal Property Rights). Danielle Smith founded the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute and worked as an advocate for Alberta rural landowners.
Flanagan played a major role in Harper's rise to power and is now the campaign manager for Wildrose's provincial election campaign.
So let's get this straight. The same guy who called for Julian Assange's assassination is philosophically somewhere near the heart of the "libertarianism" subscribed to by Danielle Smith. Awesome!
Wildrose's rise in the polls over the past couple of years is beyond remarkable. How does this information react with what we now know about the Harper Conservatives' ethical approach to influencing an electorate?
Harper's Conservatives, who also got their start as a "breath of fresh air" from the Prairies, are now mired in such a quagmire of election fraud, misleading Parliament and misspending of hundreds of millions of dollars, that the mere adventures of a Bruce Carson fly totally under the radar!
Given the close ties, philosophical similarities, familiar faces, geographical location, shared causes and power bases, etc., between Wildrose and the Harper Conservatives, the question must be asked: Does Wildrose respect ethical standards? Does Wildrose believe in democracy and the Canadian Parliamentary tradition? How far is Wildrose willing to go to win power? What will they really do with that power?
Is this potentially a case of guilt or smear by association? Or is association too loose a term to describe the ties between Wildrose and Harperism?
or a programed-from-youth apparatchik of big oil corporatocracy and U.S. Republicanism?
A legitimate enough question.
If only it were the only question.
The problem for Wildrose is that the federal Conservatives are not only their ideological "soulmates". The Conservatives also now stand accused of crimes against Canada: perpetrating election fraud in ridings across the country, and deliberately misleading Parliament on the question of procuring billions of dollars worth of fighter jets.
The links, ties and parallels between Wildrose and the federal Conservatives run broad and deep and are well described in yesterday's Globe and Mail article by Gary Mason, even if it only scratches the surface.
University of Calgary political science professor Tom Flanagan, who has served as a mentor for both Danielle Smith and Stephen Harper, is the same guy who called for the assassination of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. (and later "withdrew" the comment)
Flanagan also wrote two books on property rights (Theories of Property: Aristotle to the Present and Beyond the Indian Act: Restoring Aboriginal Property Rights). Danielle Smith founded the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute and worked as an advocate for Alberta rural landowners.
Flanagan played a major role in Harper's rise to power and is now the campaign manager for Wildrose's provincial election campaign.
So let's get this straight. The same guy who called for Julian Assange's assassination is philosophically somewhere near the heart of the "libertarianism" subscribed to by Danielle Smith. Awesome!
Wildrose's rise in the polls over the past couple of years is beyond remarkable. How does this information react with what we now know about the Harper Conservatives' ethical approach to influencing an electorate?
Harper's Conservatives, who also got their start as a "breath of fresh air" from the Prairies, are now mired in such a quagmire of election fraud, misleading Parliament and misspending of hundreds of millions of dollars, that the mere adventures of a Bruce Carson fly totally under the radar!
Given the close ties, philosophical similarities, familiar faces, geographical location, shared causes and power bases, etc., between Wildrose and the Harper Conservatives, the question must be asked: Does Wildrose respect ethical standards? Does Wildrose believe in democracy and the Canadian Parliamentary tradition? How far is Wildrose willing to go to win power? What will they really do with that power?
Is this potentially a case of guilt or smear by association? Or is association too loose a term to describe the ties between Wildrose and Harperism?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
