What's Happening Here?

"Something has shifted in Israeli discourse. Dehumanization sets in insidiously, not just of the Other but of oneself." Rick Salutin

"Earlier this week, PEN became the latest charity to face a massive tax audit as part of a sweeping clampdown that appears aimed at intimidating groups critical of the Harper government ... (joining) Amnesty International, the David Suzuki Foundation, Canada Without Poverty, the United Church and other groups, that having criticized an array of Harper policies, have been obliged to devote precious resources to defending themselves from a special probe of charities ordered by the Harper government." Linda McQuaig

"As First Nations prepare to take legal action against the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, an alliance of B.C. residents and non-governmental organizations has launched a grassroots fundraising initiative that aims to help First Nations cover their legal expenses." Emily Fister

“Green Mama” (written by Manda Aufochs Gillespie and sold out before the US launch date) is a how-to book, but it’s also a manifesto of sorts: a manifesto declaring that no corporation or manufacturer is the boss of you, and that you have more control over the development of your family than an advertise-and-buy economy would have you believe." Jordan Yerman

"Islamic State (Isis), the al-Qaida offshoot that seized large swathes of northern Iraq last month, has warned women in the city of Mosul to wear full-face veils or risk severe punishment." The Guardian

Canada-EU free trade deal to be rejected by Germany: "Citing diplomats in Brussels, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that Berlin objects to clauses outlining the legal protection offered to firms investing in the 28-member bloc. Critics say they could allow investors to stop or reverse laws." CBC

Broken Ground

image from frackingcanada.ca

"Canada lacks environmental protections enjoyed by similar nations around the world. We’re at or near the bottom in many rankings of wealthy, industrialized countries, placing 24th out of 25 on environmental performance indicators in a recent survey of Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries."  says David Suzuki, brokenground.ca

His article about the families who moved to Alberta reveals the sudden changes to their lives when oil drilling began, and within three years found themselves and their farms and homes surrounded by more than 100 rigs - without any stakeholder engagement. 

Globally the nightmare is magnified. Michael Klare writes in Twenty-First-Century Energy Wars (which first appeared in TomDispatch and now appears on Bill Moyers' site) "Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, South Sudan, Ukraine, the East and South China Seas: wherever you look, the world is aflame with new or intensifying conflicts. At first glance, these upheavals appear to be independent events, driven by their own unique and idiosyncratic circumstances. But look more closely and they share several key characteristics — notably, a witch’s brew of ethnic, religious and national antagonisms that have been stirred to the boiling point by a fixation on energy." 

Klare points out that "control over oil and gas ... translates into geopolitical clout for some and economic vulnerability for others." 

So our hunger for power has made us pawns in the wars over non-renewable resources and we may end up like those nations breaking under brutality and injustice, siding with whichever tribe we identify with for the spoils. If we continue to believe that "jobs and the economy" means jobs for us and a better economy for us, we only have ourselves to blame. 

The Importance of Being Albert

Albert Einstein (credit Lucien Chavan public domain)

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Albert Einstein


"Our failure of imagination regarding the ever-increasing production and use of fossil fuels will, over time, kill billions of us and irreversibly change all life on the planet. It is a failure of imagination not at a policy level but at the level of civilization. It’s not a lack of knowledge – we have a staggering amount of information and analysis, a frightening compendium of what we are doing to ourselves and every other species on the planet. We keep piling it on, study after study, dire warning after dire warning, irrefutable science, actual evidence of melting ice-caps, the virtually unprecedented level of agreement on the part of science about where we are headed. Additional information is already hitting up against the principle of diminishing returns."

Murray Dobbin

First Nations hold final 'healing walk' in oilsands

"For the fifth year straight, we will smell the crude oil and toxic plumes, especially if the wind 

pushes back south. Some walkers, as in past years, will be forced to stop walking due to 

breathing difficulties or bloody noses.  We will walk at ground zero of the oilands, surrounded 

by vast oil sands mines."


By Eriel Deranger, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, for CBC News Posted: Jun 27, 2014 10:41 

AM ET


Read the full article here

Acronyms

CETA: Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement
TTIP: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
NGO: Non-governmental Organization
ISDS: Investor State Dispute Settlement
EC: European Commission
EU: European Union
NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement
CCPA: Canadian Council for Policy Alternatives
TTP: Transpacific Trade Partnership


Thanks to the Canadian Council for Policy Alternatives I am creating a list of acronyms as a quick resource to help me understand policy and political blogs.

Misogyny

But, said Tahir, militarism and its impact on women is “not specific to Pakistan.” Even the U.S. Pentagon’s own report found that violent sex crimes committed by active U.S. Army soldiers have increased by 50 percent, reflecting a rate that is far higher than in the general population. “When Pakistani men commit such crimes,” said Tahir, “it’s called ‘honor killings,’ and we condemn entire cultures for it.” But “when it’s Western men who commit such crimes we tend to look for psychological explanations.” So, the Isla Vista killer, Elliot Rodger, was described as a “troubled kid with high-functioning Asperger’s syndrome,” and U.S. soldiers committing sex crimes are seen through the lens of post-traumatic stress disorder from the battlefield.  

Sonali Kolhatkar, Truthdig

Plutonomics

"Ajay Kapur, global strategist at Citigroup, and his research team came up with the term “Plutonomy” in 2005 to describe a country that is defined by massive income and wealth inequality. According to their definition, the U.S. is a Plutonomy, along with the U.K., Canada and Australia." Robert Franks. 

Read more here.
Read Edward Fullbrook here. 
Or rational wiki here.

In France, the U.K., and the U.S., the share of total income currently appropriated by capital is thirty per cent. The top 0.1 per cent of income earners own twenty per cent of wealth. The top one per cent own 40 per cent. The top ten per cent own 80 to 90 per cent. The bottom 50 per cent own a mere five per cent of wealth.

Al Engler - Capitalism actually widens economic disparity, rabb.ca.