Watching How Media Are Handling the Russia/Ukraine War Over Others

I have a huge caveat when dealing with media sources about events and it’s been taught to me time and again in my life.

do NOT believe media views on critical events.

• They have slanted, biased views.
• They go where the money and power are. Pro oligarch, pro corporate.
• They sensationalize the story. Looking for blood, guts and sex rather than humanity.
• They are horribly linear. In a war, or political race, there is no hero. When people are dying, there are no winners!
• They are mercurial. Today’s temperature is… Is it the result of polls, or their comments’ sections?
• War is never an isolated event. There is always history and bad relations, power plays. So it’s key to know what they are. Independent of media.
• They seem to have lost sight of their moral, ethical, legal and societal duty.
• Canada and other countries had to apologize as nations after WWII for how it handled people who are within our borders from the countries in conflict. And that seems to be gearing up again when we’re just entering the hot stage of boots on the ground.
• No matter where or when conflict takes place, civilians will be killed or maimed, hospitals and schools will be destroyed, and people will be scared. And media will show the people on the side they’re attached to. Not the other. That’s done on purpose.
• Red scare, extremist scare and nuclear scare are all at play here, and being used irresponsibly by media.

……..

I’ve been watching as they report this war in particular. And OMG the racism in the headers and reporters’ stories, and I’m just in awe that they don’t see it. That they published it whether they saw it or not. Esp bad when they claim the war is about right wing extremists or white supremacy being eradicated. (Which is hypocritical, coming from the USA, UK and Russia with their histories. NONE of them are angels.)

War is equally bad, no matter where people in the world are getting killed. Blood is blood, orphans and widows grieve. Young people are being sent off to fight, to die or be maimed (head, heart and body), and it shouldn’t matter if their face is like yours or not for you to see that. IDK how to make this clearer except to use the terminology of racists and I won’t do that. Other than to say that they see anyone other than Christian white people as expendable. They’re just not.

….

• So how do you take what they actually report seriously?
• And who do you listen to instead of them?
• How can journalism and social media giant sites be held to an anti-racist standard? Or can they be even? What are the ‘free expression’ or ‘free speech’ standards on this? Or are there any?

…..

I wish I had an answer for you and myself. I guess we just recognize that we’re muggles and live with that. Please be careful not to participate in their manoeuvres.

Q – Does Canada have a Right Wing Extremist Problem?

Before the pandemic and 2020, I would have answered this differently. I would have said we have a few wing-nuts, like any Euro-centric country. But mostly Canadians are pretty good at knowing we live in a global village.

If you’d asked me before, I would have said something about the rare events of synagogue and mosque vandalism. Isolated rare events from what I heard on the news, that were distressing at the time, but soon over and everyone pitched in to help clean up.

I would have said that Canadians are more civilized than most countries….

But are we?

Then we had the convoy happen and I saw the hate symbols I would never have thought would be carried openly in Canada. Yet here they were, being carried bold as brass while news cameras were on them.

Well when things go pear shaped, you find out where the wingnuts gather, don’t you?

In history, when there are extreme events, you get a rush of anti- govt, xenophobic, bigots out making a fuss. It’s always been that way. And I tend to think of these displays as something along that line.

And now with Russia/Ukraine bringing this issue to a head, while everyone else has been looking outward and doom-scrolling, I’ve been looking within again. What is it that they have that is same or different to Canada?

Xenophobia and bigotry aren’t the same thing exactly. When people feel they are under threat, they tend to develop an us vs them mentality. They become protective of their own. They at least become wary of the other.

When people think they do something well, they tend to brag about who they are and think the other is lesser than. ie Canadians think we’re pretty good at hockey. And we are. We don’t expect people from Africa, South America and Asia to play hockey well. Sure not like us! How could they? I mean we have winter, we have rinks with ice and we invented it dammit! National pride isn’t necessarily a bad thing then is it? We wave flags, wear our team shirts and sing our anthem. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?

Maybe those are normal levels of othering. But when does it cross the line into bigotry? Well we can’t claim to be saints as a country, can we? We are a fairly young country and aren’t that aggressive in the world theatre. And most of the blood on our hands was done under the British or French flags. It did take some time to clear the muck out, far longer than it should have, and we’re not sure if we still have muck or not.

Are our world attachments positive? No. No they’re not. Our primary attachments are with nations who are well known to be bullies in the world power games. We don’t do or give enough to those who just have a need. We aren’t as anti-racist as we could be. Is that us or our allies and attachments?

We do better under the liberal govt than we ever will under the conservatives. But the fact that they are known to be a racist/racist adjacent party and yet so many voters pick them is an issue. But both these parties are part of our heritage, as are the republicans and the democrats in the USA. They’re very similar in their history to their comparable party. LIB/DEM, CON/REP. And some people believe the financial claims of the CONs that they do better with money. They believe that the CONs are more ‘Christian’ than the LIBs who seem to want to be more progressive. Yet get stuck at the neo-liberal state. Both positions are wrong. If we want a better world that is.

Is our status quo what it should be? No! Do we want to be better and truly lead the world? I think we are starting to make new attachments. Have more of a global influence. But it’s not where we should be.

I guess we have some thinking to do in Canada.

How Does Canada Go to War?

Short Answer is we don’t. Our army is primarily for self defence. For aid within our borders to our own citizens. Canada as a nation has never been a primary initiate of war with another nation. Nor been the primary target. As a nation, we’ve never had a war fought on our soil. Though there were wars fought here before we became a country.

Having said that, we are members of NATO, NORAD, UN, the Commonwealth and send troops to support their endeavours and engagements. We train with other nations on our soil and theirs.

Canada’s role with other nations is often one of diplomacy and sanctions when it gets involved with other countries’ disputes. We pick the side of our allies. We don’t technically have any enemies. But some of our allies do. We have no reason to be hostile.

And this is why I vote Green – How to move forward from the Siege in Ottawa and Border Disruption

The Green Party is now calling for:

green party

• A National Commission of Inquiry into racism and white supremacy in policing, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Canadian Armed Forces.
• A full inquiry into the events surrounding the occupation of Ottawa, including failures in intelligence and the chain of command in local government and police
• New regulations for tracking and reporting funding outside the Elections Act or Charities Act and directed to extremists.
• Creation of an anti-hate Ombudsperson, as called for by the Anti-Hate Network.
• Passage of private member’s Bill C-229 banning symbols of hate.
• Enhanced regulations to shut down on-line hate and disinformation masquerading as journalism/news.
• Legislation to protect journalists from legitimate news organisations from physical and verbal abuse constituting a threat to a free press.

…. my POV

The pandemic has really shown what nations and world leaders are made of and it’s not all been pretty. In fact some of it is grotesque. Some of it is downright evil. Mandates for the protection of their people are NOT evil or an over reach of good governance. Ignoring common health advice is eugenics in fact. IMO Threatening and abusing health care workers is wrong.

I don’t vote LIB but I see why they imposed the Emergency Act. Sedition and threats from outside the country were in play. Security needed to be upgraded to meet new technology that could fall into the hands of terrorists. With a road map now given for how they could srsly damage Canada as a country. The threat came from more than one place/prov in Canada. It was organized and well funded. And the provinces didn’t have the means to stop all the threats at once. The feds did/do.

I didn’t think their actions were excessive either. The military was only acting as transport. The action remained/remains one for the police. and security agencies within the nat’l arena (CSIS, RCMP). Police actions have remained only where they were needed and as needed. No cops showed up where no thugs were. Except in their usual role in society.

Where I and the Green party agree strongly is that policing needs to be reviewed. When you see that land defenders, economic and environment crusaders, and homeless encampments are treated harsher than seditionist plots, there is a problem.

And there is also an issue the Green party didn’t state,…. but that may be added as the bail hearings are processed…. is that poor and racialized people would rarely be given bail choices. Yet some of the seditious leaders of the convoy have been/are being given bail. So bail and court processes need to be reviewed too.

I’d love to see the judicial and penal systems reviewed generally, but in the system we have now, sedition should be one of the worst crimes a nation has. And those that perpetuate it should face consequences. They should be separated and not allowed to influence society further. And the system we have now says that has to be by imprisoning the members, either in prison or a forensics centre.

So we’ll see how this plays out?

Meanwhile, the HoC voted and by a majority vote, the Emergency Act is upheld for 1 month. Unless the Senate over rides it? Because there are still convoy gatherings just outside Ottawa….There was an incident in an Ottawa mall today and a bomb threat this past week in Ottawa. The funding hasn’t dried up when one of the leaders’ husband was flown by private jet to be with her at her bail hearing…. And another was given surety for bail. So we continue. And no surprise, the CON party is still on the wrong side of history, even with a new interim leader.

A Garden Between Dimensions (a tale) – Happy Family Day Canada!

A Garden Between Dimensions – Happy Family Day Canada!

The garden’s elders had the day’s list of families being reunited today. To be sure they were ready, they sent one of the youngest to pop dead heads and remove weeds. Not that they weren’t pretty here too….But sometimes you just wanted the best for new arrivals and today was the day for that.

Today one of the last survivors of a long bloodline was arriving. And she had been expected for awhile. There was a sense of wonder and sadness in the day. It was sad that this was the last member, yet they were glad to all be together. They had been waiting for so long. Thousands of years.

They had searched the world for all their members. And here she finally was. What a day! They could close the book where this bloodline was recorded and shelf it. Finally. There weren’t many books this thick, this rich in history.

So the elders lit a few candles and made a bit of a fuss. It wasn’t often they got a chance to do this. And it made their job that bit special when they could do something more with it.

And they were glad it wasn’t end times yet. Just for this family.

But what was end times? To those on earth waiting for it, it was a time of worry and sadness. But here in the garden, it was a day they had been planning for for thousands of years. That they had thought would come sooner and were anticipating with joy. They were kind of disappointed it hadn’t arrived yet. A few times they had been quite sure it should have come before. But no, the higher ups weren’t ready yet.

There! They got the final bell and stood to greet their last member. There were tears and smiles as she came thru the garden gate. A few of those who thought she would know them rushed to greet her and make her feel welcome. Very rarely did it happen that someone had no one they left behind, but this was such a day. No unfinished business. And she knew her death was coming, so no surprises either.

All was joy in the greeting. And the rest of the family gathered to embrace her and welcome her home.

The Gem Table (a tale)

The Gem Table

From all over the world, the women gathered at the table. 15 women, whose mother and grandmother had taught their daughter that they were the keepers of the true faiths. Each had a robe, a chair and a gem stone that was hers to wear. She had a voice in all decisions. And each ceremonial year, the 15 took turns being the mediator when there was conflict and the one who called them to order. Just to keep them running smoothly.

Each year they realized there was more conflict in the world, and less among the 15. They were agreed that the world had lost it’s way and they needed to stand fast with their commitments to their people and each other to withstand the crisis. Or the world would end.

Every now and then one of the sisters thought that maybe they should let the world end. It was obviously in distress and their time with the gods would definitely be better than this nonsense. But her sisters sat with her till she was calmer and ready to go back to her people as their leader. They still had people who believed in the old ways, and some who could be led back. And that was all they needed to have to continue. But yes it was discouraging, when the world was more focused on convenience, money and power than it was on the old values of peace and community.

Each sister had had her time of sorrow so they understood this moment. And had empathy in their turn when it came to listen. And they felt their gods gather to support them when the world was at a critical stage. The gods didn’t think it was time yet. There were things the true people could still do. There were still peoples who could make a difference and differences to be made.

But the candles were running low, the gems losing their shine and the robes were slightly worn around the seams and hems. Something needed to be done. Or the gods would have to intercede.

An alternate Messianic Tale – apostles, prostitutes, and donkey-beating magii

So many ways the tale of the Messiah could have gone, when told from the POV of the Middle East instead of Rome, or the 21C. But what if?…..

A magii who was not a Jew, Balaam was sent to curse the Jews but ended up blessing them. And Jesus a Jewish magii was sent to save the Jews but ended up cursing them and having another religion begun in his name that has overcome the Jews in many ways, which between the two created at least two more (the Muslems and Bahai).

…..

A woman of power and wealth, faith and long history in her community was cast as a demon-infested prostitute. She could have been an equal to any of the disciples in standing with Jesus, and more than a fisherman in social standing. And may have been his wife and mother of his child and a line of French royalty when she fled after he was crucified.

…….

A line of thought that began with the 10 commandments and the message of love and peace, acceptance of others. Went around the ancient world, Asia, Africa and Europe and was incorporated into their concept of the divine,

…….

A line of thought that never rose to take over the world. Because it didn’t meet with white supremacy. It was told to spread the message of love, not cram it down people’s throat.

…..

So what is Christianity? …… Depends which line you follow. Which ‘Bible’ you read. Is yours Coptic, Gnostic, from the church of the East, or Roman and Greek? Is it Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant? Like any faith or culture, there are many versions of the ‘truth’. Many roads up the mountain side.

…..

So why couldn’t Balaam be the name we see instead of Jesus? Why couldn’t there be a donkey as an angel infested being instead of a baby in the manger?

….. resources

suppose Mary Magdalene was a prostitute? In ancient times, this may not be the kind we know today, Couples would engage in sexual relations in the temple as fertility rites.

………

The story of Balaam and the donkey in Bible and Torah :
Numbers 22-24

…….

the original apostles
Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
Saint Matthias, (flourished 1st century ad, Judaea; d. traditionally Colchis, Armenia; Western feast day February 24, Eastern feast day August 9), the disciple who, according to the biblical Acts of the Apostles 1:21–26, was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot after Judas betrayed Jesus.

……

The Apostles spread Christianity from Jerusalem to Damascus, to Antioch, to Asia Minor, to Greece, and finally to Rome. Although there is little evidence to back up the assertion, some people believe that
James the Elder went to Spain,
St. Thomas went east, through what is now Syria and Iran and, historians believe, on down to Kerala southern India.
Saint Matthew went to Ethiopia and
Saint Bartholomew to Armenia. Bartholomew was tortured and crucified while on a missionary trip in India.
Paul journeys encompassed much of the Mediterranean.

After Jesus’s death
John was busy winning converts in Jerusalem.
For his missionary efforts in the Aegean Andrew was said to have been crucified on an X-shaped cross in Patras Greece (the source of St. Andrew’s Cross).
There are stories that James the Younger was stoned to death, allegedly for proselytizing among Jews,

St. Stephen, a young Christian leader who enraged a Jewish community by suggesting that Christ would return and destroy the Temple of Jerusalem. He was stoned to death.
King Herod Agrippa I imprisoned and beheaded James the Greater,

“Tradition holds that 11 of the Twelve Apostles were martyred. Peter, Andrew, and Philip were crucified; James the Greater and Thaddaeus fell to the sword; James the Lesser was beaten to death while praying for his attackers; Bartholomew was flayed alive and then crucified; Thomas and Matthew were speared; Matthias was stoned to death; and Simon was either crucified or sawed in half. John—the last survivor of the Twelve—likely died peaceably, possibly in Ephesus, around the year 100.”
source

…….

Philip – In the years following Pentecost, Philip ministered to Greek-speaking communities. Little is known about his adventures, except that he was martyred around 80 AD
Judas Thaddeus – St. Jude preached the gospel in various places. He is revered by the Armenian Church as the “Apostle to the Armenians.”He suffered martyrdom around 65 AD in Beirut, Lebanon
Simon the Zealot – is often depicted with Judas Thaddeus and some believe they preached together as a team. This is due in part because a tradition states they were both martyred in Beirut in the same year
Matthias – After being chosen as the “replacement apostle,” one tradition states that Matthias founded a church in Cappadocia and ministered to Christians on the coasts of the Caspian Sea. It is believed that he died a martyr’s death, and was beheaded with an axe in Colchis at the hands of the many pagans there.
source

…….

St. Mark’s real labor lays in Africa. He left Rome to Pentapolis, where he was born. After planting the seeds of faith and performing many miracles he traveled to Egypt, through the Oasis, the desert of Libya, Upper Egypt and then entered Alexandria from its eastern gate in 61 A.D.
source

…..

St Luke was said to be Greek, a physician and mostly travelled with Paul (till his incarceration and death.)
source

……

St Mark is linked to the African rising of Christianity (Coptic)
St Thomas is to the East rising all the way to India (Church of the East)

movie quote from Jerry Maguire “Show me the money” – Canada tightens up protestor finances in 2022

On realizing that about 2/3s of the financing from the crowd source sites was coming from out of country sources, the federal govt has decided to tighten up legislation in response.

Who are these people?

I’ve heard several theories on twitter, and they don’t seem implausible. Nor does the discussion as to why they would support a convoy that is interrupting Canadian and US trade routes.

……

• Russians, Chinese
  looking to expand the Communist foothold in the world.
• Dominionists
  a 2.0 colonialist ‘Christian’ movement that is white supremacist in it’s move to expand their foothold on the world
• Stephen Harper
  and the International Democrat Union (IDU) global ultra ‘conservative’ parties
• Trump
  and the Republican Party
• terrorists
  looking to interrupt trade and democracy
• Canadian separatist parties from Quebec, Wexit, Maverick
• PPC and CPC parties
  who don’t like losing the seats they needed in the HoC to be in the PM seat. We have a plural system, that doesn’t just count the popular vote. And who have been calling for PMJT’s resignation, and opposing many of his actions to block fair govt since he was first elected as a majority. Including calling for his death.

……

It may seem like the moves to curtail the funding of the convoy are an over-reach, but that is only if you think they’re going after the donations of little guys who gave their last $10 for what they thought was a good cause. That is who you see on the news after all. But that isn’t where the millions of dollars are coming from. At . all.

But that isn’t what this is about. And never was. It’s an end run against Trudeau. To disrupt the trade between Canada and the USA.

And there is a history of war between our nations. For people who look at the past to justify using confederate symbols (2 flags) , that very well could be the people who’d have a grudge against Canada. We fought with the British against the USA after all.

Calling for an Inquiry on Cdn Police Handling of Protestors

A lot of Canadians are getting their eyes opened to how police handle protests of different forms/by different groups during this siege. Esp when comparing their actions to how they come across when handling other groups.

• There is a real disconnect between officers giving the protestors hugs as they send them home or off to jail, when they’ve threatened a sitting PM’s life, disrupted trade, blocked int’l bridges, and roads, cut off an entire town from 911 services and food, and harassed the local citizenry. The officers were not ever dressed in riot gear.

And a few homeless people gathering to try to survive who have addictions and mental health, possibly physical health issues. They were greeted with horses, riot gear and serious weapons vs handguns. They were dragged and beaten.

And First Nation land defenders who are trying to protect their land, and their culture. Who get They were greeted with tanks, SUVs, beatings, riot gear.

And at the G20 summit in 2010 in Toronto, environmentalists who walked down the street for a couple hours, and were sitting down, prepared to give themselves up for arrest at the end. were rushed and beaten, dragged by police in riot gear.

Perhaps because it was political and sanctioned by the Prime Minister’s presence , the BLM movement was treated with decency in Canada. But these same people are murdered and beaten when under arrest, or even under a mental health warrant.

…….

It’s hard to see, harder still to realize it’s true. And hard to imagine what can be done. How do the same people for a different cause get mishandled? How do different people who are actually there for good motives get treated differently? In a crowd of protestors and counter-protestors, one First Nations’ man was arrested for standing and holding a sign that said both sides should go home, it was his people’s land. Not theirs. And nobody lifted a voice or a finger to help or question what the police were doing.

When faced with people in a group that wanted to overthrow the govt and had threatened a sitting PM’s life, the police were siding with them and arresting counter protestors. Not that group.

Faced with a group that had threatened and done violence and were receiving and soliciting funding from outside the country to rabble rouse and overthrow a sitting, just elected govt, the police who are supposed to uphold the law of the land, were siding with the protestors.

……

Not all of the officers did these things. But those who did? They did it knowing they were on camera. Their fellow officers did nothing to stop or censure them. Their command don’t seem that interested in what was going on. The impression that made of who the police are to Canadians.

So how do you separate the wheat from the chaff here? Where do you start to look for solutions to a horrible problem? It’s racism, elitism, oppression, and just wrong acts. In the name of policing. In the name of law and order. In the name of public safety.

What is the alternative? Because this isn’t working. It’s not fair, impartial or a good model of how we’re supposed to act.

……

It was really easy in 2020 to watch from the side-lines as the BLM protests were mishandled in the USA and say ‘that’s not us. That’s not Canadian’. But now we know, if we didn’t before, that it is us. So what do we do now?

Interrupting Valentine’s Day for….the Emergencies Act invoked in Canada?

…. what it is

summary

….. PMJT on Twitter

……What does that mean for Cdns?

For those of us who are law abiding citizens, who are sitting at home, minding our Ps and Qs, not donating to the convoy, or participating in/supporting it in anyway…. nothing. We are free to do as we wish.

……what comes next?

The govt, police agencies, banks, insurance companies, and CSIS are going to be scrambling like rats in a maze to gather proof (which won’t be hard at all thx to the hacker who gathered the detes for them from the funding sites, and their own chatter on Zello – how stupid is that anyways??), their truck licenses, with their insurance papers attached, company names, residences, drivers’ licenses…. I mean come on!! Sure, when committing a crime, shouldn’t you lead the cops right to your doorstep? If it weren’t so serious, it’d be a plot for a B film on “worst criminals ever in history”.
And this is saying a LOT, but these idiots are even worse at hiding themselves than the people who stormed into the US Capitol bldg on Jan 6, 2021.
And the tow trucks will be towing, and the police will be impounding, the very vehicles they’re claiming they wanted free of all restrictions.

…… what citizens know

• about 2000 guns have been stolen,
• property has been stolen, wrecked
• space/trade has been blocked
• people have been threatened, hassled, assaulted
• the money is coming from outside Canada and separatists inside Canada to disrupt govt and threaten our PM. Just after an election.

…. does it matter why they’re doing it?

Not a shit load nope. With the threats to the sitting PM, it doesn’t matter that they’re protesting the vaccine mandates.

…. a couple NOs in this drama

• no, the PM hasn’t gone off his lid and acting out on his own. He’s using legal channels, and calling on the right people. And come on! They’ve had their party with bouncy castles, BBQs, DJs and spas. For 2 weeks!
• no it won’t be unchecked. The HoC has to review it in 7 days
• and no the military won’t be showing up at our doors either.

….. but make no mistake,

consequences are coming for them.

……Zello has a RAM ranch troll!

I’ll let you have the giggle of looking that up for yourself.

….. happy valentine’s day!

Back to date nights and chocolates.