RANT: AT FIRST YOU GO INSANE SLOWLY, THEN ALL AT ONCE

 

WELL, THEY SURE KNOW HOW to do protests in France and Israel. In France it’s about raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. Two years added to a working life. Now, if it was me, I could do the extra time standing on my head (if that’s still possible). The controversial bill was pushed through the legislature by French president Macron some weeks ago and ever since the people have taken to the streets protesting his hugely unpopular pension reforms. But living in France, despite the gathering storms there (really, everywhere), I can see why people would want to kick back and enjoy a life of early retirement. Fresh bagatelles, taste bud-exploding cheeses, vintage wines, bucolic, sun-filled countrysides— what’s not to like? Laissez le bon temps rouler!

 

IN ISRAEL, these past few months, there have been protests against the Netanyahu government and a new law it rammed through the Knesset limiting the power of the judiciary, particularly Israel’s Supreme Court, to rule on future proposed legislation by the government. Protests kicked into high gear after PM Netanyahu fired his defence minister who’d publicly opposed the reforms. Streets of major Israeli cities see crowds in the tens, even hundreds of thousands, continuing to protest and challenge what many call highly undemocratic legislation that threatens to turn Israel into a “dictatorship”. You’ve got to admire the chutzpah of Israeli citizens standing up for what they believe. If they would be as energized over Palestinian rights (and, while you’re at it, protesting in favour of dismantling their country’s undeclared nuclear arsenal), heck, I might be talked into buying a time-share down there! 

Moving on:

   FUK YEAH! [Ed.]

EARLIER THIS MONTH in the Netherlands, provincial elections saw candidates from the “BoerBurgerBeweging” (BBB) or “Farmer-Citizen Movement”, turn the tables in the country’s federal legislature. By winning seats in various provincial legislatures, they can now increase opposition numbers in the Senate and threaten passage of  PM Mark Rutte’s onerous methane-reduction legislation. Recall last year how Dutch farmers protested the government’s proposed climate legislation which would demand drastic cuts to nitrogen emissions levels from farms. In addition, the bill, if passed into law, would require farmers to sell their properties to the government and, bizarrely, they must sign an waiver never to farm again! 

 

Livelihoods destroyed and generational households foreclosed, all with Big Ag and industrial farmers waiting in the wings to scoop up confiscated farm properties for pennies on the dollar. 

 

“The government aims to cut nitrogen emissions in half by 2030, as relatively large numbers of livestock and heavy use of fertilizers have led to levels of nitrogen oxides in the soil and water that violate European Union regulations.

The nitrogen problem has crippled construction in the Netherlands as environmental groups have won a string of court cases ordering the government to limit the emissions and preserve nature, before new building permits can be granted.

The BBB says the problem has been exaggerated and that proposed solutions are unfairly balanced against farmers, leading to the closure of many farms and food production shortages.” (Reuters)

 

WHILE I AM PERSONALLY IN FAVOUR of limiting greenhouse gas emissions, nevertheless, by using such ham-fisted, top-down law-making on the part of the Rutte government, it gets what it deserves—a big-time backlash from an angry citizenry. And it’s not only farmers who are up in arms over the proposed bill, but also everyday Danes who increasingly  stand in solidarity their rural counterparts. Q: If farmers go out of business and have to leave the land, what happens to their farms? A: They're turned into ‘real estate’ for rich developers or else they become part of a Big Ag corporation with all its unhealthy mono-culture and bottom-line imperatives. IN OTHER WORDS, people are protesting against old-school land grabs by mucky-muck carpetbaggers and "woke" policy decisions imposed on them from Brussels (i.e., the EU). 

 

    It's a long haul to overhaul...

A GREAT DEAL more thought needs to go into crafting climate initiatives that are fair and equitable, as well as realistic and effective, like promoting organic agriculture, for example, and by supporting farmers to transition away from agriculture practices that employ the heavy use of fossil fuel-based pesticides and fertilizers. And, I mean we need to REALLY support them! Without farmers, we don’t eat. Period. Unless meat from a vat, tended robot machinery in a lab is you idea of food. Yummy! (But that’s another post, methinks.)

CURRENTLY, IN GERMANY there are general strikes in the transportation sector affecting millions of travellers. As well there have been large protests over Germany’s military support of Ukraine.  Higher energy costs, inflation and tensions around Ukraine add to growing unrest there. Let’s see if anything comes of this.

IN THE GEORGIAN CAPITAL of Tbilisi, protests arose earlier this month over a “foreign agents” registry bill put forward by the government. It would require Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) receiving 20% of their funding from foreign governments, individuals, foundations, etc., to register as a foreign agent. It seems Georgia has a disproportionately large NGO sector, with millions of dollars from foreign sources funding their activities. Check the list of their donors and see how many government agencies and foundations with ties to intel services there are. (It’s probably more than you imagine.) The Georgian government’s concern is with the NGOs disproportionate influence within the civil and political realms in the country. Naturally, Western funded NGO groups in Georgia reacted by organizing protests and PR campaigns resulting in the bill’s cancellation. Protests continue, however, now demanding that the government resign. Western governments applaud the “democratic” forces of a mobilized citizenry to contest an ‘unfair’ registry law.*

 

[Found pic online. Couldn't resist. Ed.]

IT SHOULD BE NOTED that the United States has such a registry, and Canada’s ever-toadying PM, Justin Trudeau (a Klaus Schwab BFF, as you can see!), just announced similar legislation  to track “foreign actors” in Canada who may exert undue influence over our elections. I guess it’s okay to introduce such laws if your concern is with China, as reflected by the proposed Canadian legislation, but, if your concern is with Western NGOs operating in your country, unduly influencing elections, public policy, etc., as is Georgia’s case, then I guess promoting such a bill is a no-no. SO, Western NGOs=good; Russian/Chinese, NGOs=bad. 

Point is, that Western governments try to influence elections and promote favourable policies in foreign countries all the time. Pot calling the kettle black is all I’m saying. What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander. Or maybe they should all put their big boy pants on and stop meddling in other countries' affairs. Just sayin'.

 

    Mohammad Mosaddegh

THE RESULT OF ALL THIS is the politicization of the NGO sector. Western NGOs—charities, foundations, media outlets and so on—are seen increasingly to act in concert with their governments and intel agencies, promoting political agendas that might not be in the best interests of the people they are targeting trying to ‘help’. Why are there so many NGOs in Georgia? Could it have anything to do with their irksome neighbour to the north?(Think Iran, 1953. The CIA, along with Britain’s MI6 engineered the overthrow the duly elected, if left-leaning, PM Mohammad Mosaddegh and returned to power the despotic Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who would rule Iran with an iron fist for many years to come. (Yes, it was a very good year for coups⁺).

 

INCREASINGLY, NGOs have come to be seen as tools of governments. Instead of pursuing their primary functions (charitable, cultural, etc.) their funding sources (governments, foundations, think tanks, intelligence agencies) often task them with hidden agendas. 

ALL THIS makes for increasing distrust of civil society. One Russian commentator suggested staffing levels in embassies, for example, would shrink in the future, with legation personnel tasked with performing only the bare minimum of core services. That suggests less communication among nations, and I’m not sure that’s such a good thing right now. 

 

    Officer "Boots" McTool. G-20. Toronto 2010

WE NEED TO SIMPLY HELP, not trick, cajole, bribe, or coerce  other populations to our way of thinking and doing. It’s a big world out there, full of variety, full of opinions that have a right to be voiced.

Personally, I don’t see a problem in demanding transparency from foreign NGOs operating in your country, like the Georgian government was trying to do. So, why is Georgia condemned in the mainstream media for proposing such a registry, while Canada, doing the same thing, is applauded?

THERE HAVE BEEN protests in Latin America of late, in Hamburg, Germany, in Spain, and other countries around the world, and if we think: “Thank God that’s not here in Canada, remember the "trucker protests" last year and the crackdown by our federal government. They didn’t use boots, like police in Paris did recently, nevertheless they troded heavily on the civic rights of Canadians  when the Trudeau regime government froze bank accounts and seized nearly twenty-five million dollars in donations, effectively eviscerating protesters, so to speak, in their pocketbooks. The feds got away with this cute ploy by invoking the Emergency Powers Act, which was a completely disproportionate response to an albeit annoying, inconvenient, and embarrassing scene outside the Parliament buildings in Ottawa.² [But, that’s what protests are supposed to be like, it's not some tea party! Ed.]  

The Act gave the government the authority to sequester and/or confiscate protesters bank accounts and funding sources. AND IF YOU’RE NOT OKAY with the government being able to reach into your pocket when they don’t like what you’re (legally) doing, like the truckers, just wait till CBDCs are taken out for a test ride. Fasten your seatbelts!¹

 

    [Sorry, this is a pic of whales spouting not pipelines exploding.[ My bad. Ed.]

SO, WHAT’S ALL THIS? Well, I think we’re approaching an inflection point of some sort. Old ways are being questioned. Practices and policies are not accepted at face value anymore. People are turning away from traditional sources of leadership, community, and authority. Statues are toppled and statutes are thrown out or deemed unacceptable. From “de-dollarization” to exploding pipelines³, from collapsing economies to shell-cratered communities, there's a shit storm on the horizon. Where do people turn when nearly everyday we  see evidence of leadership throughout the collective West, and in many parts of the world it must be said, but more clearly seen now in Europe, that the political leaders we'd place our faith in are an utterly dreadful lot. The ineptness, the bumbling incompetence, the stubborn refusal by our leaders to even  acknowledge the situation we're in, let alone mount responsible and doable courses of action to deal with the problems we face, is laid bare for all to see. The emperor has no clothes and its hard to remember a time when he did....

THROUGHOUT THE COLLECTIVE WEST, I have never seen such a collection of feckless, self-centred, insane fuktards in my life: from Geriatric Joe to "Beard-Without-A-Brain" Zelensky we're being led ever-closer to the cliff edge. How we stop in time to keep from going over is anyone's guess. But whatever grace there is left in this world will, sadly, not come from those in whom we've placed our trust. We must look elsewhere and elsewhen for answers.

 

Q: If we're so smart and our technology is advancing all the time, surely someone, somewhere in the future must have invented a time-machine. Right? So, where are our super-intelligent, time travelling descendants? They haven't made an appearance yet and that doesn't bode well.

A:?

 

Cheers, Jake

 ________________

 

* That these organizations and movements might not be as democratic or “grass roots” as they appear is the issue. In 2003, the so-called “Rose revolution” in Georgia brought to power a pro-EU president in a 'revolution' and regime-- changed operation funded and overseen by foreign governments, NGOs and everyone's favourite black ops agency, the CIA. IS A SIMILAR ONE BREWING again in the country,  another colour revolution? This small country, situated at the eastern end of the Black Sea, is slated to become yet another NATO member, further antagonizing Russia with which it shares a 500-mile border. That Georgia would be obliterated in any conflict with Russia is of no particular concern for Western governments or the NGOs who peddle their hard-line, anti-Russian policies. Vive la revolution! Just not one backed by spooks and neo-cons.

 

+ You may have to refresh page several times to watch the documentary.

 

1. ONE THE LIGHTER SIDE of government overreach, one example of it is the new ‘tag free’ waterfront parking system that my city government will introduce later this year. To park down by the lake (parking spots are in high demand during the summer; our city has a beautiful waterfront) parking police (PP) will soon scan license plates instead of paper permit tags (the one’s you hang on your rear-view mirror). In the past, city residents paid a nominal fee for unlimited waterfront parking, while non-residents pay by the hour. For now, PPs check to see if you have up-to-date tags visible in your front windshield. City fathers have deemed such a scheme inefficient and antiquated. In the all-to-near future PPs will instead scan your license plate to check your eligibility to park as a resident. (Out-of-towners can also purchase digital permits.)

OF COURSE, scanning your license plate might mean data such as unpaid parking tickets, property taxes, etc., will be collated to the scanning device—perhaps a whole bunch of personal information (like the fact you’re not fully vaccinated, or you were “kettled” at a peace march) will be in the data scan the PP makes on your license plate. Presumably you will be compelled to pay whatever you owe, perhaps on the spot or not be granted a parking space, or—another scenario occurs to me—have money automatically deducted from your bank account. Impossible, you say? Remember, many of us have direct deposit arrangements with Revenue Canada for both our tax payments and possible refunds. Who's to say the taxman doesn’t dock the money you owe automatically, someday? Nah! Can’t happen here. Well, buckle up, folks!

 

“The real danger in CBDCs is that there is no limit to the level of control that the government could exert over people if money is purely electronic and provided directly by the government. A CBDC would give federal officials full control over the money going into–and coming out of–every person’s account.”  

(Cato Institute)

2. There were trucker blockades that went up at Canada-US border crossings notably at the Ambassador Bridge that links Windsor and Detroit. This prompted a phone call from cranky Joe (“I Need A Nap”) Biden to Canada’s PM to get those annoying truckers out of the way—they’re cutting into everyone’s bottom line! These protests might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, convincing PM Trudeau it would be a good time to gird his loins and use the same emergency laws his father used over half a century earlier. Like pappy. Like son.

 

3. YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP👉 A FEW days ago at the For Sale United Nations Security Council, a proposal for an impartial, international investigation to determine the cause of the Nord Stream pipeline explosion was presented by China and Russia for a vote. Would the Security Council vote in favour of such a resolution? It seems reasonable, given the lack of credible findings made public by the investigating lackeys countries (Germany, Denmark and Sweden). Surely the Security Council wants to get to the bottom of the explosion and, if it were found to be an act of sabotage, expose and call to account the perpetrators. SURELY such activity is a security threat to everyone. There are inter-continental phone and internet connections, fibre-optic cables, gas and oil pipelines, etc., that criss-cross the globe. Is this the new face of terrorism? If so, answers need to be found.

Or not. 

The vote at the United Nations Security Council on whether to launch an investigation into the Nord Stream explosion is as follows: For the Yeas—3 Yes votes (Russia, China, Brazil).

For the cowards, cucks, and cock-suckers Nays—12 abstentions (Albania Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, France, The United Kingdom, The United States). 

[This voting procedure is called Having Your Cake And Eating It Too. Ed.]

 

“Russia, China and Brazil voted in favour of the Russian request, but other Security Council members abstained or said another investigation was unnecessary.

For a resolution to be adopted by the UN Security Council, it needs a minimum of nine “yes” votes in the 15-member council, and no veto by one of the permanent members – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.” (Globe and Mail)

 

      I wonder if the vote were put before the entire UN, in the General Assembly, whether the results would be the same. If countries could vote without fear of raising the ire of America, without that implied threat (of sanctions, etc.), then to vote in favour of a resolution to conduct an independent and transparent inquiry into the Nord Stream clusterfuk is in the best interests of their own countries, as well as globally. Preventing the sabotage of critical infrastructure such as pipelines is surely in the best interest of everyone and the wrecking of the Nord Stream gas pipeline demands the exposure of the culprits. Why have the results of the so-called 'investigations' by Germany, Denmark, and Sweden not been released? Why did all, save three, countries in the Security Council abstain from voting yes to such an investigation? 

 I think we know the answers to those questions. 

 

[Note that the Globe and Mail article provides basic information on the vote and the September pipeline sabotage. But it's concluding paragraphs  cites the two absurd articles (from the New York Times and the German newspaper, Die Zeit I had referenced in an earlier blog) that came out some weeks after the Hersh exposé. The newspaper makes no mention of February's Seymour Hersh article that convincingly lays responsibility for the sabotage directly at the feet of the Americans.

The Globe knowingly omits the highly credible investigative reporting done by Hersh. Shameful! But, I guess they know which side their bread is buttered on. Ed.] 

 

 

 

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE!