It was like the trial scene in Alice of Wonderland. With Andrew Scheer as the Red Queen, poor old John McCallum in the prisoner's box, and the Con media as his eager executioners. For they couldn't make enough of this story. They blew it up like a balloon. They made it sound like the biggest story in the world. They suggested over and over again that McCallum had done something REALLY bad. And they gave the ghastly Con Andrew Scheer all the time he wanted to spout reckless nonsense for crass political purposes.
It was one of the worst and most depressing sights I have ever seen. Donald Trump and his ghastly family standing there in the shadow of the great Lincoln, who appears to be looking down on them in disbelief. While a military band played, a military choir sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and a massive power fireworks show spelled out the letters U-S-A in the sky. But of course the real horror show begins today. When Trump is sworn in as President, and delivers a speech he claims to have written himself.
The only thing scarier than thinking about what Donald Trump might do to our neighbours, is thinking what he might do to the planet. Because not only is he planning to torch it, by ending the war on climate change. His foreign policy plans are as dangerous and as crazy as he is.
Well now it's official. Now you can call him comrade Harper. Or Great Yum Yum or Dumb Dumb Leader. Or just Mr Sellout. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government quietly signed a customs-sharing agreement with China without announcing it to the public, Global News has learned.
And the move has experts worried about the consequences to Canada’s security.
Well it wasn't much of a trip, not the grand photo-op he was expecting. He never got his pandas. And as for those two caged Canadians they're still in a Chinese jail. China’s second-most powerful leader emerged from a meeting with Stephen Harper to say his country’s courts alone will decide what happens to two Canadians detained by Beijing on allegations of spying. Because although Stephen Harper claimed he raised the matter of human rights in his private meetings with the Chinese dictators, nobody could prove it, and if he did they ignored him. But still Great Leader did declare the trip a huge success, and say that he was very very pleased.
Well I see that Stephen Harper's visit to China has got off to a heavenly start. With our new Chinese overlords wanting to talk about business, now that Harper has signed the sellout FIPA deal, and they have us over a barrel for the next thirty years. While Lord Harp seems more interested in talking about crosses.
Well at least now we know what will be Stephen Harper's main weapon in the next election campaign. Until about a week ago it was going to be all about the economy. But now he will mount his armoured closet. And it will be all about WAR.
It's an amazing sight, thousands of young pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, defying the old guard in Beijing. Daring to lecture them on the limits of power, in their own backyard. In the shadow of Tiananmen. The young members of the Umbrella Revolution, lighting up the darkness with their cell phones...
Historians will probably debate whether it was the strange smile, or the way he opened his mouth and showed his teeth, that gave the game away. Or whether it was the spiffy straw hat. But nobody will be able to deny that Great Helmsman Leader tried to do the impossible today.
Oh well. At least now we know why Stephen Harper is in such a hurry to sell us out to foreign interests eh? It turns out it's because he took the slow boat to China. A confidential government document obtained by CBC News warns the Harper government has been slow to open new markets in Asia, leaving Canada firmly tied to the troubled U.S. economy for a long time to come.
P.S. To the Chinese government...there are no hidden messages in that video, so please don't block me again. China is already a great country, and internet freedom will make you even GREATER...
OK. This is the limit. We simply can't let Stephen Harper travel abroad again. It's just too embarrassing. Yesterday he was publicly humiliated and screwed by the Chinese. Today he's screwing the truth and pleasuring himself in public by posing as a human rights champion. "Our government believes and has always believed that a mutually beneficial economic relationship is not incompatible with a good and frank dialogue on fundamental values like freedom, human rights and the rule of law." Stephen Harper a human rights champion? OMG. When will this sinister authoritarian nerd stop torturing reality? I can't STAND it anymore. Muahahaha. Oh sure, I see that some Cons are claiming that by getting China to grant Canada Approved Destination Status old leather face came away with a sore behind, but a moral victory. Oh really? You mean the same Approved Destination Status Zimbabwe received FIVE years ago? Some status, some victory. And then there are other Cons like Andrew Coyne, who admit that Harper was humiliated, and are practically quivering with outrage. It is just sick-making. Is there no indignity this country will not swallow? Is there no bottom to our cravenness, our endless capacity to rationalize, explain away and blame ourselves? If the Chinese had done this to any other world leader — to the President of France, say — do you think their opposition parties would be taking the side of the regime? Do you think their president would stay in China another day?
Golly. Is there no indignity hysterical nonsense this country will not swallow?
Perhaps Coyne and the other miserable members of our hack media should spend a little less time swooning with indignation, and a little more time questioning Stephen Harper's human rights credentials.
Or ask themselves why DID Stephen Harper wait so long to visit China?Was it really a question of human rights or was it a question of religious ideology?
The fact is Stephen Harper belongs to one of the most aggressive Christian missionary churches in the world.
The Canadian church's website features a list of sample prayers "for the lost," so members can pray for sinful non-Christians they hope Jesus Christ will save from "eternal damnation."
They want to a chance to go after those billions of potential converts more than they want ANYTHING...except the end of the world. But the Chinese won't allow those missionaries into China, so that's why Harper hates them.
That's why the two biggest China bashers after Harper are Jason Kenney and Stockwell Day. Christianists who put their religious beliefs before the interests of Canada. And in the land that still worships Norman Bethune...someone these fascist Cons never mention... turned us from friends into enemies. And cost us BILLIONS.
You know the really frightening thing is how so few Canadians understand what really motivates Stephen Harper. The man who is just a few percentage points away from changing this country beyond recognition.
Oh boy. Are we in trouble. This secret religious fanatic and political thug is preparing to kill our country.
OMG. Where's Barney when you need him? Look who's heading the Con peace , begging mission to Beijing.
No less than Stockwell "Doris" Day himself. Trade Minister Stockwell Day, long a critic of Beijing, and particularly its restrictions on religious freedom, arrived in China yesterday for an eight-day, seven-city tour aimed at invigorating a commercial relationship that has suffered while the two sides traded barbs over Chinese rights abuses and Canadian support for the Dalai Lama. Praise the Lord and pass the bong.... or the barf bag.
So let me get this straight. After giving China the cold shoulder because Stephen Harper's church HATES the Chinese government..... for not letting missionaries crawl all over them like they once did.
And so do all the theocons crawling all over the PMO. Now we're sending a Christianist fanatic.... who believes the same thing.... to try to mend fences with the Chinese? Because we need their business. Desperately.
Oh boy. Won't that be a lovely sight ? Doris on his knees begging the Chinese to forgive us...while begging his Lord to forgive him. CHEEEEEESUS. Something tells me this is going to end BADLY.
When it could have been so GREAT.
Thanks to this guy....
Norman Bethune. The great Canadian doctor, writer, artist, and fascist fighter. Who the Chinese have made the best known and most popular Canadian in history.
Thanks to him we could have had a privileged relationship with China, that could have helped our economy BIG TIME.
But the Cons put their religious beliefs before the interests of our country, so now we're forced to GROVEL for whatever contracts they will give us. Nice eh?
Gawd. Get those paper bags ready people...
Will the SHAME never end?
When can we send Doris back to the dinosaurs in Alberta?
In China resistance to heavy handed internet censorship takes many forms. But these days the most popular and mindblowing one is the grass-mud horse.
The grass-mud horse is an example of something that, in China’s authoritarian system, passes as subversive behavior. Conceived as an impish protest against censorship, the foul-named little horse has not merely made government censors look ridiculous, although it has surely done that.
It has also raised real questions about China’s ability to stanch the flow of information over the Internet — a project on which the Chinese government already has expended untold riches, and written countless software algorithms to weed deviant thought from the world’s largest cyber-community. The expression and cartoon videos may seem like a juvenile response to an unreasonable rule.....But the fact that the vast online population has joined the chorus, from serious scholars to usually politically apathetic urban white-collar workers, shows how strongly this expression resonates. The grass-mud horse as an icon of resistance. In a country where bloggers are jailed.
Think about that the next time you hear the right-wing racist bloggers in this country screaming about how the Gestapo Human Rights Commission is OPPRESSING them. WAAAAAAAAAAH !!!!
Just like I think about what could happen if China's heroic internet resistance gets a little help from 12-year-old Kevin....
The censors won't stand a chance. Zap.*POOF*
Hmmmm...that gives me an idea for the CANADIAN resistance. You don't think we might be able to turn Stephen Harper into a small glowing energy ball.....
....And have him fly out of his ASSHOLE ?
Complete with sound effects. Wow. Wouldn't that be awesome? Go go go great grass-mud horsie !!!!! Freedom Forever !!!!! Isn't resistance FUN ?
The Beijing games are over, and what a show it was. The best show ever.
But beyond the athletes, the spectacle, and the fireworks, what I liked most was the chance to learn more about that fascinating country, and meet all kinds of ordinary Chinese people. If only on TV.
To hear them talk about their problems, their sorrows, their joys and their dreams. And to discover ....surprise surprise.... that they are just like ours.
I knew that of course. I love my Chinese friends. But in a world where it is so easy to put up walls between people it was so good to see some come down. So great to see people put aside their differences, if only for a while, and celebrate our common humanity “The world has learned about China, and China has learned about the world, and I believe this is something that will have positive effects for the long term.”
Yes there are things that need to change in China, just like there are things that need to change in Canada. But if we respect and like each other as human beings it will be so much easier to build a better and more peaceful world. And do what we have to do TOGETHER to save our threatened planet.
Anyway that's what these games meant to me. For me, for two weeks, it really was One World. One Dream.
So well done China. ZhongguoJiayou!
The Chinese people should be very proud of themselves. And they are... as well as sad.
Even the skies couldn't hold back their tears - but they made sure to cry in silence as the last dawn broke over the Beijing Games. They realized immediately, though, that it's not in the right spirit to say goodbye with tears in the eyes, and saved the rest for some other day Hmmm....who said the Chinese aren't emotional? *wink* One World. One Human Race. One Dream. Over to you Vancouver. Over to you London.
After watching the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing games all I can say is WOW. What an amazing show. The lights, the colours, the children, the flying acrobats, the printing blocks that morphed into the Great Wall, the 2008 Tai Chi performers who moved as one. And of course the awesome fireworks. What a thing of beauty. It was the best show I've ever seen.
And to make things even more special for me.... there was even a pipe band.
When I heard Scotland the Brave playing as the athletes marched in, at first I thought I was hallucinating. Then I thought oh no....don't tell me the Chinese invented the bag pipes too. But it was only the humble Mains of Fintry Pipe Band. What a wonderful story. Unfortunately I don't have any video of them playing at the Opening Ceremony.
But here they are in ....um.....Confolens....
You know they may be amateurs. But I like them. Well done laddies and lassies.
The amazing things you see on TV. Like the abominable chimp George Bush criticizing China's human rights record. Yes. Really. Believe it or not.
As if any government that tortures people at Guantanamo and other secret prisons. Or locks them in small crates.Has the moral right to criticize ANYONE. There are, of course, a lot of reasons for the rest of us to criticize the Chinese government's heavy handed approach to just about everything.
But with only hours to go before the games open, I'm hoping for an Olympic truce. I think it's important to remember that China has come a long way in a short time. And that the Beijing Games don't just belong to the government. They are also a dream come true for millions of ordinary Chinese people.
... Beijing's Olympics will be a success because the majority of the population want them to be, not just because the government wants to use Olympic success to gain legitimacy. Xia Fengzhi, a 67-year-old retired worker and a volunteer, told me how happy and excited he is about the Games: 'I want foreigners to see what China has achieved. We were called the "sick man of Asia". Now we are strong and rich enough to hold such a major international event. I'd hate to see a billion dreams shattered. A confident, proud China is better than a humiliated and angry one.
So I'm hoping the Chinese people's big coming out party is a big success. Hoping we can forget about the grating sound of politics for a while. Here's to the real Olympic spirit. If it still exists.
May friendship RULE...
------------------------------------------- P.S. Did I mention I love fireworks?......and the Chinese INVENTED them.
Peace, friendship, sports AND fireworks? Bonus....
