1. "The major media-particularly, the elite media that set the agenda that others generally follow-are corporations “selling” privileged audiences to other businesses. It would hardly come as a surprise if the picture of the world they present were to reflect the perspectives and interests of the sellers, the buyers, and the product. Concentration of ownership of the media is high and increasing. Furthermore, those who occupy managerial positions in the media, or gain status within them as commentators, belong to the same privileged elites, and might be expected to share the perceptions, aspirations, and attitudes of their associates, reflecting their own class interests as well. Journalists entering the system are unlikely to make their way unless they conform to these ideological pressures, generally by internalizing the values; it is not easy to say one thing and believe another, and those who fail to conform will tend to be weeded out by familiar mechanisms."
2. “If the media were honest, they would say, Look, here are the interests we represent and this is the framework within which we look at things. This is our set of beliefs and commitments. That’s what they would say, very much as their critics say. For example, I don’t try to hide my commitments, and the Washington Post and New York Times shouldn’t do it either. However, they must do it, because this mask of balance and objectivity is a crucial part of the propaganda function. In fact, they actually go beyond that. They try to present themselves as adversarial to power, as subversive, digging away at powerful institutions and undermining them. The academic profession plays along with this game.”
3."The leading student of business propaganda, Australian social scientist Alex Carey, argues persuasively that “the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy."
4. "The public relations industry, which essentially runs the elections, is applying certain principles to undermine democracy which are the same as the principles that applies to undermine markets. The last thing that business wants is markets in the sense of economic theory. Take a course in economics, they tell you a market is based on informed consumers making rational choices. Anyone who’s ever looked at a TV ad knows that’s not true. In fact if we had a market system an ad say for General Motors would be a brief statement of the characteristics of the products for next year. That’s not what you see. You see some movie actress or a football hero or somebody driving a car up a mountain or something like that. And that’s true of all advertising. The goal is to undermine markets by creating uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices and the business world spends huge efforts on that. The same is true when the same industry, the PR industry, turns to undermining democracy. It wants to construct elections in which uninformed voters will make irrational choices. It’s pretty reasonable and it’s so evident you can hardly miss it."
5. "The Obama campaign greatly impressed the public relations industry, which named Obama ‘Advertising Age’s marketer of the year for 2008,’ easily beating out Apple computers. A good predictor of the elections a few weeks later. The industry’s regular task is to create uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices, thus undermining markets as they are conceptualized in economic theory, but benefiting the masters of the economy. And it recognizes the benefits of undermining democracy in much the same way, creating uninformed voters who make often irrational choices between the factions of the business party that amass sufficient support from concentrated private capital to enter the electoral arena, then to dominate campaign propaganda."
6. "Control of thought is more important for governments that are free and popular than for despotic and military states. The logic is straightforward: a despotic state can control its domestic enemies by force, but as the state loses this weapon, other devices are required to prevent the ignorant masses from interfering with public affairs, which are none of their business…the public are to be observers, not participants, consumers of ideology as well as products."
7. "The first modern propaganda agency was the British Ministry of Information a century ago, which secretly defined its task as “to direct the thought of most of the world” — primarily progressive American intellectuals, who had to be mobilized to come to the aid of Britain during World War I."
8. "One of the questions asked in that study was, How many Vietnamese casualties would you estimate that there were during the Vietnam war? The average response on the part of Americans today is about 100,000. The official figure is about two million. The actual figure is probably three to four million. The people who conducted the study raised an appropriate question: What would we think about German political culture if, when you asked people today how many Jews died in the Holocaust, they estimated about 300,000? What would that tell us about German political culture?"
9. "You don’t have any other society where the educated classes are so effectively indoctrinated and controlled by a subtle propaganda system – a private system including media, intellectual opinion forming magazines and the participation of the most highly educated sections of the population. Such people ought to be referred to as “Commissars” – for that is what their essential function is – to set up and maintain a system of doctrines and beliefs which will undermine independent thought and prevent a proper understanding and analysis of national and global institutions, issues, and policies."
10. “Citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self defense to protect themselves from manipulation and control, and to lay the basis for meaningful democracy.”
Saturday, 27 February 2016
Friday, 26 February 2016
Don Getty: 1933-2016
Don Getty served as premier of Alberta, and played ten years as a quarterback for the Edmonton Eskimos.
Getty Was Born In Montreal
Donald Ross Getty was born Aug. 30, 1933, in Montreal.
He was the second of five children to Ross and Beatrice.
He had a tough childhood, and his family at times was on welfare.
After his father took a new job, the family moved to Ontario where Getty attended the University of Western Ontario.
Meeting Margaret
Getty played basketball and football, where he fell in love with cheerleader Margaret Mitchell.
In 1955, he graduated with a business administration degree. Two weeks later he married Mitchell, and the pair headed to Alberta where Getty joined the Edmonton Eskimos.
The couple would go on to have four children.
'The Dino'
The quarterback was known as "the Dino," thanks to his fellow teammate Norman Kwong who later become Alberta's lieutenant-governor.
Getty spent 10 seasons with the Eskimos, and was with the team for two Grey Cup wins.
Transitioning Into Politics
After leaving football, Getty worked in oil and gas and later founded his own company — Baldonnel Oil and Gas.
In 1967, former Eskimo Peter Lougheed recruited Getty to run provincially for the Progressive Conservative party.
Getty won a seat in the 1967 election, which served as the beginning of the PCs four-decade-long dynasty.
Getty was Alberta's first minister of federal and intergovernmental affairs, and later took over the critical energy portfolio.
Premier Getty
He left politics in 1979, before returning to run for party leader in 1985 when Lougheed retired.
Shortly after becoming premier, oil prices tanked and Getty was blamed for many of the provinces failures.
Getty won again in 1986, and his party won in 1989 but Getty lost his seat. He stepped down as party leader three years later.
His Legacy
Getty is remembered for his many accomplishments — founding Family Day, defusing a land disputing with the Lubicon Cree, and passing the new Metis Settlement Act.
Getty was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 1998.
Getty Was Born In Montreal
Donald Ross Getty was born Aug. 30, 1933, in Montreal.
He was the second of five children to Ross and Beatrice.
He had a tough childhood, and his family at times was on welfare.
After his father took a new job, the family moved to Ontario where Getty attended the University of Western Ontario.
Meeting Margaret
Getty played basketball and football, where he fell in love with cheerleader Margaret Mitchell.
In 1955, he graduated with a business administration degree. Two weeks later he married Mitchell, and the pair headed to Alberta where Getty joined the Edmonton Eskimos.
The couple would go on to have four children.
'The Dino'
The quarterback was known as "the Dino," thanks to his fellow teammate Norman Kwong who later become Alberta's lieutenant-governor.
Getty spent 10 seasons with the Eskimos, and was with the team for two Grey Cup wins.
Transitioning Into Politics
After leaving football, Getty worked in oil and gas and later founded his own company — Baldonnel Oil and Gas.
In 1967, former Eskimo Peter Lougheed recruited Getty to run provincially for the Progressive Conservative party.
Getty won a seat in the 1967 election, which served as the beginning of the PCs four-decade-long dynasty.
Getty was Alberta's first minister of federal and intergovernmental affairs, and later took over the critical energy portfolio.
Premier Getty
He left politics in 1979, before returning to run for party leader in 1985 when Lougheed retired.
Shortly after becoming premier, oil prices tanked and Getty was blamed for many of the provinces failures.
Getty won again in 1986, and his party won in 1989 but Getty lost his seat. He stepped down as party leader three years later.
His Legacy
Getty is remembered for his many accomplishments — founding Family Day, defusing a land disputing with the Lubicon Cree, and passing the new Metis Settlement Act.
Getty was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 1998.
Sunday, 21 February 2016
The corporate media
The corporate media is designed to reflect the interests of power – and the corporations that control our media are power. They select journalists through a long filtering process (school, university, journalism training, apprenticeships) precisely designed to weed out dissidents and those who think too critically. Only journalists whose worldview aligns closely with those in power reach the top.
Journalists get into positions of influence to the extent that they are unlikely to rock the boat for elite interests. The closer they get to power, the more likely they are to reflect its values. Much like politicians, in fact.
Ordinary people have power when they use it. Famed anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901 - 1978) once said never underestimate the power of committed people to change the world - the only way possible, from the grassroots, never the top down.
Journalists get into positions of influence to the extent that they are unlikely to rock the boat for elite interests. The closer they get to power, the more likely they are to reflect its values. Much like politicians, in fact.
Ordinary people have power when they use it. Famed anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901 - 1978) once said never underestimate the power of committed people to change the world - the only way possible, from the grassroots, never the top down.
Saturday, 20 February 2016
Clean tech - some smart ideas
China has emerged as a major player in clean tech, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in renewable energy and energy efficiency. In doing so, it's positioning itself to lead the world in the industry of tomorrow. And even the U.S., for all its political problems, hasn't stood still. It has begun directly supporting innovative clean tech companies and pumping more money into basic research and development.
Recycling e-Waste
The elements that go into mobile phones, computers and TVs can be polluting to the environment and dangerous to human health if incorrectly disposed of. The e-waste is the fastest growing part of the solid waste stream, and some 20 to 50 million metric tons of it are thrown out every year.
But there are ways to recycle e-waste, reducing the need to mine more of the metals that go into high-tech items, and preventing the environmental consequences of poorly processed electronics.
CloudBlue, based in New Jersey, helps tech companies take care of their e-waste, arranging for direct pickup and processing, ensuring that valuable metals can be reused and recycled for future electronics. For customers like banks that have to worry about sensitive data that might be encoded on old computers, CloudBlue can also process the waste onsite. With all this, the company can ensure that no e-waste will ever end up in a landfill — or worse, poisoning a child in Africa or China.
http://www.cloudblue.com/
http://www.cloudblue.com/
Algae Biofuel
The biggest renewable energy business in the U.S. isn't solar or wind or electric cars. It's plain old corn ethanol. Thanks largely to generous government subsidies, the U.S. produced 10.6 billion gallons of ethanol in 2009. That was enough to displace the need for 364 million barrels of oil, but study after study has shown that high levels of corn ethanol production simply aren't sustainable.
Biofuels can still a major role in a greener energy policy. One of the best options on the horizon is biofuel made from algae, which counters a lot of the problems with corn ethanol. (The right strains of algae secrete oils that can be used to make fuel.) Algae do not need farmland to grow: tanks will do the job just fine anywhere there is spare land and a decent amount of sunshine. Algae also grow much faster than traditional crops, and the micro-organisms may be able to use to use wastewater or even saline water during their development, rather than fresh water. Startups like Sapphire Energy and Algenol in California and Florida are passing the pilot phase and nearing commercial development; they just need a little government help.
Algae food
Thin-film Solar
Molten Salt Storage
Solar Tower
Custom Biofuels
Electric Cars
Smart Meters
Lithium-ion Batteries
>> Renewable Energy At Home
Fuel Cells
Rooftop Wind Power
Tidal Power
Green IT
Green Concrete
Green Building Materials
Modular Nuclear Power
Artificial Photosynthesis
Waste to Energy
Biochar
Vertical Farming
http://www.verticalfarm.com/
http://aerofarms.com/technology/
Vertical farming: The next big thing for food—and tech
Community Gardens / Local Food Movement
Greener Funerals
Death isn't the best thing for the environment. Cremation sends more than 6.8 million tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere every year, caskets take a long time to biodegrade and burial leads to methane emission (the second most prevalent greenhouse gas). But environmentally-friendly burial options are becoming more prevalent. Wicker and cardboard coffins can replace traditional wood, and dry ice is used rather than formaldehyde. And green burial services are popping up around the globe to curb post-mortem emissions.
http://www.verticalfarm.com/
http://aerofarms.com/technology/
Vertical farming: The next big thing for food—and tech
Community Gardens / Local Food Movement
Community gardening isn't really that new, but the local food movement is.
The demand for plots in p-patches or local green spaces has skyrocketed in the past few years as people opt out of GMOs and out-of-season produce (which some argue is actually more carbon friendly).
Hyper-dense New York has plans to reclaim vacant lots for urban agriculture under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's PlaNYC initiative.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated the local food industry to be $4.8 billion in 2008 and upwards of $7 billion in 2011.
Greener Funerals
Death isn't the best thing for the environment. Cremation sends more than 6.8 million tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere every year, caskets take a long time to biodegrade and burial leads to methane emission (the second most prevalent greenhouse gas). But environmentally-friendly burial options are becoming more prevalent. Wicker and cardboard coffins can replace traditional wood, and dry ice is used rather than formaldehyde. And green burial services are popping up around the globe to curb post-mortem emissions.
Green Funeral Options Widen With New Body Disposal Technologies
Overview of Greenhouse Gases
Green Funerals: How To Make An Eco-Exit
Better Ways To Throw Stuff Away
The average American throws about 40% of their food away every year, and nearly 100 cities have launched composting programs to try and keep it out of landfills. Curbside composting has spread across the country from uber-green San Francisco, which started their program 15 years ago and now collects more than 600 tons of compost daily. Of the 250 million tons of trash created in the U.S. in 2010, 34 percent of it was diverted to composting or recycling programs, according to the EPA.
Why Doesn't Your City Have Curbside Composting?
Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures
Overview of Greenhouse Gases
Green Funerals: How To Make An Eco-Exit
Better Ways To Throw Stuff Away
The average American throws about 40% of their food away every year, and nearly 100 cities have launched composting programs to try and keep it out of landfills. Curbside composting has spread across the country from uber-green San Francisco, which started their program 15 years ago and now collects more than 600 tons of compost daily. Of the 250 million tons of trash created in the U.S. in 2010, 34 percent of it was diverted to composting or recycling programs, according to the EPA.
Why Doesn't Your City Have Curbside Composting?
Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures
Cheaper Alternative Energy
The cost for renewable energy continues to fall and is starting to become much more economically competitive with fossil fuels. New reports from the International Renewable Energy Agency show the cost of solar falling more than 60% in the past few years alone. Increasing competition has helped push the price down, particularly with solar as U.S. and European manufacturers struggle to keep up with the pricing of Chinese solar panels. Wind power has also gotten consistently cheaper.
The cost for renewable energy continues to fall and is starting to become much more economically competitive with fossil fuels. New reports from the International Renewable Energy Agency show the cost of solar falling more than 60% in the past few years alone. Increasing competition has helped push the price down, particularly with solar as U.S. and European manufacturers struggle to keep up with the pricing of Chinese solar panels. Wind power has also gotten consistently cheaper.
Wind Power Now Cheaper Than Natural Gas for Xcel, CEO Says
Solar and Wind Just Passed Another Big Turning Point
3-D Priniting
This emerging technology has been touted as solution to many of the planet’s pressing problems.
The Perpetual Plastic Project aims to turn recycled plastic bottles, cups and other stuff that too often ends up in landfills into 3D printing filament. In the U.S., plastics make up nearly 13 percent of the municipal solid waste stream.
solar-powered 3D printer
3D printers to create nutritious food
3D printing to make fake rhino horns to stop poaching and save the rhino from going extinct!
Solar and Wind Just Passed Another Big Turning Point
3-D Priniting
This emerging technology has been touted as solution to many of the planet’s pressing problems.
The Perpetual Plastic Project aims to turn recycled plastic bottles, cups and other stuff that too often ends up in landfills into 3D printing filament. In the U.S., plastics make up nearly 13 percent of the municipal solid waste stream.
solar-powered 3D printer
3D printers to create nutritious food
3D printing to make fake rhino horns to stop poaching and save the rhino from going extinct!
Saturday, 13 February 2016
There’s still time to stop the TPP
According to Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) “the agreement will enter into force either 60 days after all original signatories ratify it or, if that doesn’t happen within two years, in April 2018 if at least six of the 12 countries accounting for 85 percent of the combined gross domestic product of the original signatories have ratified the agreement.”
Source
Source
Andrew Weaver housing proposals
"Speculation in Vancouver's housing market is not a new issue," says Weaver. "However, there are a number of steps the provincial government could take right now to clamp down on this out-of-control problem."
At a policy level what Weaver is proposing is
At a policy level what Weaver is proposing is
The first step is to close a loophole which allows individuals to avoid paying B.C.'s Property Transfer Tax. The second is a tax on vacant properties. And the third is a requirement for buyers to provide residency on the land title.
"It is important to know who is buying houses," says Weaver. "We have no idea. It is really just making stuff up as we go along without any real information."
Normally, opposition member's bill pitches head straight for the dustbin of legislative history. But the fact de Jong is listening signifies more than just a government's willingness to learn from others.
It points to the fact that the Green Party is gaining traction. Earlier this week, Weaver introduced a petition to abolish MSP with 65,712 names on it. The public pressure from that petition led to Premier Christy Clark acknowledging, "It's antiquated, it's old, the way people pay for it doesn't make a lot of sense."
It also opened the door for the Liberals to adopt a policy the Greens have already called their own, which is to change the way the tax is paid entirely.
"The government does not respond directly to a political party," says Weaver. "The government responds directly to public pressure.
"It is in the interests of opposition parties to actually offer solutions."
Understanding TPP
Demystifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
TPP - Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS)
Free Trade and the TPP
TPP Final Table of Contents
Canada General Notes to Tariff Schedule
Canada Tariff Elimination Schedule
Canada Appendix A Tariff Rate Quotas
Canada Appendix B Japan Canada Motor Vehicle NTM
Major Complications : The TPP and Canadian Health Care
It finds that the TPP investor protections would make it more difficult and costly for Canadian governments to establish new public health programs, including pharmacare, which is on the agenda of ongoing federal-provincial health talks.
The overarching impacts of the proposed treaty would be to weaken the Canadian public health care system, undermine health regulation, and obstruct efforts to renew and expand public health care in the face of new challenges.
Involuntary Medication :
The Possible Effects of TPP on the Cost and Regulation of Medicine in Canada
This study examines the possible effects of the TPP on how Canada regulates medicines and how much the country spends paying for them. It finds that the TPP would require Canada to extend patent terms to compensate brand-name pharmaceutical firms for regulatory delays in approving drugs. This policy change could add $636 million annually to the price of drugs in Canada. The agreement will restrict future policy options in these areas in ways that benefit brand-name producers over consumers and the broader public interest.
According to the study, the TPP could have profound effects on the criteria that Canada uses to decide on drug safety and effectiveness, how new drugs are approved (or not) for marketing, post-market surveillance and inspection, the listing of drugs on public formularies, and how individual drugs are priced in the future.
TPP hides significant health costs, according to two new studies
The TPP includes many new rights for U.S. and Japanese drug companies to comment on, review and appeal Canadian regulatory decisions, which could adversely affect drug approvals and safety.
Faster regulatory approvals of medicines, which might result from the TPP, have been shown to lead to a higher incidence of safety problems, including warnings and withdrawals.
The TPP’s carve-out for tobacco control measures will not provide meaningful protection for future Canadian plain-packaging rules, since U.S.-based tobacco companies will continue to have access to NAFTA’s investor-state protections.
Other forms of public health regulation, from controls on trans-fats to regulating legalized marijuana, are fully exposed to lawsuits from disgruntled foreign investors.
The TPP expands these rights to cover investors from Japan, Malaysia, Australia and other countries. The TPP financial services chapter actually makes it easier for foreign insurers to challenge the expansion of public health insurance into new areas by allowing investor-state disputes involving a much-abused “minimum standards of treatment” rule.
The Liberal government is not willing to accommodate the concerns of the TPP critics. So far, the government has heard from mostly constituencies supportive of trade agreements general and the TPP in general, including business groups.
TPP - Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS)
Free Trade and the TPP
TPP Final Table of Contents
Canada General Notes to Tariff Schedule
Canada Tariff Elimination Schedule
Canada Appendix A Tariff Rate Quotas
Canada Appendix B Japan Canada Motor Vehicle NTM
Major Complications : The TPP and Canadian Health Care
It finds that the TPP investor protections would make it more difficult and costly for Canadian governments to establish new public health programs, including pharmacare, which is on the agenda of ongoing federal-provincial health talks.
The overarching impacts of the proposed treaty would be to weaken the Canadian public health care system, undermine health regulation, and obstruct efforts to renew and expand public health care in the face of new challenges.
Involuntary Medication :
The Possible Effects of TPP on the Cost and Regulation of Medicine in Canada
This study examines the possible effects of the TPP on how Canada regulates medicines and how much the country spends paying for them. It finds that the TPP would require Canada to extend patent terms to compensate brand-name pharmaceutical firms for regulatory delays in approving drugs. This policy change could add $636 million annually to the price of drugs in Canada. The agreement will restrict future policy options in these areas in ways that benefit brand-name producers over consumers and the broader public interest.
According to the study, the TPP could have profound effects on the criteria that Canada uses to decide on drug safety and effectiveness, how new drugs are approved (or not) for marketing, post-market surveillance and inspection, the listing of drugs on public formularies, and how individual drugs are priced in the future.
The TPP includes many new rights for U.S. and Japanese drug companies to comment on, review and appeal Canadian regulatory decisions, which could adversely affect drug approvals and safety.
Faster regulatory approvals of medicines, which might result from the TPP, have been shown to lead to a higher incidence of safety problems, including warnings and withdrawals.
The TPP’s carve-out for tobacco control measures will not provide meaningful protection for future Canadian plain-packaging rules, since U.S.-based tobacco companies will continue to have access to NAFTA’s investor-state protections.
Other forms of public health regulation, from controls on trans-fats to regulating legalized marijuana, are fully exposed to lawsuits from disgruntled foreign investors.
The TPP expands these rights to cover investors from Japan, Malaysia, Australia and other countries. The TPP financial services chapter actually makes it easier for foreign insurers to challenge the expansion of public health insurance into new areas by allowing investor-state disputes involving a much-abused “minimum standards of treatment” rule.
The Liberal government is not willing to accommodate the concerns of the TPP critics. So far, the government has heard from mostly constituencies supportive of trade agreements general and the TPP in general, including business groups.
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Old oil wells clean up
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is asking for $156 million handout to cleanup after oil companies
The taxpayers will have to pay, not the oil industry to clean up the mess.
Source
The taxpayers will have to pay, not the oil industry to clean up the mess.
Source
Sunday, 7 February 2016
Impact of large-scale oil and gas development
The Lubicon Cree: Ongoing human rights violations
Over the last three decades, the province of Alberta has licensed more than 2600 oil and gas wells on the traditional territory of the Lubicon Cree. That’s more than five wells for every Lubicon person. Territory that the Lubicon have relied on to hunt, fish and trap is now crisscrossed by more than 2400 km of oil and gas pipelines. In 2011, one of these pipelines spilled an estimated 28,000 barrels of crude oil into wetlands near the Lubicon community of Little Buffalo. It was one of the largest oil spills in Alberta history.
The Alberta government has acknowledging that it has brought in vast wealth from development of Lubicon land. In the midst of this wealth, the Lubicon live without running water.
Today, more than 70% percent of Lubicon territory has been leased for future resource development, including oil sands extraction.
Saturday, 6 February 2016
TPP Protests
On World Cancer Day, Patients’ Civil Disobedience Protest at PhRMA to Warn of ‘Death Sentence’ Imposed by Trans-Pacific Partnership Expansion of Medicine Monopolies
Breast Cancer Patient Arrested for Protesting TPP: "This is Price Gouging at the Cost of Lives"
DemocracyNow
They are calling the “TPP Death Sentence.”
PhRMA, a trade association representing brand-name pharmaceutical companies that pushed for expanded monopolies in the TPP
Breast Cancer Patient Arrested for Protesting TPP: "This is Price Gouging at the Cost of Lives"
DemocracyNow
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
Climate change summit on fossil fuel deposits
David Suzuki: Paris changed everything, so why are we still talking pipelines?
David Suzuki asks, "Why are politicians contemplating spending billions on pipelines when the Paris commitment means 75 to 80 per cent of known fossil fuel deposits must be left in the ground?"
No. The Climate change in Paris didn't change "everything".
We don't seem to at least see the irony of talking about emission cuts while enabling more fossil fuel extraction.
Developed countries with big fossil fuel industries and domestic enthusiasm for “all of the above” energy policies, certainly won’t let any language about leaving fossil fuel development to poorer countries into the final agreement.
There was also draft language encouraging countries to stop publicly financing high-carbon energy development, but it would not mandate the end of fossil fuel subsidies.
To explicitly target fossil fuel supplies would require a radical restructuring of the whole process. It’s so far outside the bounds of the COP approach that green groups haven’t generally pressed for it.
“The U.N. framework hasn’t caught up yet with ‘keep it in the ground"
“Not everything that is needed to address climate change is even being discussed here.”
Interview with The Canadian Press.
When Justin Trudeau was asked about the impact of the Paris climate agreement on Canada's resource sector.
Trudeau said, "We know, and with Paris it's very clear, where the world is going," said Trudeau, whose Liberals won power in October promising to make Canada a responsible player on the international climate front after 10 years of Conservative ambivalence.
"We're going towards a zero carbon economy. The question is, does Canada want to drag its feet on it or do we want to be part of it?"
But Trudeau also maintains new oil pipelines to spur oil sands development are compatible with this low-carbon future. He argues the transition requires investment and innovation, which is dependent on a robust economy.
CTV News
When Justin Trudeau was asked about the impact of the Paris climate agreement on Canada's resource sector.
Trudeau said, "We know, and with Paris it's very clear, where the world is going," said Trudeau, whose Liberals won power in October promising to make Canada a responsible player on the international climate front after 10 years of Conservative ambivalence.
"We're going towards a zero carbon economy. The question is, does Canada want to drag its feet on it or do we want to be part of it?"
But Trudeau also maintains new oil pipelines to spur oil sands development are compatible with this low-carbon future. He argues the transition requires investment and innovation, which is dependent on a robust economy.
CTV News
TPP hides significant health costs
Two new studies from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reveal significant risks and high public costs to the Canadian health care system within the text of the agreement.
(1) The TPP would require Canada to extend patent terms to compensate brand-name pharmaceutical firms for regulatory delays in approving drugs. This policy change could add $636 million annually to the price of drugs in Canada.
Higher drug costs would make pharmacare more costly, and lawsuits from adversely affected drug companies are more likely under TPP’s investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.
(2) TPP investor protections would make it more difficult and costly for Canadian governments to establish new public health programs, including pharmacare, which is on the agenda of ongoing federal-provincial health talks.
“While a strong and balanced international trade regime is critical to Canada’s economic success it should not, and need not, come at the expense of our public health system,” says Sinclair.
Source
(1) The TPP would require Canada to extend patent terms to compensate brand-name pharmaceutical firms for regulatory delays in approving drugs. This policy change could add $636 million annually to the price of drugs in Canada.
Higher drug costs would make pharmacare more costly, and lawsuits from adversely affected drug companies are more likely under TPP’s investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.
(2) TPP investor protections would make it more difficult and costly for Canadian governments to establish new public health programs, including pharmacare, which is on the agenda of ongoing federal-provincial health talks.
“While a strong and balanced international trade regime is critical to Canada’s economic success it should not, and need not, come at the expense of our public health system,” says Sinclair.
Source
JOHN CLEESE: POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
JOHN CLEESE: POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WILL LEAD TO AN ORWELLIAN NIGHTMARE
The very essence of his trade — comedy — is criticism
John Cleese says political correctness has gone too far, especially on America’s college campuses, where he will no longer go to perform. As BigThink reports, the very essence of his trade — comedy — is criticism and that not infrequently means hurt feelings. But protecting everyone from negative emotion all the time is not only impractical (one can’t control the feelings of another), but also improper in a free society.
Cleese, having worked with psychiatrist Robin Skynner,says there may even be something more sinister behind the insistence to be always be politically correct.
“If you start to say we mustn’t, we mustn’t criticize or offend them then humor is gone. With humor goes a sense of proportion. And then as far as I’m concerned you’re living in 1984.”
George Carlin - Political Correctness is fascism pretending to be Manners
Daily Caller interview with Stella Morabito
FORMER INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS A MANIPULATIVE TOOL FOR CENTRALIZING POWER
“If you push an agenda to centralize power, you need mass ignorance and effective propaganda.”
If you say the “wrong thing” in America today, you could be penalized, fired or even taken to court.
Political correctness is running rampant, and it is absolutely destroying this nation.
In his novel 1984, George Orwell imagined a future world where speech was greatly restricted. He called that the language that the totalitarian state in his novel created “Newspeak”, and it bears a striking resemblance to the political correctness that we see in America right now.
According to Wikipedia, Newspeak is “a reduced language created by the totalitarian state as a tool to limit free thought, and concepts that pose a threat to the regime such as freedom, self-expression, individuality, peace, etc. Any form of thought alternative to the party’s construct is classified as ‘thoughtcrime."
Read more....
Tuesday, 2 February 2016
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