Excited Delirium

Today, Canadians will be told whether or not the controversial TMX pipeline will be allowed to proceed.

If the answer is yes, we institutionalize the reliance of heavy tar production from Alberta. This increase in production will send us in a direction of carbon production that the rest of the country will not be able to counter-balance.

I believe our reliance on the tar sands will push us to environmental and social ruin, resulting in long-term economic catastrophe.

If the answer is no, it’ll likely result in Alberta (and possibly Saskatchewan) pushing for ‘independence’. At a bare minimum, they will continue to foster and support radical right-wing factions that will permanently drive a wedge between themselves and the rest of Canada.

This data from the World Economic Forum shows how countries around the world are acting like adults and taking the lead when it comes to ‘decarbonization’, the act of installing more renewable energy production than they consume by way of carbon and fossil fuels.

Canada actually seems to fair well, but institutionalizing the TMX pipeline and endorsing tar sands production at the expense of our environment will be a massive step backwards.

If we destroy the planet, who gives a shit about political stability?

I love this image. It sums up the Con game perfectly.

Think about this when the election hits full swing.

Well … now … apparently. Andrew Scheer and Cons are already pushing election laws by launching an array of hate propoganda months before the federal election.

And just in case you’re looking for evidence of the Con game and the implicit (and not so implicit) racism that runs through the ranks of the Cons, here’s a great list.

In the 1960s, the United States was spoiling for a fight in East Asia.

In 1964, the ‘Gulf of Tonkin’ incident gave them the justification they needed to attack and invade Vietnam. For those not familiar with the situation, please check out this background story.

The resulting disaster set the policy tone for the entire Asian region for several decades to come. And countless billions wasted on the military machine.

Since almost the same time in history, the United States is spoiling for a fight with Iran.

Ever since their revolution in the 1970s, there have been efforts to alienate Iran from the rest of the world. Attempts at embargoes have failed. They are too large and have too much oil.

Nuclear power efforts have been labelled as attempts by Iran to create nuclear weapons.

Iraq was taken down shortly after 9/11, even though perpetrators were from Saudi Arabia and others were hiding in Afghanistan.

There are some theories as to why Iran is consistently in the cross-hairs of US war hawks. I’m not informed enough to really have an opinion on this, but the group of non-central bank countries is dwindling to a mere few. Cuba, Sudan, Libya, Venezuela, Iran and North Korea have been the last holdouts.

Now it’s just Cuba, North Korea and Iran.

Yesterday’s events signal a return to the positioning of ‘THEY STRUCK FIRST’. Whether this is true or not, we’ll probably all collectively never know the real truth about who made the first move.

But know this: the US will make the NEXT move and it will be a doozy.

We can already see the Oil Barons wringing their hands, giddy with the prospect that oil prices are finally starting to climb. Even though most of the world is moving away from carbon, it’ll be a last wonderful grab at the pocket books of gas consumers everywhere.

And Canada? Maybe Justin Trudeau will back off getting involved, but with Trump in charge and Andy Smear breathing down his neck, I worry that Canada will get pulled into an incursion that we cannot afford.

Maniacs run this planet. How do we make it stop?

The Toronto Star has come out acknowledging what Justin Trudeau was also brave enough to state: what ‘we’ as white people have done to the First Nations people amounts to genocide and risks being labelled as an intentional plan to eradicate them from this continent.

As Tanya Talaga writes,

I should have realized that the inquiry’s finding that Indigenous peoples are the victims of a “race-based” genocide empowered by colonial structures would be mocked by pundits in the media.

Of course, this understanding of the wrongs ‘we’ have committed is in addition to the Commission itself and the many First Nations people that are striving to find their place in the post-colonial Canada 1,000 years after the Vikings hit the shores.

In Newfoundland, the genocide was a ‘success’. The British placed a bounty on every dead head of a Beothuk person, leading to their rapid extinction and last known survivor dying in 1829.

Today, we push alcohol, bad water, drugs and starvation on First Nations people on top of bad relocation plans and ridiculous Western religious icons to supercede their own belief systems. We STILL do it.

Sensitivity and a profound sense of humility is what is needed next.

By ALL of us.

It’s time to right the wrongs.

Admitting the problem is an important first step.

Our Prime Minister is right. Action can happen when we stop denying there’s a problem.

There are so many things we can do. To my knowledge, we don’t allow First Nations organizations to establish charitable status, so Canadians can’t even donate to them. We have to donate through other non-First Nations organizations that may wind up perpetuating the notion of genocide and separation.

Funds transferred by different levels of government always get decried as a ‘waste of taxpayers money’. We perpetuate the same stereotypes time and again. Despite this motif, we still have to find ways to get money and infrastructure to their communities.

We have to help with negotiating land claims and settlements.

We cannot ram pipelines and other resource projects down their throats, assuming that all they want is money.

Attempts to ‘educate’ yield the same results: indoctrination into Colonial ‘ideas’ and ways, interference and control.

It’s overwhelming, but we have to start to move in the correct direction so that history will see this generation as the problem solvers and not the fools who kept their heads in the sand.

This is harder to write than I thought it might be, but we need to find ways to set our First Nations friends free.

I was struck by this vote in the House of Commons the other day.

The entire House of Commons stood to recognize reproductive rights in Canada, including the right to abortion.

EXCEPT the Conservatives.

They seem to hate women having rights, including the women.

Why is this?

Why would the Cons want to emulate the worst-case scenarios in the United States, where women risk jail terms and possible capital punishment for taking care of their own bodies and economic situation?

What a fucking embarrassment for the Conservatives. They should be VERY ashamed of themselves.

And anyone that votes for them? Shame on you.