Tag: Politiks

Wednesday, 01 October, 2014  -( 52˚F / 11˚C – & cloudy right now  @ 8:450 am in Ithaca )- { Headlines compiled by douglas j otterson }

{ We’ve been doing this because we believe the CBC may be more honest and more respectable than Media in the U.S.A., & not a lot of people in the U.S. may know that or have access to anyone who might point them toward the CBC & their web site. }

{ & again, these are not links. If you want to read these stories, listen to sound clips, or see any video -if there is any video- go to CBC dot CA/news.— & You can also find a link to the web cast of the most recent broadcast of “The National” the CBC’s ‘flagship nightly newscast’ under the “Must Watch” heading on their main page. — Thanks. — & Jim W convinced me to take credit for this, above.  ———djo——— }

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Other Sources: The Toronto Star:

CETA a much-announced trade pact of dubious value:   { –By: Thomas Walkom National Affairs, Published on Tue Sep 30 2014 –Free trade with Europe is the centerpiece of Stephen Harper’s time in government. It is so crucial that the prime minister announces it over and over again. -The latest re-announcement came Friday. This time, it was to celebrate the almost final text of what is officially known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the 28-member European Union. -That followed celebrations last year on an agreement in principle. There will undoubtedly be another gala when, after a “legal review” the final, final CETA text is released. – And there may be to 30 more over the next few years if the agreement is successfully ratified by the European Council, the European Parliament and the 28 member nations of the EU, – In ancient times, political rulers marked such victories with human sacrifice and lavish excess. Harper made do by spending a mere $338,000 to fly a gaggle of visiting European bureaucrats back to Brussels on a Canadian government jet. – The pact is far from a done deal. In Europe, the politics of CETA have become enmeshed in the debate over a similar accord being negotiated between the EU and Washington. – Critics fear that a section in CETA allowing companies to override domestic laws could set a precedent for the Americans to exploit. – There is also dispute within the EU over whether such trade and investment deals need to be ratified by all 28 member states. – But let us assume for a moment that the Canada-Europe deal eventually comes into effect. What can we expect?  – At first glance, the answer is not much. The government promises 80,000 new net jobs. But as Jim Stanford, an economist with the labour union Unifor has pointed out, this is a bogus number based on the assumption that no one can ever be unemployed. – Expect the price of European luxuries to fall as tariffs are removed. But don’t expect a big job uptick here. – Ottawa says Canadian beef and pork producers will gain better access to European markets thanks to CETA. And perhaps they will. – Yet as a recent analysis from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives points out, the European Union is already a net exporter of pork and beef. – This doesn’t mean there is no appetite in Europe for, say, Canadian pork chops. But unless European farmers are singularly inefficient, it does suggest the market would be limited. – Conversely, a deal with Europe promises to be less disruptive than earlier free trade pacts. – The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1989 and the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993 virtually wiped out entire domestic industries. – This time, it seems that job losses would be more limited. – With significant exceptions (particularly in Ontario), the new pact would make it near impossible for governments or government agencies to favour locally owned firms. That could affect businesses ranging from school bus operators to caterers. – Canadian cheese makers would be hurt as would domestic automakers. But neither is likely to be destroyed. – The application of European drug patent rules would result in Canadians paying more for their pharmaceuticals. Provincial governments, all of which operate public drug plans, were particularly grumpy about this. But Ottawa has appeased them by offering subsidies. – Trade analyst Scott Sinclair says he expects the provinces will quietly pass laws implementing their CETA obligations. – The real danger in this deal has nothing to do with trade. Rather it is a provision, similar to one enshrined in NAFTA, that would permit corporations to overturn domestic laws.  – In effect, CETA includes an investors’ bill of rights aimed at penalizing government actions that interfere with profitability. – European businesses would be able to challenge such actions before a special dispute-settlement board. Irish banks, for instance, could challenge regulations designed to safeguard the Canadian financial system. – European firms could also challenge government regulations that “unduly” complicate or delay business activities. – Theoretically, Canadian companies would have reciprocal rights in Europe. But we don’t have good track record. – Under NAFTA, several U.S. companies have managed to overturn Canadian laws. No Canadian company has ever successfully used that trade pact to override a U.S. law. – Thomas Walkom’s column appears Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.  / —djo— }

{ Is today international anything day? —> Doug, who appreciated international coffee day . }

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Lead Articles:

-Analysis- Echoes of Tiananmen [ Square ] in Hong Kong’s ‘most civil’ disobedience: Patrick Brown   { “Last week, a Chinese court sentenced a human rights advocate to life in prison and confiscated all his assets, leaving his family destitute. In Hong Kong, meanwhile, a detained student protester was released on a writ of habeas corpus. That’s what’s at stake in these demonstrations, Patrick Brown writes. Echoes of Tiananmen in Hong Kong’s ‘most civil’ disobedience.”  —djo— }

Honk Kong protesters call for territory leader to resign   {  }

U.S. health officials confirm 1st Ebola case in Dallas   {  }

PM to brief caucus as he mulls expanded Iraq mission   {  }

Renowned Quebec skier J.P. Auclair dies in Chile avalanche   {  }

‘Deadbeat’ parents across Canada owe $3.7B in support   {  }

-Update- ‘Well-being’ of girl focus of search after witness sees man take her into B.C. woods   { “Police and search-and-rescue volunteers began scouring the fields and woods adjacent to an industrial area in Abbotsford, B.C., on Tuesday night after a driver reported seeing a young girl lying on the side of the road, and a man taking her away.”  —djo— }

-New- MSF ramps up in Liberia as UN sets ambitious Ebola target   {  “MSF” is the french translation for the title of “Doctors Without Borders” — -The UN mission dealing with the Ebola response has set bold goals to try and contain the outbreak, but in Liberia’s capital, medical providers like Doctors Without Borders are working flat out just to keep up. Nurse Tashan Bremond says it’s not all bad news: “We’re telling them they can be survivors.”- —djo— }

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“Offbeat”

Wild chimp’s gadget kicks off new trend within his group   {  }

What’s cooler than cool? This french horn OutKast cover   {  }

-Repeat- Dragons’ Den judge’s Porsche goes up in flames   {  }

-Repeat- The quotable George Clooney   {  }

*** Must be a slow week for offbeat news ***

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“Most Viewed”

AC/DC giutarist Malcolm Young has dementia, band confirms   {  }

Topsail soccer stabbing victim now conscious, talking   {  }

Tom Mulcair’s EU trade deal choice could signal election strategy   { *Tom Mulcair said he’d wait to see the fine print of the Canada-EU trade deal before passing judgment. – Now that the full text of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is out, the NDP leader is walking a fine line between his party’s competing interests. – ** Exclusive: PM gives pricey free ride home to EU leaders – Harper confident as final EU trade deal released – Analysis: Celebrating a trade deal that hasn’t been sealed – Interactive: The EU-Canada deal -** – The NDP will discuss the deal in caucus Wednesday morning. – The first vote in the House of Commons on CETA is weeks — perhaps months — away, depending on how quickly International Trade Minister Ed Fast brings forward legislation to implement it. – But the Conservatives already know how they want to frame the NDP. – Take Monday’s question period. When the NDP criticized the expensive plane ride the Harper government provided EU leaders last Friday, Fast suggested New Democrats couldn’t be expected to see the importance of the business event that justified the expense. – “They wanted us to cancel this event because we know they are anti-trade, anti-investment and have no credibility on trade whatsoever,” Fast said. – Ready to govern or oppose? – Mulcair has been rolling out policy planks this fall designed to appeal to traditional NDP voters in 2015. – A recent speech to the Teamsters talked about protecting workers and going after corporate “freeloaders.” He has floated the idea of a $15 an hour minimum wage for federal workers. – Will his stand on CETA also tack toward’s the party’s traditional, trade-deal-wary flank to make sure it stays put? – Or will that impulse give way to a more pragmatic need to support a deal most of Canada’s business community really wants? – Opposing CETA would be a step back from Mulcair’s recent more open approach to the merits of trade deals. – After the death of Jack Layton in 2011, Mulcair’s pitch for the party leadership was based on continuing Layton’s legacy of targeting voters in the centre of the political spectrum and working hard to look like a government-in-waiting. – The NDP supported Canada’s agreement with Jordan and, more recently, its new agreement with South Korea. It also makes warm noises about negotiating with Japan, India and Brazil. – “We want to knock down non-tariff barriers. We think that more trade is a good thing for Canada,” Mulcair told The Canadian Press last year. – “It’s a good starting point to be dealing with Europe,” he said in that interview and repeated in the months since. “They generally speaking have institutions quite similar to ours, they have the rule of law, they have independent tribunals, they’ve got long-standing institutional stability. That is a good thing for us to be dealing with.” – In principle, a deal with Europe was the kind of “fair trade” the NDP could safely embrace. – – Conditional support – -But the NDP also put down markers for its potential support of CETA, including help for cheese producers facing competition from new imports and provincial governments and consumers who will have to pay more for prescription drugs when patent changes take effect. – The NDP also says municipal procurement changes should protect “buy local” programs, to address the concerns of more than 50 local city, town and regional councils that have passed anti-CETA resolutions. – With growing concern in Germany in particular about investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms in the deal, the NDP jumped on that bandwagon, too. – Mulcair said Friday he was “reticent” about the deal. – But he and his trade critics have been clear they aren’t necessarily opposing it, even as they criticize the Harper government’s handling of the file. – Saying the NDP will “consult widely and understand thoroughly” buys them time.* ***The article at the top of this page on CETA was tweeted by Elizabeth May, the head of the Green Party of Canada and I think it’s a safe bet she is not in favor of this Economic Treaty*** The snarky blatherings of Conservative Party Parrots on the floor of the House = They’re accusing the NDP of having no idea about how trade should work. How about I accuse the Conservatives of knowing how trade works while they pocket the profits of selling thirty million something plus Canadians out to forces who would love to kill and eat everybody and do not have one ounce of compassion or empathy and just want to have the power of life and death over everybody, including the brain dead Conservatives who believe they will come out of this on the very fat side of ‘rich rich rich’?  —djo— }

Target baby PJs say, ‘boys are heroes, girls can only date them’   {  }

-21 photo slide show- Hong Kong police, protesters clash in historic standoff   {  }

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Other:

-Live- Protesters to Hong Kong boss: Quit or we occupy buildings   {  }

-New- Ex SNC-Lavalin exec Riadh Ben Aïssa to be sent back to Canada   {  }

‘Canada is well prepared’ Health ministers reassure as 1st Ebola case hits U.S.   {  }

Why does the U.S. Secret Service keep messing up?   {  }

Race into space opening new horizons to private sector   { Do you believe this is a good thing? The Space race in the sixties ‘gave us alot of technological advances’ in electronics, computers, surveillance, high tech weapons for cops to use on civilians, MK Ultra- maybe even secret deals between evil human dark ops types who want total control over everybody and everything and evil dark aliens who would be happy to allow those human evil dark ops morons to embrace the illusion that they have allies in outer space, until the aliens spring the final trap- & make the planet hostile to human life and move in and take over? —> Yawn, that was a stupid bad movie plot the first time I heard about it—> Corporations are Not Good.  Corporations with the ability to leave the planet while controlling everything and everybody might even be worse. But at least we’re talking about it. Right?  —djo— }

ISIS fight: Stephen Harper to brief Conservative caucus on options    { How’s this for an option? : We hypnotize Stephen Harper and convince him that he’s Rambo, dress him up in camoflaged fatiques with an American flag patch on one shoulder and a Canadian flag patch on the other- Hand him a parachute and drop him in the middle of an ISIS training camp with “I am a spy for the great satan” written all over him in perfect Arabic- whatever dialect most of them can read. Then have a lot of drones send us live video of whatever happens next. That might just solve a lot of problems.  —djo— }

Canada’s blood supply ‘critically low’   {   }

 RCMP pulls support from anti-radicalization handbook   { * Does this mean they have a pro-radicalization handbook in mind? Or did they realize that by some definitions, they’re pretty radical themselves and might find their mindset illegal if enough people read the handbook they were backing? }

Recovery effort resumes after Japan volcano eruption, death toll now 48   {  }

Stop meddling in wireless market, Telus tells CRTC   { * & Government watch dog agencies have been taking orders from corporations for how long now? Is it a good thing that they are seen to be doing this in full daylight? In public?   —djo— }

-Must Watch- Hong Kong protests: Do you hear the people sing?    { *Images from the protests set to a Hong Kong quintet performing the song from Les Miserables*  —djo— }

-Editor’s Pick- Why emergency services need a ‘culture change’ to deal with PTSD   { * [ Officer ] Ghadban’s death [ is ] the 22nd suicide since April 29*  —djo— }

-Editor’s Pick- 5 things to know about Hong Kong’s ‘umbrella revolution’  { *** & Yesterday on the Keiser Report “:Minsky Moment in Global Economy (E660)” In which Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert were discussing the ‘Hong Kong riots’, which they said could be the next ‘Minsky Moment’ in’ the global financial ponzi scheme’ -They talked about what we’ve been told is a peaceful demonstration in favour of democracy. Keiser and Herbert were calling it an ‘Affordable Rent Riot’.  Am I on the same planet they are? Did I wake up in the same ‘parallel dimension’ I went to sleep in? Are we still dreaming? Are there a couple of us dreaming the same dream? Or are we all off in our little nightmares, feeding some alien battery system with our human energy? Is there a “Neo” out there? Can we wake ourselves up? Can we call on what we have been told were ‘Angels’? Can we call out to the the Light that might be able to keep us all alive and close enough to sane to fake it from here? “HELP!” -Amen  //  —djo—  }

-Editor’s Pick- What you need to know to protect yourself  [ from Ebola? ]   { *Person-to-person contact is riskiest* >>—-> Become a Hermit and wear a space suit. Stop breathing, don’t eat, don’t drink, — in a week or so you won’t have to worry about Ebola? “Wash hands before masking” *** My brain hurts. My soul hurts. Why are we putting up with these morons who are trying so hard to convince us they should be our ‘leaders’?*** —djo— ***** Having a rough morning in Ithaka, you can probably tell.***** }

-Blog- Sexual consent app ‘Good2Go’ takes the guesswork out of hooking up   { * Until a five year old figures out how to hack it and sends zillions of rapists after everybody?* —djo— }

-Canada- Lock up chronic runaways to keep them safe: Winnipeg police officer   { *It figures, trust a cop to actually believe that him taking control of you is in everybody’s best interest.*  —djo— }

-Politics- NDP motion to reform QP defeated despite Tory backbench support   { “QP” = Question Period. *At least Tom Mulcair and the New Democratic Party tried to help fix a couple problems that have been occuring during question period.* —djo— }

-Business- Ford ads 1,000 jobs to Oakville, Ont. plant   { *Hey! I think I actually found some good news here- Should I pinch myself?* —djo— }

-Technology & Science- Forget Windows 9, Microsoft unveils Windows 10   { *No matter what bad news I’ve read about Apple lately, I still wouldn’t trust Microsoft as far as I could pick up and toss an elephant-* —djo— }

-Technology & Science- Lower wireless prices lead to worse service, Telus tells CRTC   { *#1 = Never trust anything your Government tells you. #2 = Corporations are much less trustworthy than governments. Therefore: #3 = Don’t even think about trusting anything a corporation tells you.  —djo— }

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“Local / New Brunswick”

Leatherback turtle freed from lobster trap in Shediac Bay   {  }

RCMP release sketch of man who followed teen girl home   {  }

Saint John honours Const. Douglas Larch with park   {  }

Progressive Conservatives seek recounts in 6 ridings   { “New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservatives are seeking recounts in six ridings “to restore faith in the democratic process,” says party president Jason Stephen. – The ridings in question include: Saint John East, Saint John Harbour, Charlotte-Campobello, Carleton-Victoria, Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou, and Fredericton North. – “This is not partisan politics,” Stephen told reporters after filing papers at the Saint John Law Courts on Tuesday, the deadline to request a judicial recount.”  Kris Austin of the People’s Allaince Party also filed for a recount in the district/riding he ran in. —djo— }

UNB faculty awarded 12.5% increase by arbitration award   { *UNB faculty had been very upset after somebody leaked the increase that the head of the university received compared to what they got, before the arbitration happened.   —djo— }

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“Aboriginal”

-New- First Nations girl’s family rejects chemo, hospital goes to court to force treatment   { “Lawyers from the McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton have gone to court in an attempt to force a First Nations girl back into chemotherapy, but her mother says the judicial system has no authority over her child’s treatment.” —djo—  }

 Squamish Nation members demand financial report after manager removed   { “Some members of the Squamish Nation are calling for greater fiscal transparency in the wake of revelations that a band councillor has been removed from her management position following an independent financial investigation.”  —djo— }

Northern Saskatchewan school excelling in ‘mathletics’   { “Many schools in Saskatchewan strive for success in athletics. But Father Porte Memorial School on the Black Lake Dene Nation is making a name for itself in mathletics. – The school has a web-based math program. The grade seven class is currently ranked in the top five in Canada. – Principal Steven Thatcher has seen improvements in marks and attitudes towards math. – “No confidence, kids were having a rough time. Now with mathletics, they succeed so when they succeed they get more self confident and you can just see their math scores just getting a lot better,” he said.”  —djo— }

Manitoba chiefs say child welfare system [is] ongoing ‘genocide’   {  }

7 N.W.T. First Nations publish chief, council salaries so far   {  }

Province working to get Stoney Nakoda flood victims back in homes   {  }

Grocery bus attempts to beat high N.W.T. food prices   {  }

-11 photo slide show- National Orange Shirt day promotes healing and reconciliation   {  }

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{ & Ouch! it’s 12:04 pm and I’m just starting to check for typos and colorize the headlines.   Ouch again, @ 12:40 pm — ready to apply tags and reach for the “Publish” button.  ———djo——— }