Canada, this is a joke, right?

Image: Wikipedia Fair use, 


Canada, this is a joke, right?

There's continuous death and destruction just an ocean away and our livelihoods depend on it.

I have a hard time feeling comforted by the jobs provided by General Dynamics Land Systems, 
nor nervous about the rumour (and that's likely all it is) that Canada reprimanded the Saudis by cancelling a deal to sell them our beautiful armoured vehicles.

The CBC protests as if the cancellation were a given:

• The cancellation of the Saudi arms deal would deliver another blow the region, and make for a banner year of manufacturing job losses in southern Ontario. That's something this government simply cannot afford in an election year.

Any other year but an election year, right?

What they're suggesting is that the voters want war because war creates jobs. We, the people, love and depend on war. We deliberately encourage war with our votes.

But how does this affect the actual election since both sides will be promising to remedy the job situation; both sides will still promise to augment Canada's economy through the sale of "defence" equipment?

Threats to curtail sales to the Saudis on the part of the Liberals are a momentary salve to the conscience by addressing the "human rights" infractions of a customer by claiming to be reconsidering future sales -- but as the CBC makes clear "it's not a hard decision" between a "principled foreign policy" and the loss of jobs:

• Most major policy decisions are about weighing competing interests: jobs or the environment; Indigenous rights or pipeline expansion; a principled foreign policy or 3,000 manufacturing jobs in a province that's already slated to lose thousands more. Politically speaking, it's not a hard decision.

What does "principled" even mean when lip service can be paid to the rights of Saudi female activists, but any expression of concern over the starvation deaths of  massive numbers of Yemeni children is verboten?

Nor is Canada likely to cut off its own nose over Khashoggi. Much of the hoopla seems just to hammer into the minds of the general population that the man is actually dead. So move on, folks; nothing more to look at here.

Literally nothing to look at, since no body has been found, and even if one were drug up, how could we be certain it was Khashoggi? Therefore, how can MBS be blamed?  As MBS reportedly said to a nervous Macron at the G20 summit: "Don't worry! It’s OK. I can deal with it.”

The FairObserver states clearly that, contrary to what we were told at the beginning, Khashoggi was "neither a dissident nor an activist". So what was he? A spy? An arms dealer? A former cover that makes it necessary for him to change his name and face in order to function once again on behalf of his home country?

The writer, who styles himself as a dissident, states:

• I don’t believe that Khashoggi is literally dead. He is dead in another, and worse, sense. He is now a man without freedom or a voice to be heard. He is now in custody in Saudi Arabia and possibly subjected to torture. I am afraid he will remain a prisoner for the rest of his life, because the Saudi regime cannot afford to reveal the truth about the kidnapping.

And on it goes, seemingly placing Canada's foreign policy in a precarious position. How can we sell war equipment to the Saudis and protest their nefarious activities at the same time?  Well, we can get the media to say that we are "reviewing the matter" and that "no new arms permits are being issued" CTV. That should hold us for the time being.

Maybe we have to wait until the situation re Iran heats up sufficiently. In the meantime, Bombardier remains coy about whether or not it sold planes to Iran.

Canada's Export and Import Permits Act makes it okay to sell planes to Iran, but not anything that could enhance its nuclear capabilities. Talk about Sleeping with the "Enemy".IMDB

War is where it's at, folks. It's the most lucrative biz in the world. Whether you vote Lib or Con makes no diff. Bin Salman is already rebuilding his rep abroad - while that of Canada is literally going to pot. Our flag has already been changed -- you can buy the new one here -- so the rest of us may as well just fiddle and dance.

I love to sing and dance and play music, enjoying all kinds from Bach (you can dance to it!) to 50's-60's Pop and even to Hee Haw.

On long car trips, my daughter and I used to love harmonizing together the songs we heard on TV and at Disney World. These were our favourites:

Where, oh where are yew tewnat ...? Video

"Gloom, Despair, And Agony On Me."  Video

"Mama Don't Whup L'il Buford" Video (Bears Jamboree: Scroll to around 5:03)

As for dance, nothing surpasses the wedding dance scene in the movie Steel Magnolias for sheer, joyous abandonment.  (I'm not that good a dancer!) "Jambalaya dance scene." Video