March 2014

11 February 2014 — The US postal service inspector general put out a report recently suggesting an intriguing way to shore up the ailing institution’s finances: Let the mailman double as a bank teller.

The plan? The post office would offer services designed to appeal to America’s unbanked and under-banked — the more than 50 million adults who either have no checking or savings account, or use high-cost, predatory services like payday loans to supplement traditional banking needs.

This sounds like a win-win. Americans — particularly low-income Americans — clearly need greater access to low-cost financial services. At the same time, many financial institutions have been complaining for years that providing banking services to low-income Americans is costing them money. So much so that they can barely bring themselves to open bank branches in anything less than well-heeled neighborhoods.

Surely, they would embrace any plan that could help rid them of these undesirable customers, while offering a new-found opportunity to make money. (More)

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24 February 2014 — As the Euromaidan protests in the Ukrainian capitol of Kiev culminated this week, displays of open fascism and neo-nazi extremism became too glaring to ignore. Since demonstrators filled the downtown square to battle Ukrainian riot police and demand the ouster of the corruption-stained, pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich, it has been filled with far-right streetfighting men pledging to defend their country’s ethnic purity.

White supremacist banners and Confederate flags were draped inside Kiev’s occupied City Hall, and demonstrators have hoisted Nazi SS and white power symbols over a toppled memorial to V.I. Lenin. After Yanukovich fled his palatial estate by helicopter, EuroMaidan protesters destroyed a memorial to Ukrainians who died battling German occupation during World War II. Sieg heil salutes and the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol have become an increasingly common site in Maidan Square, and neo-Nazi forces have established “autonomous zones” in and around Kiev. (More)

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24 February 2014 — Budget days should be days when Canadians are encouraged to imagine the possibilities for one of the richest countries in the world. Not the possibilities of the shopping mall or the offerings of Netflix, but the possibilities of building — or rebuilding — community.

At its best, that is what government is supposed to be about.

But the last eight budgets have been about smothering the national dream of prosperity and equality by systematically starving the federal government.

The outrageous tax cuts of the Harper government (and the Liberals' before that) have had one purpose: to dramatically reduce the role of government while redefining Canadian citizens increasingly as consumers.

It doesn't have to be this way. We know from years of polling and focus groups that Canadians have a strong and resilient attachment to the idea of activist government -- of doing things together. By significant majorities of two thirds or more they even say they would pay more taxes to get the things they want and need. But only if they can get the elephant out of the room -- the elephant being the profound level of public distrust of government. (More)

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The neo-cons in control of Washington, followed faithfully by Me-Too Harper and their attack dogs, the so-called mainstream media, are working hard to hammer the last nail into the coffin of democracy. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would establish a 'free trade' zone that would include all of the Pacific rim countries with their '.18 cents-an-hour' pay scale and thereby drive down the wages and salaries that North Americans have enjoyed since the economic bonanza of World War ll. If TPP is ratified then corporate power will be able to take court action against nation states making decisions that are in their exclusive interests. Countries like Canada and the United States will be subject to the the will and whim of unelected business power brokers who have only their narrow self-interests in mind.

 

 

The romance of a free and critical media is foundering on the rock of reality. With rare and to-be-treasured exceptions, the mainstream media continues to present itself as a propaganda machine for the corporate interests and their Washington yes-men. Prior to the Sochi Winter Olympics, there was a blaring campaign to malign the Olympics — everything from gay rights to exploding toothpaste tubes. Olympic stars, especially American, expressed their dismay at how the media had misinformed them about Sochi. There was no discrimination. Night clubs with men dancing in women's clothes were wide open. We'll never know how many didn't go to Sochi because of the media terror campaign.

 

 

President Obama's brief statement on the Ukraine was an example of how far the man has fallen from his 2008 political posturing. In essence he warned Russia against involving itself in The Ukraine. This, after Victoria Nuland, Washington assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, and Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine, exposed themselves as heavily involved in regime change there. Senator John McCain was there more than once encouraging the violence of the street gangs. Victoria Nuland revealed that the US had spent $5 billion in the Ukraine to effect regime change. When the issue of spending $20 million a year toward regime change in Venezuela came to the attention of John Kerry, his only response was, are we getting our money's worth? Then this gang of hypocrites has the gall to tell Russia to stay out of The Ukraine. They have no shame.

 

 

Don't hold your breath waiting for Obama to nix the Keystone XL Pipeline. Why he's holding back is not clear. Maybe he's waiting until the dust settles after 2014 elections. But he will approve it (I hope I'm proven wrong) because behind the smokescreen of his 2008 election campaign for president, there were clear signs that he was a false messenger beholden to corporate power and his own self interests.

 

For your reading satisfaction, if not pleasure, please peruse this informative issue of True North Perspective and True North Humanist Perspective.

 

Meanwhile, take it easy, but take it.

 

Looking forward

 

Carl Dow

 

 

 

27 February 2014 — There was always a measure of hypocrisy but Official Washington used to at least pretend to stand for “democracy,” rather than taking such obvious pleasure in destabilizing elected governments, encouraging riots, overturning constitutional systems and then praising violent putsches.

But events in Ukraine and Venezuela suggest that the idea of respecting the results of elections and working within legal, albeit flawed, political systems is no longer in vogue, unless the “U.S. side” happens to win, of course. If the “U.S. side” loses, then it’s time for some “shock doctrine.” And, of course, the usual demonizing of the “enemy” leader.

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28 February 2014 — Forty-one years ago, when I used to get up at 5 a.m. to get on gas station lines with my parents, I started hearing about "energy independence" — a secure source of supply for our energy needs. Today, energy independence soon will be a reality.

For China. Thanks to the Keystone XL pipeline.

Q. Cui bono? ("Who benefits?") A. China.

The Chinese economy consists of taking raw materials and energy, making that into stuff, and then selling that stuff — a/k/a "manufacturing." Chinese leaders understand that in order for that model to work, China needs steady supplies of raw materials and energy. By how do you get a steady supply of energy, in a world where those supplies are dominated by a cartel, and are concentrated in a part of the world prone to war? In America, we've been trying to puzzle that out for four decades, without success.

Well, the Chinese have figured it out. They're going to get their energy from Canada, a stable country, and pass it through the United States, another stable country. They will pay the Canadians the world price for oil. They will pay us nothing, or next to nothing. So Uncle Sam is Uncle Sucker. (More)

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Judges place a premium on investigative and enterprise work that is original, requires digging and resourcefulness, and brings results. Some of the most respected names in journalism have won Polk Awards, including Edward R. Murrow, Christiane Amanpour, Carl Bernstein, David Halberstam, Gay Talese, Fred Friendly, I.F. Stone, Morley Safer, Joseph Lelyveld, Anthony Lukas and Walter Cronkite. The awards are presented each spring at a luncheon in Manhattan and are preceded the night before by the Polk Seminar, which features a panel of winners discussing topics in journalism.

Janine Gibson, Guardian US editor-in-chief, said: “We’re honoured by the recognition from the Polk awards and delighted for Ewen, Glenn, Laura, Barton and their colleagues that their work has been recognised.

“It has been an extraordinary and occasionally menacing eight months of reporting for the Guardian and the support of our peers through this distinguished award is very much appreciated.” (More)

 

24 February 2014 — The Sochi Olympics were the great success Russia had hoped for. The opening ceremonies proved a radiant display drawing on Russia’s most compelling cultural assets.  This artful look back to Russia’s past greatness proved both a reminder and challenge to its own people to reprise their historical greatness going forward. Meanwhile, its closing ceremonies reprised these themes, reminding the viewer of Russia’s continued vibrancy in the arts.

 

From an economic vantage point, national hosts for Olympic games always use them as an occasion for enormous infrastructure spending for economic development. One of us (Hudson) was the economist for Montreal brokerage houses back in 1976 when every French Canadian family seemed to become millionaires on the games’ cost overruns. The usual argument by governments is to hire a Keynesian economist who will say, “Spend tens of $billions and the multiplier will generate hundreds of $billions in national income. Taxes at 20% will recover all the expense, so in an economy with under-employment, whatever you spend on the Olympics will be free.” This is the kind of argument that World Bank economists use to justify infrastructure investment by underdeveloped countries, and what any Olympic host city argues to minimize the vast cost overruns that always occur. Construction contracts are about as honest as figure skating judging. (More)

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01 March 2014 — There’re a couple of issues percolating away on Parliament Hill that serve as handy reminders than whenever someone advocates a quick fix, you should take a long, hard look at the problem.

Too often people who should know better clamour for the silver bullet solution to an issue when what’s really needed is a close study to get the correct actions.

Case in point, and also to highlight something useful being done by the Senate, the upper chamber’s agriculture committee is studying the state of the country’s bee population. Readers may recall considerable media attention about bee die offs in the spring of 2012 and 2013 that have been linked to a class of insecticides applied to corn and soybean seeds before they’re planted. The problem is that the machines used to plant the seeds released a bit of dust that is laced with the insecticide and the bees, which are foraging for nectar, breathe in the stuff. It’s actually a lot more complicated than that. (More)

16 February 2014 — On a cold winter night on January 22, 71-year-old grandmother Carol Marsh sat down in front of a megaload-sized vehicle hauling tar sands processing equipment through Missoula, Mont., en route to Canada. While more than 40 other protesters watched from the street’s edges, Marsh informed the police traveling with the load that she did not intend to move. After about five minutes Marsh was arrested, having temporarily delayed the load and driven up the cost of transporting it through Montana to the tar sands region of Alberta.

Marsh’s story was quickly picked up by local news outlets and spread across activist social media networks. Much of the media attention focused on the image of a lone grandmother blockading a giant piece of tar sands mining equipment. However, Marsh’s action — as is so often the case with the moment in a demonstration deemed most newsworthy — should be understood as one piece of a much larger organizing effort spearheaded by indigenous activists. (More)
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Bits and Bites of Everyday Life

Amazing Women from the past to the present

'Tough times never last, tough people do!'

If a woman is sufficiently ambitious, determined and gifted – there is practically nothing she can’t do. — Helen Lawrenson

By Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair
True North Perspective

Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair is the author of The Neglected Garden and two French novels. Visit her website to learn more www.albertevilleneuve.ca.

 

By Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher

'I hardly remember your face'

A letter to my (inside) postal worker — Written in January 1976

I hardly remember your face — mostly, you’re that woman who reminds me of an aunt, or a grandmother, or the girl who used to babysit; or else you’re the man who makes me think of my cousin Sam, or my Goddaughter’s father, or the man who gave me a hand the other day when I had car trouble.

But even with all that, I always have trouble trying to remember your face.

I remember the first time I ever had a good look at you.

It was just a little more than 13 years ago in November 1962. I was working as a reporter for The Montreal Star, the afternoon shift it was, and Christmas mail was dancing in the city editor’s head.

With a photographer, I went to the Central Post Office on Windsor Street.

Inside I saw a jumbled mountain of Christmas parcels and more coming down the chutes in a seemingly never-ending flow.

I recall thinking that it was something of a modern marvel that those parcels would be delivered to each destination on time.

I remember, too, the mail sorters (weren’t they mostly women?) standing at long benches on a cement floor, fatigue on their faces as they expertly did their jobs. (More)

 

01 March 2014 — 1. The student marches are from the right-wing of the student movement.

 

Unlike in places like Chile, there is no single or united student movement in Venezuela. Not only are students groups highly decentralized, but they are also divided along political lines.

Another unique feature of the student groups identifying with the opposition is that they do not organize around accessible or free education (since education has been made accessible to the sector of society that was previously excluded, resulting in an increase of 1,809,432 post-secondary students from 1999 to 2014).

The most recent opposition student demonstrations began in the western city of Tachira near the Colombian border.  On the third day of student demonstrations about insecurity on the campus, the State Governor’s house was attacked and four people were subsequently arrested (two of whom weren’t students).  These arrests led to student demonstrations in other cities – all of these demonstrations were not shut down by police – which led to the February 12th demonstration,
where three people died. (More)

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24 February 2014 — The opposition leaders in Venezuela are taking their cue from the anti-government protesters in Ukraine by applying the same disruption strategy that has been used in Kiev.

The aims of the opposition are to create a paralyzing political crisis in Caracas, which they can manipulate to make gains they failed to get with the ballot box under the framework of democracy.

The mainstream opposition, however, doesn’t enjoy wide support. Mainstream opposition leaders have failed to earn a popular mandate from the majority of the population, or to secure the confidence of most Venezuelan citizens during the Latin American country’s elections. Failing to win any of Venezuela’s presidential elections or most of the South American republic’s parliamentary, regional, or municipal elections in the last fifteen years, the leaders of the mainstream opposition are now resorting to color revolution tactics and a Ukraine-style disruption strategy. (More)

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21 February 2014 — United States foreign policy can be summed up as hard power vs. soft power. An example of hard power is the US backing the unsuccessful 2002 military coup d’état against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, when businessman Pedro Carmona Estanga briefly took power. An example of the US’s soft power is the current situation in Venezuela.

A leaked document from November of 2013 shows that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) collaborated with the Colombian government and Venezuelan opposition leaders to destabilize Venezuela and stoke massive protests. The document, obtained by journalist and attorney Eva Golinger, was the product of a June 2013 meeting between US-based FTI Consulting, the Colombian Fundación Centro de Pensamiento Primero Colombia (Centre for Thought Foundation of Colombia First), and Fundación Internacionalismo Democratico (Democratic Internationalism Foundation). The third tactic outlined in the 15-point strategy document openly called for sabotage:

"Maintain and increase the sabotage that affect the population's services, particularly the electricity system, that puts blame on the government for assumed inefficiencies and negligence.”

 

Coincidentally, during one of Nicolas Maduro's televised speeches outlining his economic plan in early December, the power went out for 60% of Venezuelans for several hours. Maduro blamed the act on sabotage. (More)

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When is it considered legitimate to try and overthrow a democratically-elected government? In Washington, the answer has always been simple: when the US government says it is. Not surprisingly, that's not the way Latin American governments generally see it.

On Sunday 23 February, the Mercosur governments (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Venezuela) released a statement on the past week's demonstrations in Venezuela. They described "the recent violent acts" in Venezuela as "attempts to destabilize the democratic order". They made it abundantly clear where they stood.

The governments stated:

their firm commitment to the full observance of democratic institutions and, in this context, [they] reject the criminal actions of violent groups that want to spread intolerance and hatred in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as a political tool.

 

We may recall that when much larger demonstrations rocked Brazil last year, there were no statements from Mercosur or neighboring governments. That's not because they didn't love President Dilma Rousseff; it's because these demonstrations did not seek to topple Brazil's democratically-elected government.

The Obama administration was a bit more subtle, but also made it clear where it stood. When Secretary of State John Kerry states that "We are particularly alarmed by reports that the Venezuelan government has arrested or detained scores of anti-government protestors," he is taking a political position. Because there were many protestors who committed crimes: they attacked and injured police with chunks of concrete and Molotov cocktails; they burned cars, trashed and sometimes set fire to government buildings; and committed other acts of violence and vandalism. (More)

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27 February 2014 KIEV Ukraine — Ukrainian radical nationalist leader Aleksandr Muzychko went on with the rampage against regional authorities, lashing out at a local prosecutor with obscene language, punches and threats. The radical claimed the prosecutors were “sabotaging” their job.

Muzychko, who is a member of the Right Sector radical movement, arrived at Rovno (Rivne) Oblast prosecutor’s office after he heard claims that a criminal investigation into a local murder is being delayed.

The controversial “activist,” known for taking part in the Chechen conflict against Russian troops, for his recent Kalashnikov brandishing in front of regional authorities and for making openly anti-Semitic statements, decided to take the matter into his own hands. For video click (More).

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Location of Crimea (red) with respect to Ukraine (white). Map courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

24 February 2014 — As the battle on Maidan ends with the defeat and humiliation of President Viktor Yanukovych, some observers have turned their attention to Ukraine's Crimea region with the following question: If Ukraine turns toward the European Union and the West, will President Vladimir Putin move to seize Crimea?

While Crimea is situated far from the drama of Kiev, it stands out as the only region in Ukraine where Russians are in the majority, constituting about 60 percent of Crimea's population. There is also a critical naval base at Sevastopol that the Russians lease from Ukraine. Sevastopol serves as the home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and it gives the Russian Navy direct access to the Mediterranean Sea. Russia has signed a lease agreement with Ukraine that allows its fleet to remain at Sevastopol until 2042. (More)

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07 February 2014 — A leaked phone conversation between Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, and Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine, has exposed the anti-democratic and colonialist character of the Obama administration’s intervention in the former Soviet republic.

The discussion between the two officials includes a detailed review of which right-wing opposition figures Washington is working to install in office, and how it is using the United Nations to rubber-stamp the operation. While Germany and other European powers have worked closely with the Obama administration in promoting the violent protests against President Viktor Yanukovych, the leaked phone call reveals tensions between the imperialist powers. At one point Nuland tells Pyatt, “Fuck the EU.”

The discussion, posted anonymously on YouTube, underscores the thoroughly cynical character of Washington’s public diplomacy. The Obama administration’s rhetoric about “democracy” and the Ukrainian people’s right to determine their own future is a charade, concocted for public consumption. Behind the scenes, government officials speak frankly with one another about the real agenda—advancing Washington’s geo-strategic and economic interests in Eastern Europe by installing pro-US and anti-Russian puppet figures in the Ukrainian capital. (More)
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13 February 2014 — Over more than a decade, the rise of the left in Latin American governance has led to remarkable advances in poverty alleviation, regional integration, and a reassertion of sovereignty and independence. The United States has been antagonistic toward the new left governments, and has concurrently pursued a bellicose foreign policy, in many cases blithely dismissive of international law.

So why has Human Rights Watch (HRW) — despite proclaiming itself “one of the world’s leading independent organizations” on human rights — so consistently paralleled U.S. positions and policies? This affinity for the U.S. government agenda is not limited to Latin America. In the summer of 2013, for example, when the prospect of a unilateral U.S. missile strike on Syria — a clear violation of the UN Charter — loomed large, HRW’s executive director Kenneth Roth speculated as to whether a simply “symbolic” bombing would be sufficient. “If Obama decides to strike Syria, will he settle for symbolism or do something that will help protect civilians?” he asked on Twitter. Executive director of MIT’s Center for International Studies John Tirman swiftly denounced the tweet as “possibly the most ignorant and irresponsible statement ever by a major human-rights advocate.”[1] (More)
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11 February 2014 —The degradation of mainstream American press coverage of Russia, a country still vital to US national security, has been under way for many years. If the recent tsunami of shamefully unprofessional and politically inflammatory articles in leading newspapers and magazines—particularly about the Sochi Olympics, Ukraine and, unfailingly, President Vladimir Putin—is an indication, this media malpractice is now pervasive and the new norm.

There are notable exceptions, but a general pattern has developed. Even in the venerable New York Times and Washington Post, news reports, editorials and commentaries no longer adhere rigorously to traditional journalistic standards, often failing to provide essential facts and context; to make a clear distinction between reporting and analysis; to require at least two different political or “expert” views on major developments; or to publish opposing opinions on their op-ed pages. As a result, American media on Russia today are less objective, less balanced, more conformist and scarcely less ideological than when they covered Soviet Russia during the Cold War. (More)

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For two decades US false fronts have seeded billions

in the Ukraine and Russia to foster regime change

Now with classic hypocrisy US blames government for violence

Paul Craig Roberts
PaulCraigRoberts.org

20 February 2014 — People ask for solutions, but no solutions are possible in a disinformed world. Populations almost everywhere are dissatisfied, but few have any comprehension of the real situation. Before there can be solutions, people must know the truth about the problems. For those few inclined to be messengers, it is largely a thankless task.

The assumption that man is a rational animal is incorrect. He and she are emotional creatures, not Dr. Spock of Star Trek. Humans are brainwashed by enculturation and indoctrination. Patriots respond with hostility toward criticisms of their governments, their countries, their hopes and their delusions. Their emotions throttle facts, should any reach them. Aspirations and delusions prevail over truth. Most people want to be told what they want to hear. Consequently, they are always gullible and their illusions and self-delusions make them easy victims of propaganda. This is true of all levels of societies and of the leaders themselves.

We are witnessing this today in western Ukraine where a mixture of witless university students, pawns in Washington’s drive for world hegemony, together with paid protesters and fascistic elements among ultra-nationalists are bringing great troubles upon Ukraine and perhaps a deadly war upon the world. (More)

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