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Miles Report No. 32 (2013 11 26)

Miles Report No. 32 - Trudeau, Kalandra and the House; and Baird chooses war - again.

Bienvenue de toutes et a tous,

Je n’avais jamais imagine que je serait encore ecrivant ces lettres concernant les choses politiques pour bien longtemps. Mais aujourd’hui en ecoutant pendant mes pauses courts disperses parmi mes autres activitees, j’etais bien amusee. C’est a cause de M. Kalandra.

Trudeau, Kalandra, and the house.

It is obvious, that in spite of great efforts by Tom Mulcair in directing questions at the Harper government, it is Justin Trudeau who - judging by last nights bye elections - has garnered the most support. I am not going to argue the merits of these two, but what is interesting to me is that the Harper Conservatives appear to be running scared of Trudeau as evidenced by Paul Kalandra’s comedy show in the House this morning.

It wasn’t supposed to be funny - except for perhaps the sarcastic tone of his speaking - but it turned out that way. First of all I must congratulate Kalandra for his obvious mastery of the talking point, never letting anything like an intelligent response slip in edgewise. But at the same time it was this marionette parroting of the party talking points that was - bien amusant!

It is truly an art form that Kalandra has mastered. I had to laugh at his insistent referrals to Justin Trudeau, giving him much more media time than he would have had otherwise. The truly funny aspect was the irony of his criticizing Trudeau for not speaking in the house, for not asking questions - whereupon I learned that he was only entitled to three questions at best anyway - now that is a limit on democracy that Poilievre should look into.

Back to the point - the irony that while he was criticizing Trudeau for not being there, one has to wonder where Harper was, and that Kalandra himself could well be the subject of his own criticism! Why was Harper not in the House this morning answering questions? Why did Kalandra not pick on Mulcair - oh, I get it, he does ask lots of questions, and we don’t really want him around.

Maybe my sense of humour is warped, but truly the comedic effect of Kalandra’s efforts was what struck me the most - criticizing the person they are now running scared from, while at the same time placing a mirror in front of their own leader. Harper likes to avoid the House, makes major announcements overseas with the other bigwigs that he thinks are his colleagues, and is almost but not quite as effective as Kalandra with his repetitious talking points.

Baird and Iran

While it is not a major development in the sense that it is temporary and only small steps have been taken, it is significant that there is some form of temporary international agreement concerning Iran and its nuclear establishment. It should be noted that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and while Ahmadinejad did mouth off too much - usually misquoted by the mainstream media - and is no more threatening than Israel and the U.S. have been to their various perceived enemies - the Iranian government has never attacked anyone, and is under constant threat from outside. In particular, the sanctions imposed by other nations are problematical in that they impact the civilian population more than the establishment or the military. This was true of Iraq as well, with hundreds of thousands of deaths attributed to the sanction. Fortunately, Iran has Russia and China at its back.

I say this seriously, as I doubt that it is the U.S. that really brokered the deal. Russia’s Putin has demonstrated that he is a major strategy player, and has realized that the U.S. does not do what it says it will do (e.g. bombing Libya rather than just a no-fly zone, allowing NATO to creep up to the Russian border in spite of earlier denials of such intentions, its spy efforts globally on all citizens, its efforts to bring democracy from the barrel of a gun to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and many other areas). China simply bides its time quietly in the background, waiting to assume the mantle of global economic leader.

Regardless, Mr. Baird once again has chosen the side of the warmongers - mainly Israel - when it comes to Iran. Wouldn’t want to give peace a chance now, would we Mr. Baird? If nuclear weapons are your fear, then Israel, who has not signed the NPT, has an estimated two hundred or more deliverable warheads. If it is the end of Israel you fear, it is those same two hundred warheads that make Israel the least likely country to perish in a war.

On the other hand, they may well perish from the inside. Their on-going military occupation of Palestine, whether considered from the Nakba of 1948 or the Six Day war of aggression in 1967, and the more recent list of racist and ethnic legislation is creating a truly non-democratic militarized country.

But don’t take my word for it (as the Conservatives love to say) but read Max Blumenthal’s work Goliath - Life and Loathing in Greater Israel. You can read my review of it here ; or here.

It is a powerfully written and distressing work that should be read by anyone who thinks they know what is happening inside Israel today.

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