ReeferMadness

Lie #2 Canada has only one customer for its oil and this is costing Canada boatloads of money. Again, this one is so stupid and easily disproven, it's hard to believe anyone of intelligence takes it seriously. Yet, it's shouted in the media almost daily and it has become a truism. The fact is Canada doesn't sell oil to the US. Nor does Alberta. Oil companies on this side of the border sell to oil companies on that side of the border. And often, they are selling to themselves. So why is there such a big price discrepancy? Well, part of it is due to the cost of shipping it thousands of miles. Part is due to the extra cost required to upgrade Alberta's dirty crude to a usable product. And a lot of it is due to pricing games played by the industry. After all, once the oil is refined to usable products, it all gets the same price. So, if Alberta oil is unnaturally cheap, someone is making a bundle in the middle. So, if the industry can manipulate prices so they appear lower, they'll pay less tax and royalties in Canada. The profits are moved elsewhere and ultimately a lot of them are realized in offshore tax havens where nobody pays taxes. Right wingers who hate governments should be jumping for joy at this but instead they whine and snivel. Go figure. The last Alberta premier who had the guts to be honest about this was Peter Lougheed. He warned about the uncontrolled development of the tar sands and the effects they were having on the province. And he was ignored by almost everyone.

Lie #1 The global energy market is controlled by supply and demand and the Canadian industry is just filling a demand. This one is so stupid it's laughable. OPEC has been openly manipulating petroleum energy markets for decades. World governments could have stopped it but the market manipulation has allowed oil companies to make out like bandits so they look the other way. The only time other countries take action is when national governments try to claim the wealth for the public good (like Iran in '56). Other than that, oil producers can literally get away with murder and western governments will cover for them (like MBS today). World powers have been using oil as a political bludgeon for about a century. Solar power is an opportunity to democratize energy and you can bet this has intelligence agency sociopaths around the world plotting new ways to leverage smaller countries.

... by the industry, the federal government, provincial governments and the media. It's ambitious to pack all of this into one thread but let's give it a go. Everyone with more than 6 brain cells knows that the world petroleum industry is in trouble and, as a high cost producer of dirty fuel, the Canadian industry will feel it first. Between oversupply due to fracking and being undercut by lower cost and much cleaner wind and solar, the industry is facing decades of downsizing. So, of course the reaction is to whip up a public panic about how Canada is losing millions, wait, billions, no trillions, hang on, centillions of dollars. In fact, if it weren't for the rest of Canada and those all-powerful George Soros-funded environmental groups, every Albertan would have a yacht in their driveways, parked right next to the 1 ton pickup with dual wheels and a bumper sticker saying "Jason Kenney for Emperor". Worldwide, the industry is famous for the way it engenders corruption and controls the governments that are supposed to be controlling it. The corruption situation in Canada isn't as obvious but numerous books have been written (and mainly ignored by the mainstream media) about how governments are nothing more than cheerleaders, apologists and, when push comes to shove, henchmen, for one of the dirtiest industries in history.

Strikes are not about compromise. Bargaining is about compromise. Strikes are like wars. Everyone loses except for parties not directly involved (ie the competition). There is a huge problem in the world of a widening financial gap between the richest and the poorest but there have got to be better ways of resolving these issues than striking.

Nobody wins a strike. There must be better ways to resolve this.

Pseudo code for right wingnut climate denial 1. Deny climate change is happening by attacking the data 2. Deny climate change is happening by claiming the scientists (who could make a lot more money working for industry) are hyping it for money 3. Deny climate change by claiming it's a Chinese hoax. 4. Blame climate change on the sun/moon/stars/ocean/rainforest/aliens 5. Claim climate change will be a good thing 6. Claim dealing with the impacts of climate change will be cheaper than avoiding it 7. Randomly go back to any previous point on the list and start all over again 8. Repeat until apocalypse comes 9. Then blame environmentalists for providing enough warning of the problem

OH MY GOD!! It's a BOMBSHELL. It's a freaking conspiracy!! Wait. Who exactly is this John McLean that is calling out climate scientists? Is he a climate scientist. In a word, no.

Indeed, there are common themes behind many of his ideas. In particular, the American worship of ignorance and disdain for intellectualism has been written about by other great minds in the past. For example, in 1980, Isaac Asimov wrote his famous essay A Cult of Ignorance. Following is an excerpt: Imagine what Asimov would say if he were alive to see mindless MAGA freaks worship a a man who lies constantly to them and treats them like shit. And then they elect him president. Orwell would have a field day. That doesn't mean that Hedges stole Asimov's ideas. However, if you're one of those that inhabits that cult of ignorance with its disdain for reading and complete disregard for nuance, you might conclude that there are no differences between what Asimov said and what Hedges is now saying.

Chris Hedges has one of the finest minds around. He's kind of wasted at MLW, where people can't even read a simple article and pick out a few key points. He says something about US that might have easily been written about the normal discourse around here.

Really?? Let's see if that's what the article said: NO!!! It doesn't say that. Why bother posting about an article you clearly have no interest in?

Yup. They find it much easier to debate what they wanted you to say instead of what you actually said.

Some people understand it. It's just you're not one of them. No shame in that. Comprehending an article written at a grade 8 level of difficulty isn't for everyone. I'm sure you have plenty of other talents. Look at dialamah's post. She understands it.

So, you're criticizing an article that you weren't able to understand. Not too surprising. And, as the originator of the thread, I'm pretty sure I'd know if it was a joke.

Stop making excuses. Right wingers understand that it's the function of every person to hold a job from the age of 4 to whenever sweet death finally sweeps you away from a world of misery and pain. Wages aren't important - in fact the lower the better. The only thing that matters is that an arbitrary number comprised of all the money exchanged during a year keeps growing. If people spend their money on opiates, guns and bullets to plan a mass shooting or porn, nobody really cares. But let that magic number drop, even by a tiny amount, and the entire right wing loses its mind like they see the rapture coming or something.

I'm going to repeat this as many times as necessary. Neither the article nor I said Trump is the new Hitler. Look up one post. Nuance is, well, nuanced; but I don't see the value in arguing against that which you don't understand. In other words, you've accused me of hate mongering based on something I didn't say and a highly questionable assumption that the two are somehow associated.

The article did not say Trump is the new Hitler. Nor did I.

Well. Maybe instead of asking did you read the article, I should have asked whether you understood the article. Did the article say, as you claim Well, let's have a look. No. It says the exact opposite. Now, you shouldn't feel too bad. I know some of the big words are tough. Just have someone explain them to you.

Could you point out a time I've done that? Or how about this for a reply. Are you one of those that beat your kids all the time?

Oh. Of course. You think it's "perfectly reasonable" for someone to throw sarcastic comments at something they haven't read. Fair enough. I think it's "perfectly reasonable" to heap scorn on people who comment on something they clearly don't understand. I'm going to edit out the things I would say about people who comment on an article they didn't even bother to f*cking read! The petty, inane, sarcastic, sniveling, dismissive comments are thread derailment, pure and simple. if you don't want to have your life views challenged, why even bother showing up here? Just record your mother telling you how smart and handsome you are and put it on a loop. Done. You can go back to youtube cat videos. And as for that one person who shows up at every thread in this category, looks for any hint of negative commentary and posts the equivalent of a six year old saying in a whiny voice "Well Canada does that too you know!", I have one simple request. Go away. Leave my threads alone. Start a topic called "Canada does that too" and post all of your claptrap there.

Oh. You made your judgement solely on the basis of the title of the article. Well. Now I see why you get so offended when mocks your clearly superior intellect.

Yes. Because if history teaches us one thing, it's that you should always wait until AFTER tyrants have seized power and has established complete control over courts, police, military and other centers of power before you even think about being concerned. Otherwise, when they make a movie about what happened, it will suck. You know I used to think the Germans must have been dumb as rocks to get behind a raving lunatic like Hitler. Now I see MAGA morons drooling over a guy who sounds just like someone's drunken, racist, senile uncle at a dinner party, I think that being dumb as rocks is just natural to about half the population. There must be a god because there's no way Homo Sapiens has survived this long based on intelligence.

You didn't read the article, did you? Have someone explain the big words to you.

For right-wingers, any scientific or historical view that doesn't meet their warped world view is part of some vast conspiracy. Seriously. How do you people even use a microwave?

A leading Holocaust historian just seriously compared the US to Nazi Germany. Huh. Historians are saying what I'm saying. Go figure.

Fair enough. It's not all bad news. In 2016, not only did Trump lose the election by 3 million votes, the parts of the US that voted against him accounted for almost 2/3 of the US economy. If the smart, educated parts of the US ever decide to dump the uneducated, backwards parts, Trump will be king of a backwards country. And next time he wants to look for a "shithole country", well, he won't have far to look.