It Bears Repeating …...

America has elected a man who talks and behaves like a megalomaniac, and the rest of the planet is supposed to just trust that he won’t completely lose his grip on reality and drag us all into catastrophe.......

This is a deeply unstable old man threatening sovereign nations like he’s flipping over a Monopoly board because he’s losing. This is not normal behaviour. This is not leadership. This is not strength. This is a walking, talking international crisis.......

And let’s be brutally honest. This man is nearly 80. He’s frail. He’s clearly deteriorating. He is not some long term visionary playing chess. He’s at the end of his lifespan and acting like nothing matters after him. That is the most dangerous type of leader there is. A man with nothing to lose and an ego that demands constant feeding.............

Get this lunatic under wraps before he ruins it for everyone.

A small extract from our friend Lorne at Politics and Discontents where the full text can be read as found on Facebook.

....and now he wants to take over Greenland a NATO country !!!

 

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What Is a Wartime President and What Are Their Powers?

 With the U.S. leader and his minions increasingly ignoring diplomatic norms and threatening to invade and takeover not only non NATO countries to their south as they have at least in part Venezuela but both Greenland and Canada I tried to find out what limitations their were upon their moves. Very little it would seem in both practical terms and as recent actions have made obvious, sure “congress” supposedly has check and balances but does not even have to be notified until 2 days after he has already started one!

A “wartime president” is a descriptive term, not a formal title, for a U.S. President leading the nation during significant armed conflict.

Constitutional Authority and Expanded Powers

A president’s wartime role stems from the Commander-in-Chief clause in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution. This clause designates the President as the “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.” This grants the President broad powers to direct military operations, deploy troops, and formulate combat strategies.

This role allows for expanded presidential powers during conflict, enabling the issuance of executive orders related to national security. These orders can mobilize resources, direct industries towards war production, and establish new agencies to manage the war effort................

Checks and Balances on Wartime Presidential Power

The U.S. system of checks and balances limits presidential power, even during wartime. Congress holds the constitutional power to declare war, raise and support armies, and provide for a navy. This legislative authority checks the executive’s ability to unilaterally commit the nation to prolonged conflict.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 defines the balance, requiring the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and limiting deployments to 60 days without congressional authorization.

From (https://legalclarity.org/what-is-a-wartime-president-and-what-are-their-powers/)

Seems to me that unless congress gets it act in gear and puts the brakes on this regime that we are all, world wide, in for a rough ride, and even if they do act will it even then stop this power hungry bunch of autocrats.

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Trump starts WW 111 ?

"If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan's leadership? What stops [Russian President] Vladimir Putin from asserting similar justification to abduct Ukraine's president? Once this line is crossed, the rules that restrain global chaos begin to collapse, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to exploit it."

(Democratic vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner. )

Donald Trump seems to believe that he makes the rules, and what applies to the US under his command does not mean others can expect the same privileges.

But that is not how the world of power works.

His actions at the start of 2026 point to another 12 months of global turbulence.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y45nyz124o

I fear that it may well be the start of something way worse than a year of “ turbulence”!

Add this to his threats to take over Greenland , Canada, turn Gaza into a resort and his inability to tell the same lies twice and I believe this guy belongs in the funny farm rather than the White House.....

 

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The world’s most dangerous man?

 As I am about to enter my 9^th decade on this troubled world I increasingly find it harder to put my thoughts in to words and thus rarely share them here on Democracy Under Fire but it would seem that we must all speak out to save it from total mayhem.

The following short extract from a recent article on The Hill outlines perhaps the most troubling particular want to be dictator / authoritarian but we dont have to look far from home to see various 'leaders' with a similar mind set. World wide there seems to be an ever increasing movement to this mindset … or is it just that those of that inclination are more able to spread their divisive rhetoric easier with via the influence of 'social media' ?

“It is easy to drift into alarmed hyperbole about Donald Trump’s second presidency. The guardrails and principled advisers who discouraged his authoritarian proclivities during his first term are no longer there. Without them, and with his advancing age, he has become the most dangerous man in the world. 

Some in the hyper-muscular manosphere (the so-called “secretary of War” is one) may consider that a compliment. It is not. The person who currently commands the awesome weapons of the presidency lacks the temperament, mental stability and moral compass required for the job. The American republic and the international order are hanging by a thread..................

The unadorned truth is that Trump’s broken moral compass, overactive testosterone, sycophantic staff, pathological narcissism, and extraordinary presidential powers make him a clear and present danger to the republic and the world...............

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5646761-trump-second-presidency-danger/

William S. Becker is co-editor of and a contributor to “Democracy Unchained:

 

 

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Rural mail goodbye?

 

For decades, residents living in rural areas around eastern Ontario could tell they had mail delivered if the flag on their mailbox was up.

Now, they’re being told Canada Post delivery agents will no longer raise the flag because that was never what the indicator was meant for in the first place.........

“it seems a little bit odd that given a time when Canada Post is struggling to survive and wanting large raises and wanting to gain more of the market share that they’re going to offer less service and less convenience to the public when they deliver their mail,”

Exactly …...It would seem that SOME 'delivery agents' are determined to drive everybody to alternative methods of sending and receiving important stuff, Email and courier services here I come!

https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/canada-post-no-longer-raising-flag-to-indicate-mail-in-rural-areas/

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The killing of critical thinking.

 The removal of any one critical of any literature that does not match that of the new U.S. regime has now reached even the naval libraries. When the those in the armed services are only permuted to read authorized books the U.S. of Eh is truly well on the way to authoritarianism and perhaps already is an oligarchy.

Steve Israel who represented New York in the House of Representatives for eight terms writes in part...

The New York Times reported that the U.S. Naval Academy is identifying books in the school’s Nimitz Library that may be pulled from circulation because they relate to so-called diversity, equity and inclusion. Among the 900 potential offenders: a biography of Jackie Robinson, “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.” and “Einstein on Race and Racism.”........

The move is part of the Trump administration’s campaign to purge its way through federal museums, concert halls and now the military. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — who might want to focus on threats closer to home, like how he communicates war plans — ordered the review......

(this)act of banning history books in a naval library is a betrayal of the men and women who keep us free.

The irony in this move is rich. In the name of freedom, we mustn’t let our future leaders do things like, oh, read what they want to read. We must treat them like snowflakes, so brittle and sensitive that they must be protected from the offensive views of Robinson, King, Einstein and whoever else is on the blacklist of the Navy Blue and Gold.........

Instead of supporting our warriors with libraries that will give them an unvarnished telling of history, the Pentagon has decided to whitewash it. Instead of encouraging critical thinking skills, the Navy has decided to dull them.

In a world of volatile, complex military threats; of cyberwarfare and an artificial intelligence arms race; of existential enemies like Iran nearing imminent development of a nuclear warhead; the Hegseth doctrine suggests that there is nothing to fear but ink on pages, bound on the shelves in the Navy library. In the war on so-called “cancel culture,” the U.S. military is canceling history.

When the leader of our neighboring country starts dictating what his military can read and think things are getting VERY scary, particularly when at the same time he is firing hundreds of leaders that do not conform to his twisted view of the world. Full article below....

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5228318-the-navy-cant-fight-for-freedom-while-banning-books/

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Special for our friends in the U.S. of Eh

 

I was recently watching a rather poor movie that was featuring individuals totally screwing up everything around them, it was so boring that I was switching back and forth between them and MSNBC programming just to pass the time, it got to the point where I could not tell the difference between the main actors, particularly when the feature individual was on screen!

Its getting bad when a President is more unpredictable and entertaining than a cheap movie, mind you I suspect most of the U.S. citizens do not view it that way. Frankly nor do the Canadians or the rest of the world.....A poor movie you can at least turn off, a poor President takes a bit more time and effort !!!

I hesitate to publish this opinion, there are far more qualified folks writing on this issue but for I am but an almost 80 year old man who had been around on two continents for a while who can perhaps see where this is going. Trumph himself brought up those WWIII words in treating a fellow leader who is currently being invaded by a hostile neighboring country as he was treated like one of the accompanying lackeys.

That we here in Canada right next door are in top a of a political upheaval as this goes all down does not help but I must give ALL our leaders both provincial and federal and incoming for pulling together on this one. We the general public are watching, DO NOT start fighting between you, work together for the good of CANADA against this sick leader to the south!

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The American Oligarchy

 For years, Oxfam—along with advocates and activists around the world—has argued that extreme concentration of wealth is leading to extreme concentration of power, allowing an ultra-rich few to tighten their grip on governments, economies, and media.

What is oligarchy?

Oligarchy is about the ability of an ultra-wealthy elite to shape political decision-making in ways that increase their wealth. Oligarchic power is ultimately rooted in wealth. The power of oligarchs is enabled by huge concentrations of wealth.

Given the massive amount of wealth and power that the ultra-rich have amassed, coupled with the way too many U.S. politicians have embraced them, it’s only fitting to use the term for the direction that America is headed.........

What about the electoral process? Don’t we all have equal power in that system? Not quite. We’ve seen 150 billionaire families spend a total of $1.9 billion in support of presidential and congressional candidates in 2024.

Right now, we’re getting a view into just how the ultra-rich have bought themselves a seat—if not a couch—in the Oval Office.  Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos are a few examples of the wealthy elite who have not only cozied up to president-elect Trump to influence policy, but also benefitted under previous administrations. So far, Trump has 13 billionaires—and counting—in his proposed administration whose total wealth is more than $450 billion. And even without Musk, Trump’s cabinet would be the richest in history..............

Trump’s blueprint for new oligarchy: three things to watch

First is a massive upward redistribution of wealth from everyday people, chiefly through a massive tax giveaway to the ultra-rich and to corporations.

Second is cutting away the public programs that we all rely upon and to take it a step further, privatizing programs to give them to profit-making corporations.

And third is taking a sledgehammer to the rules and referees that protect ordinary people from excessive corporate and monopoly power.

See https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/issues/economic-justice/is-the-us-witnessing-the-rise-of-oligarchy/

It seems to me that this has already been accomplished in just a few short weeks the only question remaining at this point being can the U.S. ….and indeed the rest of the world …... ever recover from this attack on our democracy and if so how many years will that take?

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Oh Canada, best Stand on Guard

I have not commented much here on the political climate anymore but the current total cluster fk both provincial and federal can hardly be let go by without sharing my disgust for most, if not all of both the incumbent and aspiring lot. The honest candidate who  speaks the truth and does not promise all kinds of things that he cannot deliver has little chance of getting elected and even less in having any real impact upon upon decisions made on our behalf.

The most egregious of the lot is Doug Fraud who decided to call an unneeded election when he already held a majority in the middle of the worst winter Ontario has seen in some years and so many folks have difficulty getting out of their driveways let alone to the voting location. Unfortunately it matters little who you vote for locally but what party they support, for it seems that a few at the top of whatever party gets in run the show..... its not as bad as the  new dictatorship emerging south of the border just yet but beware those that once they are elected think they are god!

Moving on, across Canada we have a change in the current leader and ultimately in all probability a general election where it will once again be more about the party and leader thereof than the local candidate. For a while there we had a minority government with two parties at least trying to work together for the good of the country but that collaboration recently crashed, again at the worst possible time, we may never know what lead to the break up but it sure was not the right time to add more turmoil to our governance.

It was good to see our leaders across the country all largely singing the same tune in support of our economy even though one premier was more interesting in selling her oil than showing a common front to he of the slash and burn regime next door. Given our close relationship with the U.S. of Eh and the massive changes already taking place down there by executive decree its going to be a tough few years both here, there and indeed world wide.

Buckle up folks, we are not quite to the point of building our bomb shelters just yet but it might be a good idea to stock up the pantry..... 

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Who do you believe?

 The BBC issued a February report that found “significant inaccuracies” with news summaries generated from artificial intelligence (AI) engines including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI.

“The answers produced by the AI assistants contained significant inaccuracies and distorted content from the BBC,” the outlet wrote in their report.

Their findings found 51 percent of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues, including a failure to differentiate between fact and opinion. 

Nineteen percent of AI answers which cited BBC content introduced factual errors – incorrect factual statements, numbers and dates, while 13 percent of the quotes sourced from BBC articles were either altered from the original source or not present in the article cited.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5138279-bbc-report-ai-summaries-inaccurate/

But don't worry you can always rely on King Trumph to give you a accurate synopsis!

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

Democracy is indeed Under Fire …... from all directions!

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History repeats itself?

 This was first published on this blog back in 2020 and is unfortunately even more relevant today with the news coming out of the U.S this week, Hang on to your hats folks!

“Earlier in his career the world had watched him with amusement, that people refused to take him seriously, and as one action after another met with amazing success, this amusement was transformed into incredulousness. It was inconceivable that such a thing could actually happen in our modern civilization. A madman had become the leader. Having classified him in this way you might think that all we need to do is to eliminate the madman from the scene of activities, replace him with a sane individual, and the world will again return to a normal and peaceful state of affairs. ….......

Focusing on the individual’s madness begs the question as to the sanity of society that created him as its spokesman and leader, that a reciprocal relationship exists between the leader and the people who spawned him. Removing such a leader is simply removing the overt manifestation of the disease. Focusing on the madman does not take us very far in understanding those who support him. “

The above is not a Psychological Analysis of Donald Trump but from a World War II report, “A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler,” for the Office of Strategic Services of the United States Government as brought to my attention by a long dissection of the American mindset by blogger Canadian Dimension

I will not pretend to be a great scholar or for that matter consumed with our southern neighbors current cluster fk but one cannot help but be concerned with where the country just south of us is headed given our close proximity both physical and economically. I can only say that from what news reports that highlight Trumps past and present unrestrained verbiage the above clip from an article about a former dictator who started in an elected official and in a short time took over government and eliminated any who opposed him that the parallels are scary..

Given the constant removal of qualified individuals from influential government positions to be replaced with Trump supporters the parallels are so obvious and troubling that the American electorate had best be praying that this smooth talking self promoting liar is removed from power in short order. I wish the American people the best of luck getting him to actually hand over the reigns of power and not further destroy what little democracy left in their country by fighting the results in the courts for months and possibly years to come.

Enough said......

 

 

America, what have you done?
You chose fascism over democracy.
You chose hate over hope, oligarchs over experts, patriarchy over equality.
You chose repression, theocracy, violence.
You chose anger, lies, insults, threats.
You chose a felon over a prosecutor.
You chose a dictator over the rule of law.
You chose Putin and his puppet.
Why?

 https://ianchadwick.com/blog/america-what-have-you-done/

 

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Genocide by starvation?

Having just heard that Netanyahu has just outlawed UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) the very last viable organization able to supply food the the thousands of displaced Palestinians already starving from the severe restrictions imposed by Israeli troops by destroying their homes and then blocking the daily convoys of trucks bringing food across the border.

I find it hard to believe that the Israeli citizens or indeed anyone world wide can support this genocide by starvation on top of the slaughter of thousands of innocent Gazan's, many of them women and children. There is little doubt that more than 70 years ago those of the Jewish faith were the subject of a far worse ethnic slaughter which makes it even more appalling that they should inflict an increasingly similar situation on others.

I despair for the peoples on both side of this conflict and indeed for the entire world as I watch the few in power in various nations across the world lead the rest of us into what could easily be the final conflict.

Born at the end of the last world war I am so glad that I near my final years and may not be around for the highly probable upcoming world wide conflict but fear for my children and indeed the future of all peoples of all ages and nations.

 

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Whats wrong with this picture...?

 State of Palestine Area
• Total
    6,020[9] km2 (2,320 sq mi)
• West Bank
    5,655 km2
• Gaza Strip
    365 km2
Population
• 2023 estimate 5,483,450

Gaza Strip/Area
Area: 141 sq mi (365 sq km). Population: (2024 est.) 2,229,000.
about 14,000 people per square mile (5,500 per square kilometer).

Israel Area
Area: 22,072 or 20,770 km2 (8,522 or 8,019 sq mi)
Population: 2024 estimate 9,900,000
The population density in Israel is 434 per Km2 (1,123 people per mi2).
It is unclear whats is and is not included in the above figures as per area and population.

As per Wikipedia
The sovereign territory of Israel excluding all territories captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War is approximately 20,770 square kilometers (8,019 sq mi). The total area under Israeli law, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, is 22,072 square kilometers (8,522 sq mi). The total area under Israeli control, including the military-controlled and partially Palestinian-governed territory of the West Bank, is 27,799 square kilometers (10,733 sq mi).

The Gaza–Israel conflict is a localized part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict beginning in 1948, when 200,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes, settling in the Gaza Strip as refugees. Since then, Israel has been involved in about 15 wars involving organizations in the Gaza Strip. The number of Gazans reportedly killed in the ongoing 2023–2024 war (37,000) is higher than the death toll of all other wars of the Arab–Israeli conflict.

As of 23 September 2024, over 43,000 people (41,431 Palestinian and 1,706 Israeli) have been reported as killed in the Israel–Hamas war, including 116-134 journalists and media workers according to various sources including over 224 humanitarian aid workers.

Whats wrong with this picture, I wont get into the current escalation …...just asking!

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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.

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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........

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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

 

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A Life of Learning.......

 After 75 plus years of life learning on this planet we call Earth the last 40 or so with a computer of one kind or another on my desk, almost 20 of those with the ability to share my thoughts on that newfangled thing call the 'internet', I thought it was time to take stock of my life. I suspect that given the necessary reduction of interaction with others outside of close family over the last year or more during the Covid thing that many folks much younger than I are rethinking their place in this world.

Some folks who have deeply religious or political convictions may have retreated into those polarizing beliefs, certainly many of our neighbors south of the border seem to be heading in that direction and demonstrating the danger of not thinking for ones self and following the heard. Personally I have never had strong political or religious beliefs except to think that perhaps a blind belief in either one (or both) may do more harm than good. This is not to say that we do not need a stable governing system and our democratic one is IMO about the best, but when it becomes too polarised and confrontational it defeats its purpose.

Much the same can be said of religion, although I can hardly speak authoritatively about it only recently having found that there is a definition of my 'beliefs' (or lack thereof), not that I am much for 'labels' the following sums up my thoughts fairly accurately

Humanists believe that human experience and rational thinking provide the only source of both knowledge and a moral code to live by, they reject the idea of knowledge 'revealed' to human beings by gods.

Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities.

Most humanists would agree with the ideas below:

• There are no supernatural beings.

• The material universe is the only thing that exists.

• Science provides the only reliable source of knowledge about this universe.

• We only live this life - there is no after-life, and no such thing as reincarnation.

• Human beings can live ethical and fulfilling lives without religious beliefs.

• Human beings derive their moral code from the lessons of history, personal experience, and thought.

Humanists reject the idea or belief in a supernatural being such as God. This means that humanists class themselves as agnostic or atheist. Humanists have no belief in an afterlife, and so they focus on seeking happiness in this life.

Apparently I may be an atheist but not an agnostic (damn labels again eh).......

An atheist doesn't believe in a god or divine being. ... However, an agnostic neither believes nor disbelieves in a god or religious doctrine. Agnostics assert that it's impossible for human beings to know anything about how the universe was created and whether or not divine beings exist.

I am not sure about that last bit for we learn more and more about the universe around us as our scientific and technical ability evolves, will we ever know all there is to know ...not a chance, but lets keep looking and sharing our finds with all of mankind. I don't know about 'divine beings' whatever the definition of those are, but I am totally convinced that other intelligent beings exist in the universe both less evolved than us and much greater. The question remains whether we manage to evolve much more before we destroy the ability of our world to support the life that developed from space dust over millions of years. Intelligent human beings, there are days when I start to wonder!

What may you ask brought on this introspective, my small handful of regular readers will know I have had very little to say on these pages in the past year or so, its not that I have nothing to say, for even if our situation federally is reasonably stable (for just a short while longer by the look of things) there is more than enough disasters building provincially in various governments across our country to comment upon. Its more that as I gradually move into my dotage I find that my mind outruns my ability to get my thoughts down on paper (actually on computer, my expressions are as old as my body) before have forgotten what I was going to say. I suspect this happens to most 'old' folks sooner or later and we know that for some folk it deteriorates into a total loss of memory and thinking skills, I sure hope I am not headed there and don't think I am but am acutely aware that I am not as 'sharp' as I was 5 years ago. I am sure my major stroke back then, from which I had 'a miraculous recovery' over the following year, has quite a bit to do with both my current thinking and what I view as my gradual inability to 'find' the right words at times.

I will leave you with this thought which sums things up quite nicely......

There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.
Donald Rumsfeld:

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Rural ERs on Life Support.

Life-saving efforts highlight importance of rural ERs, says Clarenville doctor

There was an explosion at the refinery in Come By Chance, about 45 kilometres down the Trans-Canada Highway on the isthmus of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula. Eight people were injured, some critically.

What followed was an event that experts say had the potential to overwhelm emergency services in even the busiest cities in Canada, but it was handled swiftly by a collaboration of paramedics, firefighters, pilots and staff, centred on a small eight-bed emergency department in Clarenville. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/come-by-chance-refinery-explosion-emergency-teams-gb-cross-1.6573580

I cannot help but wonder how many of our small rural hospitals across SW Ontario and elsewhere would have handled such an emergency. With the hospitals in many community's closed to emergency's due to staff shortages and even mothers expecting an imminent birth being told to travel an hour or more to one of the larger facilities it is clear that something must be done to retain and recruit nursing staff and rural physicians.

Ask the folks in Wingham, Listowel, Chesley, Clinton, St. Marys, Seaforth, Mount Forest, Chesley and even Listowel and many other areas how they feel about not knowing if their local emergency Dept will be available if and when needed.....

Kinda make one want to move to Newfoundland dont it, way to go Clarenville!

Update, the above is even more remarkable given that ........

As doctor shortages force numerous emergency room closures in Newfoundland and Labrador, Eastern Health says it has put extra stress on emergency departments in the capital city.

In a statement, the health authority says both the Health Sciences Centre and St. Clare's Mercy Hospital in St. John's are dealing with "unprecedented pressures resulting in long wait times for patients."

 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/eastern-health-emergency-departments-1.6578719

 

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The Weakening of Democracy.

 “One of the biggest reasons for the weakening of democracy is the profound change that’s taken place in how we communicate and consume information,” Barack Obama, April 21 2022

In his presentation at Stanford University on Thursday, former U.S. President Barack Obama presented his audience with a stark choice: “Do we allow our democracy to wither, or do we make it better?” Having in a small way over the last decade tried to do my small part in protecting and promoting our Canadian democracy via my writings on these pages but now in my dotage and finding it hard to find the words to express my concerns with where our democratic institutions both here and elsewhere across the world are headed I can but offer a few more of Obama's words for consideration.

“One of the biggest reasons for the weakening of democracy is the profound change that’s taken place in how we communicate and consume information,” he said. “Do we allow our democracy to wither, or do we make it better?” Obama asked. “That is the choice.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine "isn't happening in a vacuum, autocrats and aspiring strongmen have become emboldened around the globe. They're actively subverting democracy. They're undermining hard-won human rights. They're ignoring international law."

"Right here in the United States of America," Obama continued, "we just saw a sitting president deny the clear results of an election and help incite a violent insurrection at the nation's Capitol. Not only that, but a majority of his party, including many who occupy some of the highest offices in the land, continue to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the last election and are using it to justify laws that restrict the vote and make it easier to overturn the will of the people in states where they hold power."

“But not all problems we’re seeing now are an inevitable byproduct of this new technology. They’re also the result of very specific choices, made by the companies that have come to dominate the internet generally, and social media platforms in particular. Decisions that intentionally or not have made democracies more vulnerable,” “At the end of the day the internet is a tool, social media is a tool. At the end of the day tools don’t control us. We control them. And we can remake them,” Obama said. 

The phrase that got my attention and encouraged me to post this commentary was his description of what is happening mostly via 'social media, that being “ flooding a country’s public square with enough raw sewage that citizens no longer know what to believe,” The full quote, with which as a non subscriber to any 'social media' I fully agree with, follows......

“People like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and Steve Bannon for that matter, understand it’s not necessary for people to believe this information in order to weaken democratic institutions. You just have to flood a country’s public square with enough raw sewage. You just have to raise enough questions, spread enough dirt, plant enough conspiracy theorizing, that citizens no longer know what to believe,” Obama said. (Bannon is a former strategist for former President Trump.)

“Once they lose trust in their leaders, mainstream media, in political institutions, in each other, the possibility of truth — the game’s won,” he added.

Enough said, unfortunately I have been unable to post a link to the full text of his speech as I have been unable to find a printed transcript !

Update... Here is a link to a transcript, well worth readung as democracy is indeed under attack!

 https://reclaimthenet.org/transcript-of-president-barack-obamas-speech-at-stanford-april-21-2022/

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Awaiting Evils End......

 

As we await the whole of Mother Earth to shudder in destruction by Russia's idiot or North Korea's completely insane leader a fellow senior sums it up in this brief poetic composition.

The world it seems has lost its mind

Leaders so drunk on power to find

To kill mother and child, evil to bide

Sick minds, planet earth, no place to hide.

Eyes of the devil himself, seen of late

Weapons to try, innocent people he hates

Hell is here, the home where he bides

It is time world, let evil find, no place to hide.

WSB

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