There was a documentary on the PBS about the demise of newspapers. Of course you would never see anything like this on Canadian TV, too much important people info and the advertisers would not be amused. Even TVO would not carry THIS KIND OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL. The station considers Polkadot Door the limit of adult fare. The PBS offering was called, ” Stop The Presses “. It was revealed that North American papers have lost 97% of their stock value in the last 4 years. If you factor in the Toronto Star / Rob Prichard debt of $ 500 million the Paper is virtually worthless. And now largely irrelevant. Membership in the journalist’s organization in the US has dropped from 54,000 to 37,000 since 2007. The American National Post and the setting Sun are losing money, have lost 25 % of their paid circulation and both have laid off senior staff. Every paper now has interns [ low paid / no paid young people ] who are either misinforming or missing the real stories. We could and should be creating GOOD JOBS for the young but the elites are clinging to the status quo. Paul Godfrey and Pierre Peladeau who live in la la land with Harper won’t say how many layoffs.. The Star is the worst hit and I can understand why. In 4 years John Honderich has gone from having a circulation of 3.2 million paid reader down to 2 million. His paper is in free fall. The Star’s situation is unique. It has always been the people’s Paper and continues to claim it is. Bullcrap. In trying to catch up with American cut throatism and all the other advertiser friendly papers the Star has done a complete 180. But much too late. Trying to change horses in midstream never carries the day. In trying to grab extra cash by printing Harper Government propaganda, too and advertiser approved copy too, Honderich has angered his base. He has forsaken them. When you break trust in a relationship the goodenss goes, never to return. He is losing his loyal readership and failing to replace them with new readers. The right won’t read the Star, no how. One can understand the switch, what with an American publisher and all. It is sort of like a rerun of the New Coke fiasco. Coke’s CEO got cooked for his mistake. But in the Star’s case it will be the Star that gets cooked. At a recent conference the owners / publishers of the Canada’s biggest papers had a news conference with Ken Whyte [ one of the rabid right writers from Alberta Report / Preston Manning / Ted Byfield days ] of Maclean’s moderating. The got together to whine about their woes. The blind leading the blind I’d say. Paul Godfrey who is running an American paper in Canada [ contrary to the law but being that he is a friend of Herr Harper what else can we expect ? ] [ all the advertising now appearing in the Post does not qualify to be deducted as a business expense ] [ All the Shell pay-back ads in the Post are no longer legally acceptable as business expenses ] [ Revenue Can. should be notifying advertisers like Shell that putting ads in the Post will no longer qualify for tax breaks ] [ tax breaks come straight out of the underclass taxpayer's pockets ] [ Revenue Can. is now an arm of Herr Harper's Government so I am sure they will look the other way, they will be much too busy helping SUN TV stage phony events ] [ I'll bet Paul Godfrey's illegal Post will be permitted to continue to operate illegally under Harper's wing ] [ The way into the throne room is to Print Harper's lies and the cheques kep on coming ]. Our Fascist / Conservatives cheat on a regular basis all across the board. The old / failing newsies would never think to look in the mirror to see who is really to blame for their demise. themselves. Hell no, like the right always does, they have to find someone else to blame. This time it is Google etc don’t you know? That bad Google is stealing all of Godfrey’s material. Will you give me a moment to go around the corner and park my cookies. I make use of Google constantly and the info I am always looking for would NEVER BE FOUND IN THE NATIONAL POST. Paul’s writer, you know the ones who fill in the little areas between, advertiser friendly copy, boilerplate [ Reuters / Bloomberg / NYT ], diversion [ gardening /wine ], stock tips, anti global coverage from Terry Cocoron / Peter Foster / Lawrence Solomon ] and the few advertisers the Post has left. The Post’s writers John Ivison, Andrew Coyne, Claudia Cattaneo, Kevin Lubin, Lorne Gunter et al all have brains which have been marinated in a thick brew of right wing ideology. They might actually know stuff but it never comes out when filtered through right think and right group think. The papers have become nothing more than propaganda bulletin boards displaying the wares of whoever if paying them, the US oil cartel, the nukies, special interest groups like the Fraser Institute and governments. I am amazed at what Paul Godfrey, John Honderich, Phil Crawley and Pierre Peladeau think they can get away with in terms of misinformation, lies and charades. Read something in one of the newspapers which will be copied hundreds of times in other papers, then check for the real story on the net. You will see TWO DIFFERENT PLANETS. Which planet do you want to live on? Earth? Or the planet that Harper occupies? Year ago eight US universites started the net by linking their computers via phone lines to transfer documents , reports and technical data. The US Navy then got into the act and started to put all of their communications on linked computers. It was all free. The very first E-Mail was sent in 1996. I don’t have to tell you where things have gone for the old line media since then, down. Younger people have quickly mastered the net and older folk are moving over too but at a slower rate. Want to know something? Anything you need is instantly on the net. News stories are posted within an hour of happening. In a paper you would not see that item for at least a day or maybe two. The net is not stealing your stuff Mr. Godfrey. If anything Godfrey’s wriyers are stealing info OFF THE NET. If a story is touchy and it affects any of the advertisers the story will be spun or not printed at all. That story WILL BE ON THE NET. So Godfrey, Honderich, Crawley, Peladeau and Whyte are all lost out in space, no longer relevant. Paying attention to politicians and advertisers is what most newspapers have been doing for the last 25 years. Allowing one to tell a lie without suffering the consequences has embolden the rest. Now the right / white / rich 20% can say anything they please and even stage phony programming as Peladeau did on SUN TV for Harper. The papers ruled the roost for 100 years, they owned the presses. People like me could not get a word in edgewise. The US oil cartel could in the past organize a media blitz, pay the papers big bucks and say anything they damn well pleased. Hiltler control the press by force. In North Ameria the press was and still is controlled by cash from advertiser’s and politician’s. But the gig’s up. There is another game in town, it is called the net. Godfrey wants his friend Harper to step in and stop what he calls theft of Post material by clamping down on the net. book burning is alive and well in Canada. I’d say to Paul and all the others, what you have informationwise in your papers is next to useless in terms of where real life is at and what citizens need to know to get through the day. I [ meaning me ] GET NOTHING FROM THE POST OTHER THAN TO SEE WHAT THE RIGHT IS SAYING AND WHERE THEIR NEXT BIG SCREW UP WILL BE. If you have been reading me you will note that I am quite current. I understand the stories before they happen. The reason is the paper moguls are so stupid that they telegraph their every more ahead of time. This fight between Ezra LeRant and Minister James Moore over the CBC is just another put on show like the SUN TV immigrant”s charade. This phony boxing match using mashmello gloves has been orchestrated in the PMO to put people off the track. Harper wants rid of the CBC because the Corporation TELLS THE TRUTH. Good goalies know the moves of regular players, say, always going to the right. I found looking to the right but shooting to the left worked well. So the papers have no useful purpose in terms of things that matter. As Harper continues in his quest to tear Canada apart people will more and more want the inside scoop. They won’t get it from the Post, Sun, star, Globe and others. The CBC is the only TV / radio outlet that tells the truth in this Country and I will FIGHT TO SEE THAT THE NETWORK CONTINUES TO DO ITS’ GOOD WORK. The Sun / Peladeau have a contract with Herr Harper to damage the CBC’s image. I would like to have a Parliamentary Committee investigate how much the PeeM is paying Peladeau? Mind, this could be a waste of Committee time as it could be the the Sun is being paid by the US oil cartel? That would be a job for Vivian ” Fair Questions.com ” Krause. What do the oilies pay Peladeau? This should be easy for Viv, a long time rightie already being paid by the oilies [ fair questions from Viv? I don't think so ]. Ezra Le Rant is on their payroll too. I know this because our boy says such outrageous oilie stuff. It is one big happy family of Canadians taking cash to betray their country [ Harper, Peladeau, Le Rant and Krause et al ]. I would suggest that people boycott the Sun and Sun TV. Why support people who are out to destroy YOUR Nation? On Feb. 4 / 12 John Ivison wrote a piece about the Gateway Pipe line and the tar sands. If ever there was a piece of oilie propaganda this is it. The cartel people, like Herr Harper never level with anyone. They just make stuff up. Of course Ivison is an air head, he has a right wing chip in his brain, does what he is told, never consults the net for the true facts [ If Ivison actually checks the net and still produces this kind of disreputable copy then he truly is disreputable ] and writes things down without ever saying, ” Hey wait a minute “? It is a perfect example of why Godfrey and the Post are going bye bye. Paul is caught between an oil derrick and the bill collector. The Post chain went broke under Lennie Asper’s gross mismanagement. The underclass [ people like us] lost all their receivables and the ubermen got richer. Corcoron and Coyne think this screw the little guy is just peachie keen. If I live long enough I expect to meet both Terry and Andy at the food bank. Acting as obedient assistants to the chief parasites doesn’t have much of a future. Asper, after fumbling the ball later put HIS money into another TV venture. How come Lennie kept HIS MONEY while the little people all got screwed??? Anyway the only buyer for the National Post chain was Wall St. hedge money to the tune of more than a 90% share. This IS illegal but what the hey? Godfrey loses money each quarter because the hard right wing agenda DOESN’T SELL. It never has. The only way the ideology on the right works is in situations where the ubermen are in control. It follows that when ubermen are in control democracy goes out the window. If necessary the right will part the Red Sea to grab the tiller no matter how much taxpayer’s money is used. The Post is needed as an outlet for right wing babble but must somehow hold onto the readers, enticing them to still BUY PAPERS. The right / white / rich 20% in Canada do not have enough money to fully support the Post / Sun chains. The elites like spending OUR MONEY to enslave us not their’s. By buying the Post YOU are paying for your own daily brainwashing. By bowing meekly to Harper’s wip hand you are giving away the future of your children / grandkid. If you are prepared to just sit on your asses and watch the Canada we know and love just wither away? The question then is. Is it fair FOR YOU TO DECIDE on this do nothing course of action without input from your family? Should they not have a say as to whether they too go under with the ship you are helping sink? This I demand of you. You must pledge to give your children and the generations that come after a better world than what you were handed instead of meekly surrendering to the greedy right. GREED HAS NO PLACE IN MY CANADA. Maybe Herr Harper’s jails will come in handy after all? I am for locking up the greedy, like Conrad Black and Brian Mulroney and throwing the key away. Now for John Ivison’s piece of Feb. 4 / 12. ” Refinery dreams and pipe line realities “, reads the headline. The sub heading says, ” Exporting raw bitumen makes economic sense “. I ask, economic sense for who? And I will answer my own question, the US oil cartel. Are you surprised that the oilies would say such a thing? This is the pitch. Say you [ reading this post ] have a large chunk of property on which gold nuggets have been found. A multinational comes along and says to you, we’ll buy you dirt for 25 bucks a truck load. Now when the truck load is processed in another jurisdiction it nets $ 1500 less costs which might run to $ 250. That looks to me like a straight profit for the multi of $ 1225. Nice pickins. Now what if you begin to think of processing your own gold. By cutting out the trucking and doing the job in situ you’d make the full $1500 and have lower costs like CEO pay, bribes to politicians etc. Now Our boy John has written an article that tells you why doing your own thing is such a terrible idea. He says to Albertans, it is to your advantage to just let your raw tar go for cheap to the oilies. After all he says, Canadians have a long and honoured heritage of selling trees, hauling water and such. So what else is new? I must hand it to Paul Godfrey for finally coming clean. Since the 1st Sept. / 12 the Post has never, like in never admitted that bitument [ Dil Bit / diluted bitument ] [ tar, lighter fluid, sand and chemicals ] would be coursing through the Keystone / Gateway pipe lines. The word bitument appeared for the first time in the Post on the fourth of Feb. under Ivison’s name Now, I must say Godfrey just didn’t come clean of his own accord. Brian Topp, a candidate in the national NDP leadership race spoke out against this theft of Alberta’s bitument. Topp said, ” Canada is throwing away its’ economic future when we anchor our economy, our currency and our public revenues to resources that can be processed here “. Brian is 100% right and a big decision is going to have to be made RIGHT NOW. Is Canada going to turn the clock back 100 years to a time when other countries got rich on our natural resources? Peter Lougheed has called for the bitument to be upgraded and refined right in Fort McMurray. Ivison pooh poohs both Topp and Lougheed because all the oil men he has talked to think it is a bad idea. Apparently according to John the US oil cartel has a number of refineries off shore which are shut or operating below capacity. So what, says me? Is Ivison and the Fascist / Conservative Party saying Albertans should chip in to help the poor cartel out by giving away resources? Right. Go ahead and give your tar away. EXXON just announce a $41 billion profit for the year. Hiding the world oil glut and manipulating refinery activity in North America is very profitable for the Company. Since most of this money is taken right out of the pockets of the American underclass I think President Obama should confiscate about 20 billion of the proceeds and put it towards job creation. This Ivison piece is full of misinformation, spin and many of facts have been left out, he will get his oilie cheque. No wonder Herr Harper is allowing this illegal Paper to continue to operate, break the law and mislead Canadians. The Post is doing its’ part in trying to convice Canadians that Harper’s land-of-wishful- thinking actually exists. This article is not news. It is an advertisement written by the Post on behalf of the US oil cartel. Do you buy the Post or frequent its’ advertisers in order for you to read oilie propaganda exclusively? And finally Ivison shows his complete dishonesty by quoting a so called veteran economist, James Gillies who once said, ” There is nothing disgraceful about being hewers of wood and drawers of water, if that is where you find your competitive advantage “. I thought to myself, where did this bullshit come from? And who is James Gillies when he is home? On the net I find that Jim is a former Conservative member of Parliament and 87 years old. Completely neutral wouldn’t you say and seeing he is from Toronto there is really great concern on his part for Albertans. The National Post is poison to Canada. The sooner we deal with this situation the better. The Post has lost money ever since Conrad Black open the doors. When Connie sold the Paper chain to the Aspers he was already in the hole for $ 210 million. And the Post calls Black a great Canadian businessman??? Do Godfrey’s writers EVER SAY ANYTHING SMART??? Or as is always the case, repeat right wing group think and get a pat on the head each morning for singing the company song. Alberta has to rejig the tar sands with the view to maximizing the returns the PEOPLE IN THAT PROVINCE RECEIVE FROM THEIR HERITAGE. THIS MUST BE THE ONE AND ONLY TARGET FOR TONIGHT. To do this the Province’s only option is to work closely with all the other provinces to create a Canadian Energy Cartel [ one for all ]. If the Yanks can do so why can’t we? Bullies only understand one thing, a clenched fist in the face.
The demand for gas in the US has fallen 20 % in just 4 years and the trajectory downward is increasing. The Americans DON’T NEED OUR OIL. Regular crude or oil made from bitument. They never will need it again. That story is over. Sorry. As stated demand is going down and shale oil and nat. gas have now been found within the USA. Enough to supply most of their needs in house in what is now a much poorer Country. Fracking for oil and nat. gas can threaten the underground aquifers but the States being the States, if the underclass has to do without fresh clean water, tough say thye ubermenon the right. I have lived a lot of years and seen many historical events but to witness the death of the USA, the death of newspapers, the death of GM and the death of the US oil cartel [ one member being EXXON ] is hard to grasp. The thread connecting all of these passing is the flawed American character. The Keystone / Gateway are the last gasps for those who control the oil business, so desperate to hang on. The only oilie markets are now outside the US. The cartel’s infrastructure is IN THE US and oriented TOWARDS THE USA. How do they convert to that new reality. If your gas pumps are in Cowtown US and it has just become a ghost town how do you move the equipment 150 miles to a new location? Speaking as a businessman I would concentrate on developing new venture elsewhere maybe even outside of oil. I’d keep profits up, strip the Cowtown station clean, pay the outstanding bill / taxes and if possible sell the property. Now the oilies don’t operate like that. They’d recover what was valuable in Cowtown and leave the mess and the unpaid bills / taxes. Grabbing free Alberta tar is an attempt to keep profits up by stealing from Albertans. This is not business it is pure theft. This free raw tar and lighter fluid will keep the now idle cartel refineries humming for a short while till the oilies can catch their breath. There is nothing like getting a break at someone elses expense especially when they don’t know their pocket is being picked thanks to the Post / Sun / Harper. Everyone wants China as a customer now. Once the Cartel has access to Alberta’s tar there will be no turning the tap off. It is my sense the US oil cartel [ EXXON ] eventually will sell EVERYTHING out to the Chinese. Then instead of supplying raw tar to the Yankees we will become hewers of wood and drawers of water in service to the Chinese. Harper’s friend Jim Gillies says be proud of your place in life. Herr Harper is setting us up to contribute handsomely to the exit of the US oil cartel from the business. In the going this small group will take a tanker load of green backs with them to some distant isle. Once China takes over the oil business the Gateway pipe line system will be expanded to include more pipes. The BC coast will be crowded with tankers taking tar, lighter fluid, sand and chemicals away across the Pacific and coming the other way will be tankers full of lighter fluid. All the garbage, poisons and CO2 will be left for those in BC and Alberta and the rest of Canada to clean up. Under this China scenerio the Keystone pipe will be reduntant as regards Dil Bit. However as the PeeM promised the Yankees it will be used to pipe Canadian water down to a very dry Texas. There will be such a small Government left in Ottawa that it will be incapable of uttering a single bleep as the water leaves this fair land. If you keep putting up with Harper’s abuse and listening to his blarney you will wake up one day in the not too distant future and find yourself little more than a slave dragging blocks up the side of the great pyramid. But all is not lost my friend. Stay with me. There is a Fire Exit that the Post, Star, Globe and Sun will N E V E R E V E R M E N T I O N.
One of the main moves right wingers make is to set one group against another. Added to this is an attempt to limit or stop the flow of information. In Canada that would be a difficult task right now but Harper is trying hard. The next best thing is to misinform, confuse, falsify copy, mislead and make people anxious. Medicare, pensions and prisons are good examples. Both the Post and the Sun do exactly that and are paid to do so by Harper. Alberta’s market for oil and nat. gas is gone, long gone. The obvious first step is to find a new market in which these resources bring the largest financial benefit to Albertans while reducing the environmental footprint [ CO2 ] [ tailing ponds ] [ poisoning rivers ] [ consuming too much water ]. It is obvious to me that the market in the east which consists of 23 million fellow Canadians who NOW LIVE ON IMPORTED OIL AND NAT. GAS. This new market is staring everyone except Harper, Oliver, Godfrey, Ivson and their oil buddies in the face. Looking eastward also bring into view the deep water port of Churchill Man. just 420 miles away from Fort McMurray along the 55th, which would allow Alberta to plug into the world market on its’ own hook. This is what I see. All of the tar sands would be converted to oil, in situ by using hydro electricity from Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. This would mean clean / cheap / secure KWs. Alberta’s electrical system is privately owned and now run by American crooks. TransAlta, a US owned Company has just got caught cheating Albertans out of $ 5.5 million. The Company pulled an ENRON by manipulating the electrical market. This is just like the US oil cartel. American companies are big into manipulation, they love to screw Canadians. Look at Caterpillar, egged on by Harper. TransAlta was fined just $ 370,000 for the theft. So cheaters do prosper in Alberta with the Government’s help. Five mill is a tidy result from stealing. So TransAlt got a gift of $ 5 million from the citizens without their knowledge. I think bringing eastern hydro into the tar sands may well be the wave of the future in terms of extending eastern water KWs to Edmonton and Calgary. Green / clean / cheap hydro would reduce the cost of electricity to all Albertans and be controlled by the new Government of Alison Redford. I say throw the cheats at TranAlta out. Send them home with all the Republican, oil cartel people in Calgary Ted Morton and Tom Flanagan, the resident American draft dodgers.
Here my take on the tar sands. The US oil cartel and Alberta have been going together for a long time, possibly 40 years. The cartel has got much the better of the deal over the years and has now abandon the Province through greed driven mismanagement and the unexpected death of the US of A. And now Alberta’s oil, bitument and nat. gas have no place to go. To add insult to injury even though the cartel has abandon her it is sneaking back to steal some of her possessions. But as tough as things are there is a silver lining to this tale. All the companies operating in the tar sands area ARE ONLY LEASING THE LAND. IT IS STILL OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ALBERTA. The oilies who lease the land did so without having had any restrictions placed upon them. There are no responsiblities to ensure that Albertans benefit from this enterprise nor are there any obligations to respect the environment. If one looks at the long history of America it is evident that this once great Country was constructed on the back of slaves and this tendency continue to this day. Take everything you can muscle from other countries and give back as little as possible. The Keystone / Gateway projects fit this template perfectly. They both are based on stealing Alberta’s raw bitument and taking it offshore with little regard for the risks of pipe ruptures to BC and Alberta as well as the industrial garbage CO2 / tailing ponds / poisoned rivers / overuse of water resources that will be left behind. This rape of our Country is being orchestrated by Herr Harper who as each day passes shows his true colours, letting the Yanks take what they want, no questions asked. Caterpillar has stiff armed London Ont. US Steel bought Stelco and stiff armed Hamilton. Anglo-Australian bought Alcan and stiff armed Alma Quebec and now the US oil cartel is going to stiff arm Alberta by way of the Keystone / Gateway. It is time we strapped on a stiff spine our very selves. My thinking is that we investigate the Caterpillar situation minutely and see what committments have made to Canada in return for subsidies. Apparently investments have been made in Caterpillar and under the circumstances these should be repaid immediately. During this investigation all of Caterpillar’s assets in this Country should be seized and held until there is a resolution. If I were the London City Council and the Unions I’d put up a wire fence around the EMD plant and bar entry by Doug Oberhelman. In fact if Doug shows his face in this Country I would throw him in the clink, evidence or no evidence. Isn’t this what the Yankees do?Further Ottawa and the provinces should ban Caterpillar / EMD products from the Nation. This blends nicely into my next comments.
With no market for Alberta oil, bitument and nat. gas we have a clean slate. As stated the obvious market for the foregoing is eastern Canada. And in the process of pumping finished oil and nat. gas via the Twin Beaver pipe line from Fort McMurray along the 55th parallel down to Toronto, Montreal and the Maritimes there will be access by spur to Churchill, Manitoba’s deep water port and world oil / LNG markets. Those companies now extracting tar will be forced to sell cheap to the new Canadian upgraders and refineries in Fort McMurray. The fire sale will happen because there will be no other game in town. New rules and regulations will be drawn up as to royalties, tidy work places, minimum emissions, NO TAILING PONDS and closed water systems. It will be possible to pipe water from Hudson Bay utilizing cheap eastern hydro, along the existing 55th right-of-way to the tar sands. These kinds of good citizen practises [ a clean environment ] will be made possible when so much more of the money generated will be retained in Alberta instead of being syphoned off by the US oil cartel. EXXON will have to look elsewhere for its’ unjustifiable profits as it seeks to wind its’ business down behind our backs. The jig is almost up for the US oil cartel which has spent tens of millions trying to hold back the Green energy revolution. Terry Corcoron, Peter Foster, Rex Murphy, Lawrence Solomon, Jack Mintz, Lorrie Goldstein et all have done yeoman service trying to misinform and confuse the energy issue. I think the oilies are smart uberman and at some point they will decide that there is no point in throwing good money after wasted money. All the writers above will end up flipping hamburgers, if they can in fact find jobs. who wants to employ a former fiction writer. I think Caterpillar has heavy equipment being used in the tar sands. I like the idea of passing legislation like the US EPA regarding diesel locomotives which imposes strict limits on emissions. We could make operators take Caterpillar equipment out of service until Doug Oberhelman, CEO of caterpillar complies with emission standards. To get our money back we should impose a steep tariff on all Caterpillar equipment and parts coming into Canada. To avoid lawsuits surely this Country has the right to protect itself by controlling emissions here. Harper has said he doesn’t have to pay attention to the Courts. why then should we??? Now that’s a job I would like to do for you. I’d investigate what the EPA is now requiring the makers of diesel locomotives to do as regards emissions and particulate matter [ I am already aware that there are new rules ]. Caterpillar has bought Electro- Motive Diesel which makes locomotives so they will have to comply. Since the EPA is so concerned about dirty locomotives running around the USA should we not be concerned about all the Caterpillar equipment running around the tar sands? Oberhelman will have to meet his commitments to the EPA as regards train engines so he’ll have to do the same thing with his trucks and equipment in Canada. Until such time as he complies the equipment should remain idle here. Since the tar sands will be operating at a much reduced rate due to the transition to finished oil production in situ the lack of some equipment will not be a big inconvenience. If Doug Oberhelman likes to place hard ball why don’t we oblige.
We now have a global economy and the old approach won’t work. Large corporations will sell where they want and have things made where they want. Of course the owners of large companies will want to have things made in low wage countries and sell in high wage countries. The fractured economies of western countries lends itself to exploitation in that businesses have so much clout with politicians. Our leaders are now in a race to bribe companies to come, stay or expand. It is a race to the bottom in North America. Slave wages here we come. Taxpayers are being hung out to dry and the likes of Caterpillar and GM thumb their noses at the underclass. Not only did Harper and Mcguinty give GM money to build the VOLT [ the cheatmobile ], Canadians also contributed to the building of the Company Research Centre just east of Oshawa. Just as you approach the right hand bend on Hwy 401 going into the City look toward the Lake. The centre was built mostly with taxpayer’s money to produce hydrogen cars for the Vancouver Olympics. It never happened and the media just forgot about yet another big waste of our money. When the CAW picketed after GM closed the truck plant down I visited the Union members and urged to seize the empty Reseach Centre and build hydrogen / ICE Silverado pickups from GM parts. It was a truck too far however, the members were not sure of their situation and optioms. My solution to the ongoing hollowing out of Canada and it fits this Country’s situation perfectly is to create an economy and system that makes us self sufficient. Vertically integration it is called. You can have a huge business making TV and outsource all of the control knobs from the cheapest places possible. One day a tsunami sweeps across the country and your year’s supply of knobs, the jigs and tooling disappears. YOU MY FRIEND ARE OUT OF BUSINESS. Alberta with no market for oil, tar or nat. gas, Premier Redford, YOU ARE OUT OF BUSINESS. Henry Ford even in the teens and twenties outsourced parts. He provided the jigs to private businesses and trained the owners to make parts. However he had a small plant in which duplicate jigs were kept operational. Henry could make every part he needed in house. This was not widely known. The odd contractor took it that he could squeeze Ford for more money by withholding products. Remember all the jigs and system belonged to Ford. When blackmail commenced Henry would fire up the in house jigs to make parts. Then he would organize men, trucks and the police and swoop down on the blackmailer. Everything owned by Ford would be taken including in stock parts. Afterwards I don’t know whether anyone dared to take Ford to Court. I am suggesting Canada become a fortress and at times pulls up the draw bridge. In the 1920s the US only exported 10% of what it grew or made. The economy was almost in balance. Canada has the same kind environment wherein nobody can control our economy. When Sir John Franklin set out to find the North West Passage his ships, the Erbus and Terror were provisioned for about 3 1/2 years. Everything they need was on board. [ By the way Franklin disobeyed orders from the Navy and this caused the lost of all his men and the ships ]. Canada has the same opportunity to become self sufficient. So that the global preditors can’t lay a glove on us. No more Caterpillars. The first step has to be gaining control of all the energy levers, electricity, oil, nat. gas, and coal must be taken into our hands. Possibly public / private partnerships but wherein Canadians have the final say. The provinces own most of the electrical systems other than Alberta. And in this case TransAlta, a US Company has proven to be untrustworthy. Who knows how long TransAlta has been cheating Albertans. But closing down this Company will be relatively easy with the introduction of eastern hydro electricity into the tar sands and eventually to Edmonton and Calgary. There is a another possiblity here. Alberta and Saskatchewan both have coal. Green / clean / cheap hydro can be used in the installation of clean coal technology. It is called Carbon Conversion. Wherein coal CO2 is captured and then converted into a benign power which can be put in a landfill. This process was developed by UBC for the tar sands but the US oil cartel won’t look at it. The tar sands as suggested should come under Alberta’s Government in terms dealing with the other provinces in order to pool energy to the benefit of all. Every part of Canada would get its’ oil and nat. gas from Alberta. Every part of Country would share the Cross Canada Electrical Grid. Prices would be set to insure profitibilty for all of the players but there would be not shocks from outside. World prices of energy, first way up then way down would of no interest other than when Alberta sell its’ oil and LNG. Storage facilities at Churchill would mean these resource could be sold when the price was the highest. Marketing boards for the various foods would be instituted, strengthened or brought back like the Can. Wheat Board. This would give our people a guarantee of having the best food and those in the agricultural industry finacial stability. Outside interests would have to deal with these boards. Foreign companies operating in Canada would to play by OUR rules. Don’t like dealing with a secure, stable and prosperous people who can pay their bills, then go home. I’ d take over the GM plant in Oshawa and kick out the Yankees. I’d manufacture hydrogen [ ICE ] vehicles and electric cars there, possibly under licence. In the London plant just vacated by Caterpillar I would encourage Bombardier to manufacture the coming Sky Liners [ elevated, electrical, rubber tired, wide bodied trains ] which will run on tracks circling Toronto to begin with and eventually be made available to other Canadian cities. In TO this line would encircle the City from Scarborough Town Centre west to Pearson, from the airport to Union Station and back up to the STC. All of the track, pillars, stations and equipment would be made in Windsor, Oshawa, Kingston, North Bay etc. Nothing made beyond our borders. Possibly some items would be made under licence but inveriably local conditions point improvement and then you have your own unique products. I would like to see all of the upgraders, refineries and equipment to process the tar made in Alberta. The pipe for the Twin Beaver would be Canadian pipe made by a seized Stelco. This pipe installed by Canadian construction companies. Ontario would close all its’ nuclear plant as new Brunswick and Quebec are already doing. Ontario’s remaining coal plants would stay open and use the same clean coal technology to be used in Alta. and Sask. Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and BC would develop new / common hydro electric equipment [ new space age water turbines ] which would all be manufactured in the affected provinces. This activity would require increased demand for University graduates in all these fields, many of them entirely new technologies. Maybe the University of Calgary could get rid of all the right / Republican / draft dodger and oilie insiders and stop kissing the asses of the US oil cartel people to graduate enginners who can build and maintain upgraders and refineries. Union membership would be encouraged in all of these integrated energy industries with the understanding that in situations where a monoploy exists the no strike / no lock out rule would prevail. There are many more ideas as how to make this Nation totally self sufficient. We would serve our own needs first then export if there was a surplus like the US did 90 years ago. No country in the world would be able to compete with our products because Canada would not be subjected by outside shocks like the OPEC crisis of 1973. There would be no replays of the US oil cartel stealing Alberta’s bitumen or Caterpillar taking a powder. I want WE THE PEOPLE to have our own hands on the steering wheel without being interfered with by anyone including the Americans and their pal Herr Harper.
I have covered a lot of ground. I am trying to open your mind to the possiblities for a much better, more prosperous life. You don’t have to put up with the political abuse now being inflicted upon you and stand helpless as the wealth of this Nation is being carried away. Have you ever heard any of these suggestions / exciting options from the media or your elected representatives. There are many ways we can break free from the Americans and others, become self sufficient and chart our own course. There is a whole world out there that is leaving Canada behind and this progressive activity is going on behind your back. But I am stuck with the fact that you voted for them and you watch TV and buy papers. Collectively they continue to fool a great number of you because YOU allow them to fool you. You are going to be fooled right into hell if you don’t wake up
A Closing Note — There has been more on the Caterpillar situation in London Ont. Of interest to me this date was a dishonest piece by Andrew Coyne on the subject. I have watched / read Andrew over the years and could never quite figure him out. I am free enterprise, right wing businessman with the emphasis on businessman. The world is a different place when you have to make payroll week after week through thick and thin. As like so many writers on the right Coyne doesn’t seem to have EVER HAD A REAL JOB. My investigation reveals he was in university, wrote for university papers and them began to write for the larger media. So all that Andrew says or writes is based on the university community or the right wing community experiences. Sometimes Coyne is far right and sometimes closer to my thinking. Lately I have been able to get a better fix on him. He like so many on the right is a fuzzy thinker and shock jock to boot. Michael Coren and Margaret Wente are the same, they know what hot buttons to push to get a rise out of the public. Poking the readership is supposed to sell papers but I don’t think that works any more. On the other hand Andrew, Michael and Margaret are oldies like the papers they work for. All concerned are living in the past. Being a fuzzy thinker on the right helps one’s career, no problems with advertisers, especially the oilies. With limited knowledge and an unclear brain one can idea write for the Alberta Report, Maclean’s, the Sun or the American National Post. Wherein all news or events are filtered through the right wing ideology. On the right, if a diamond ring is lost, they will only search for it in the front bedroom above the stairs. In real life where I have lived for over 70 years, when that ring goes missing NO STONE CAN BE LEFT UNTURNED. For every problem everything must be on the table. To find solutions you go to whatever lengths you have to. I had to be a problem solver to be able to stay in business for 50 years. My mild right wing stance never prevented me for going where I had to go. Coyne has attained national prominence from writing / speaking from the confines of his right wing closet. I would be interested in the back story of Coynes departure from Maclean’s. I used to subscribe to Maclean’s but it went too far right and Black kissy / huggy. I cancelled. A women in our building, almost 80, used to give me her copy but she became disgusted and quit too. Now I see Maclean’s from time to time in waiting rooms and it gets thinner and thinner, mostly thin copy written by know nothings. Rogers, in taking the magazine to right made a big mistake. The right / white / rich don’t constitute more than 20% of the population. In business you have to appeal to the wider market. Putting religious / political / personal signs in your store window just drives people away. But to Maclean’s, the Star[ is even going right ], Globe, Sun, Post owners their wealth means they could push to the right and not worry about their readers. The problem is that this push to the right was ill timed. From 2000 on life has become much more complicated. With the collapse of Long Term Capital in 1999 just as the Republicans removed the last restrains on Wall St. The DOT Com bust came next as Bush and company promoted let-r-rip economics. The sub prime mortgage fiasco engulfed the Nation in 2005. A problem Bush could have nipped in the bud but he sat on his handsl as if carved out of stone. Another 3 years of selling usless paper marked AAA finally struck the fatal blow in 2008 about which many Americans are still in denial about. The US is as dead as a doornail. It is interesting that Andrew Coyne received a BA in Economics at U of T and a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics. Yet he has spent the last 10 years watching America die before his eyes and he’s still in a fog about it. A university training but no real life experiences doesn’t qualify a person to know what is going on in the world. Most of the writers and commentators in to-day’s media don’t have clue and the public has found out. The owners of the media, likewise don’t have a clue and this is why they got together and blamed their problems on Google. As you know by now Doug Oberhelman, CEO of Caterpillar said to the EMD workers in London you are going to have to take a 50% cut in pay, take it or leave it. Apparently Dougie is unaware that we don’t do things in Canada like this. Sharp elbows may cut it in the US but not here. Now this situation is made more difficult for us in that Herr Harper invited Oberhelman to conduct himself in this manner. John Ivison, are you paying attention??? I take this position because Harper always supports Republican initiatives. In this regard he has raised not a finger to protest or help. If someone said to me after spending years working for a Company as a loyal employee that I had to take a 50% cut in pay while at the same time 3rd quarter profits were $ 1.14 billion [ expected earning per share $ 1.54 and the actual was $ 1.71 per share ], it would mean war. Oberhelman bragged about hiring 5000 new workers in the same quarter. I’ll bet not a one came in at half pay. This Caterpillar assault was orchestrated by the PMO just like the phony immigration ceremony broadcast on SUN TV and the attack on Winnipeg by Air Canada which was payback for union busting by Harper. Coyne did not mention the wage cut threat, huge profits and big hire in the USA. If my neighbour tell me he is opening up an auto business next door I’d have to deal with it in some way. However when I find out he’s is opening a vehicle wrecking yard and that he will be recycling batteries the whole picture changes. The mostly right media leave out many facts and strengthens the subterfuge by telling lies as both Coyne and Ivison have done and are doing on behalf of Herr Harper, Paul Godfrey and their pals at the Wall St. hedge fund and Caterpillar. From what I can see Harper, Coyne and Ivison have never had real jobs and live in a right wing ideological birdcage. Never having had an opportunity to try their wings in real space. But they persist in telling everyone else what to do and seeking to gain the power to force us listen just like the Nazis. This Country is much weakened when a business like Caterpillar can pull a stunt like this with the support of so many Canadian turncoats [ like the above ] on the take. Harper has to be voted out of office while we still have time and the National Post and the Sun have to be put out of business. Make noises to your MP about this affair at his or her constituency office. Use you community resourses [ letters to your local small paper, TV or radio station ] to express your displeasure about Medicare and pensions at the same time. We have to get true Progressive Conservatives MPs who sitting amongst the Fascist / Conservatives to cross the floor especially in Ontario. Susan Truppe is Con. MP for London North Centre. Ed Holder is Con. MP for London West. Irene Mathyssen is NDP MP for London Fanshawe. Get Irene to organize to pressure Susan and Ed to cross the floor. Herr Harper has lost 2 of his ten seat majority already and we are only eight away for defeating this tyrant. As for me. If I was a worker at the EMD plant in London Ont, I’d wait until the die was cast and Oberhelman had finally taken away the 465 jobs. Then I would organize a half dozen of my closest friends, break into the plants and burn the fucking place to the ground. Then we’d allow Oberhelman one free pass to Canada with a couple of dump trucks to haul away his industrial ashes. Our position should be if we can’t have it neither will Doug.
Times are getting tough and we had better get tough too or we’ll lose her. Canada that is. We can sit idley by and allow ourselves to sacrificed in a vain attempt to revive a dead financial corpse [ USA ] or use the tools at hand to build a new Nation for the twenty first century. My major beef is that the papers are taking money from the right to help facilitate our sacrificial ceremonies.
Catch you next time — Ken www.ge-eman.com LAOCOON
