Political Lies and Fantasies

Trump is selling his followers a fantasy in which the only truth is what Trump says is the truth.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has a theory about this blizzard of lies. The Trump show, Sanders suggests, has shifted from mocking liberals and getting laughs with belittling nicknames for GOP rivals. The new Trump show features a magical guarantee of a Trump victory in November.  And Trump is warning his followers to ignore anyone who says he is losing.

“Clearly, and dangerously, what Trump is doing is laying the groundwork for rejecting the election results if he loses,” Sanders explains.

“If you can convince your supporters that thousands of people who attended a televised rally do not exist, it will not be hard to convince them that the election returns in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and elsewhere are ‘fake’ and ‘fraudulent'............

I recently celebrated my 70th birthday with my family on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. If in this column, I declared that tens of thousands of people were at my birthday party and that rainbow-colored dolphins joined the festivities, my editor would no longer let me write this column.

Why is a 78-year-old presidential candidate held to a different and lower standard than a 70-year-old ink-stained newspaperman?

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.

https://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/juan-williams/4831657-trump-lies-dangerous-political-show/

Beware of this affliction spreading north of the border, it appears to be spreading rapidly in certain political circles both here on Ontario and across Canada.

Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers

Israel V Palestine

The conflict between these two peoples has been going on for decades and I will not pretend to understand the history of how they reached the point where so many of a civilian population came to be slaughtered or displaced with so little accountability. I will just say that it is a sickness that seems to be spreading across the globe and I fear for the future of mankind not just where conflict is now ongoing but world wide in general. Read on and if you are not bothered you are not listening!

Israel declared war after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's war to destroy Hamas and more than 53,000 have been wounded, according to health officials in Gaza, a besieged territory ruled by the Islamic militant group for the past 16 years. ….............

Israel's offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history, displacing nearly 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million people and leveling wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave. More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving, according to a report this week from the United Nations and other agencies. ….......

Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, including about 2,000 in the past three weeks, but has not presented evidence. It says 139 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive.....................

From https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-airstrikes-southern-offensive/

Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people[a] in whole or in part.

In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide

War is an intense armed conflict[a] between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War

You decide, I know where I stand!

Merry bloody Christmas........

Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers

Re Ontario Green Belt Reduction

I can but say that I share these concerns and the following communication from ALL the Ontario opposition parties says it all.......

Bonnie Lysyk
Office of the Auditor General of Ontario
20 Dundas St. W., Suite 1530
Toronto, ON  M5G 2C2

January 11, 2023

Dear Ms. Lysyk,

Over the last few months, we have independently raised concerns with the government’s decision to remove 7,400 acres of land from the Greenbelt to allow for development on what was protected land. Today, we are writing to you together to ask that your office conduct a value-for money audit and an assessment of the financial and environmental impacts of the government’s decision to remove lands from the Greenbelt and repeal the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act.

The removal of protections from these lands has instantly shifted wealth to property owners, who have likely benefited substantially from the rezoning of this land from undevelopable agricultural land to developable land. For example, about 4,500 of the 7,400 acres of Greenbelt land formerly belonged to the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve (DRAP) and had easements protecting the land as farmland in perpetuity under the DRAP Act. These easements represented a multi-billion-dollar public investment in Ontario's natural and agricultural systems by the people of Ontario, who gave up enormous profits when the Ontario government sold these lands at discounted prices on the condition that they forever remain farmland. The removal of these easements means these speculative profits will now flow to private landowners, with no compensation to the public.

Removing protections from the DRAP lands also has potential environmental impacts. These lands are adjacent to Rouge National Urban Park, and Parks Canada has raised concerns that the removal of protections would have a detrimental impact on park lands and the local ecosystem. In their submission to the provincial government, Parks Canada wrote, “there is a probable risk of irreversible harm to wildlife, natural ecosystems and agricultural landscapes within Rouge National Urban Park.”

Hundreds of concerned Ontarians and stakeholders shared similar concerns through the Environmental Bill of Rights consultation process. The consultation showed broad opposition to the government’s decision to remove land from the Greenbelt, including concerns regarding anticipated negative environmental impacts. Many groups identified that the Greenbelt plays an important role in Ontario’s ability to address climate change and emphasized the importance of protecting natural areas.

Given the strong likelihood of negative impacts on the environment, we are requesting your office investigate the environmental impact of the removal of these Greenbelt lands on agricultural and natural systems. Additionally, we are requesting a value-for-money audit investigating how much public wealth has been transferred to property owners and whether these land transactions are in the public interest.

Collectively, we are very concerned with the impact that the removal of these Greenbelt lands will have on the future well-being of our province. We thank you for your time in reviewing our request and would be happy to meet with you and your team to further discuss our concerns.

Sincerely,

Marit Stiles, MPP	John Fraser, MPP	Mike Schreiner, MPP
Incoming Leader Ontario NDP	Interim Leader Ontario Liberal Party	Leader Ontario Green Party

 

 

source: media release, Ontario Green Party

 

Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers