How our governments gull us into supporting unjust, unwinnable and STUPID wars

"Gull" is defined in Ed.'s Annadales's English Dictionary as "v.t. To make a fool of; to trick; to mislead by deception". Gulling the voters is a black art practised since time immemorial by politicians throughout the world. Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." But he and his successors have mostly succeeded in fooling most of the people most of the time.

This is particularly true when it comes to persuading peace-loving people that making war is in their best interests. Walt believes that most people would prefer not spend their fortunes and lives and fortunes waging war, not to kill or be killed. But our so-called leaders -- Obama, Bush, Harper, Clinton, Nixon, Johnson, Blair, Cameron, Harper (choose the one(s) you've been gulled into voting for -- tell us doing so is in the national interest, which means in our best interests. Total bullshit, but most of the people buy it, most of the time.

The sad thing is, they get away with it -- with sending our boys (and girls and "others") where they themselves would never go, with spending your (not their) tax dollars by the billions -- so easily. How do they do it? Here's a quote from Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring:

Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship....

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brough to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country greater danger. It works the same way in any country.

Herr Göring said that in 1946, shortly before he was sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity. The quote appears at p. 215 of Jon Krakauer's Where Men Win Glory (Doubleday 2009), which Walt recommends highly.

Where Men Win Glory is the story of Patrick Daniel "Pat" Tillman, RIP, killed by members of his own platoon on 22 April 2004 while on patrol in eastern Afghanistan. Before enlisting in the US Army, Corporal Tillman (he was promoted posthumously from the rank of Specialist) was a football player, who had a pretty good run in college ball and then in the NFL. He walked away from this $3.6-million NFL contract because he was deeply troubled by 9/11, and felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

In other words, he was gulled by Bush II, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and all the others who dragged America into the Muslim civil wars for the sake of... of what? Oil? Bringing civilization and democracy to the heathens? Or... what?

When Mr. Tillman signed on, the US military and its propagandists (Hello, Jim Wilkinson!) tried to make Tillman an inspirational emblem for their "Global War on Terror", but he refused to do any media interviews. Soon after beginning his first tour of duty in Iraq, the scales fell of his eyes. He openly declared the war was "illegal as hell". The more he saw of the American invasions of Iraq -- the "battle" of Nasiriyah, for instance -- and Afghanistan, the more disgusted he got, but he was determined to finish his three-year hitch as matter of duty and honour. Sadly, an inexperienced and trigger-happy US Ranger ended his life.

But did the US military's propaganda machine relent? Nooooooo! At first, the Army told credulous reporters that Corp. Tillman had been killed by enemy fire. It wasn't until 28 May 2004 that the Pentagon notified his family that he had died as a result of a friendly fire incident. The family and other critics allege that the Department of Defense delayed the disclosure for weeks out of a desire to protect the image of the US armed forces and portray Corp. Tillman as a hero of a just war.

In Chapter 33 of Where Men Win Glory, we read:
The White House was frantic to come up with something to divert attention from the deadly quagmire that Iraq had become, precisely as Osama bin Laden had gleefully forecast. The president [Bush II] was facing an increasingly tough campaign to win a second term in the White House, the election was barely six months away, and his approval ratings were plummeting. When Tillman was killed, White House perception managers saw an opportunity not unlike the one provided by the Jessica Lynch debacle thirteen months earlier....

Following Tillman's death, there was nothing to prevent the Bush administration from using his celebrity to advance its political agenda. [Jim Wilkinson's successors] wasted no time in concocting a narrative about Tillman that they hoped would distract the American public in the same way that Wilkinson's fable about Lynch had....

While he was alive, Tillman had been the object of tremendous public fascination, and White House officials guessed that selling him as a fallen war hero would send the media into an orgy of adulatory coverage. They were not disappointed.

Well, the Bush Wars in the sandpits of Iraq and Afghanistan are over. It's hard to say who won, but not so hard to say who list -- the people of America and the other members of the "Coalition of the Willing". And the American wars of empire (or oil, or whatever) didn't really end. They only morphed into the Obama War against terrorism, another "just war" to bring the benefits of civilization and democracy to the benighted... wait, didn't I write that before? Yes, we've seen this movie before -- there actually is a made-for-TV movie: The Tillman Story -- and we'll see it again... and again... until we listen to real leaders like Ron Paul and refuse to be gulled any more!

VIDEO: Habs defeat Cinderella Senators, advance to second round

Poor Len Canayen here, with a couple of thoughts about the NHL playoff series between the Montréal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators -- the ones people like, not the ones who infest Parliament Hill.

The hard-working Senators [not the ones who infest, etc. Ed.] did their best, last night, to prolong the series, outshooting La Sainte Flanelle 43-20. Sadly for them, Carey Price -- hereinafter TBGITW (The Best Goalie In The World) -- stopped all 43 of the Sens' shots, whereas Ottawa's Craig Anderson, no slouch himself, allowed one to get by him. Result: Montréal 2 - Ottawa 0. (The Habs second goal was scored into an empty net with 3/10ths of a second left.) Montréal wins the series 4 games to 2, and goes on to the second round against either Tampa Bay or Detroit.

To call Carey Price TBGITW is, IMHO, no understatement. Here's just one example of the several "saves of substance" he made last night.



Naturally, Hockey Night in Canada selected TBGITW for a quick post-game interview, before he left the ice. Mr. Price was his usual modest self, attributing the win to the hard work of his teammates and a couple of lucky bounces. He might have mentioned a quick whistle in the second period which resulted in an Ottawa goal being disallowed, but we won't quibble about that.

What burned my ring last night was the way TPWMNBC -- The Player Who May Not Be Criticized, a.k.a. P.K. Subban -- inserted himself in the interview to make sure viewers knew who the real star was, is, and will always be, as long as the Montreal Gazette's alleged sports writers (Hello, Dave Stubbs!) think the sun, moon and stars shine out of Subban's arse.

Stubbsy will have a hard time singing the praises of TPWMNBC in relation to last night's game though, for Subban contributed nothing to the Habs' win. (That's him, #76, lying on the ice in front of Price in the video clip.) But, by jumping into the interview, he did manage to answer the question posed here just under a year ago. That article has drawn quite a few hits this month. Real hockey fans know who the real heroes are.

VIDEO: Strippers at funerals a matter of grave concern to Chinese

Interesting news out of China, a country ruled by a political party with no sense of humour -- none whatever. According to AFP, Communist Chinese authorities today bared the details of their latest battle against vice. Specifically, they intend to stamp out the hiring strippers to entertain at funerals.

In a statement posted on its website, China's Ministry of Culture pledged a "crackdown" [Don't go for any more cheap puns. Ed.] on the practice, which it said has become increasingly common in rural areas. "From time to time, 'stripteases' and other illegal performances have occurred in the countryside," the statement said, adding that authorities will "promptly investigate and punish" businesses and individuals involved in the risque shows.

China's official Xinhua news agency said such performances are typically organized in order to draw a larger crowd at last rites. One example cited by the Ministry of Culture was a funeral in north China's Hebei province. "Two strippers wearing revealing clothes danced on a stage at a public square in our village at night on February 15," an eyewitness told the state-run Global Times newspaper earlier this month.

"They first danced passionately and then took off their clothes piece by piece," the man said. "Behind them, an electronic screen was displaying a picture of the deceased with elegiac couplets on either side." And yes, we do have a picture, scraped off Weibo, the popular Chinese microblog site.

In another case later that month, a troupe in east China's Jiangsu province was detained for funeral performances that drew crowds of as many as 500 local residents. The troupe engaged in "erotic performances on the stage with sexual organs exposed and imitating sexual acts," police officer Tang Jinyang told xichu.net, a provincial news site.

According to China's Ministry of Culture, such shows "disrupt the order of the rural cultural market and corrupt the social atmosphere." Yeah, right... The hundreds of spectators who turn out must be shocked, shocked!

Walt's Chinese agents say the Party has an uphill battle to put an end to traditions which have been observed for centuries, if not millennia. Processions and entertainment have always been a part of Chinese celebrations, they say, no matter whether it's a wedding or a funeral.

The point is made in the video below, posted on the National Geographic website in 2012. This mini-documentary shows a funeral procession in Taiwan, which some say isn't part of China. But the participants look Chinese to me, and appear to be having a pretty good time too. What a way to go out!

Land of rape and honey ???

Let's be clear about this. "Rape" has a meaning other than forced sexual intercourse. It can also refer to rapeseed -- Brassica napus -- a bright-yellow flowering member of the mustard or cabbage family. It is variously known as rape, oilseed rape, rapa, rappi, rapaseed, and, in the case of one particular group of cultivars, canola. Yes, Virginia, the "canola" from which your margarine and cooking oil may be made.

In China, where it is consumed as a vegetable, rape is called 油菜. Forced sexual intercourse or violation is 强奸. (Thanks to Agent 78 for this.) So in Chinese there's no confusion, but in English, well, people other than agriculturists might be baffled on driving into the northeastern Saskatchewan town of Tisdale (hard by Star City and down the road from Lilac) and seeing this sign.

Or this one.

Apparently it never occurred to the city fathers, many of whom raised rape as a cash crop, that the "Land of Rape and Honey" slogan might upset people whose filthy minds think first of sexual assault.

Having heard gasps and guffaws for the sixty-odd years the slogan has been used, the Tisdale town council is having another think. Statistics from the federal and provincial agricultural departments show that organic rapeseed now accounts for less than one (1) per cent of the crops grown in the region. Canola is now king. And honey production has decreased significantly as well.

So the council is asking residents for their opinions on the suitability of a number of alternative slogans, including:

"Hub of the Northeast" (But Saskatchewan is in the West, eh?)

"A Place to Grow" (As in growing canola, Walt guesses. You don't grow honey.)

"A Place to Bee" (Geddit? As you can see, Tisdale actually has a Big Bee.)

Or how about "Land of Canola and Honey".

To encourage participation in the survey, the council is offering prizes. Top prize is a barbecue. There are also, errr, lesser prizes. Walt doesn't know if non-residents are allowed to enter, but if you have an opinion, send it on a postcard to "The Big Bee, Tisdale, SK, Canada - S0E 1T0". Tell `em Walt told ya.

Clintons' wealth secrets revealed

The Hellery 2016 campaign is less than two weeks old, but Her Highness's supporters are already getting nervous. The proximate cause of their latest anxiety attack is the imminent (May 5th) release by Harper Collins of Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. [Doesn't anyone know how to write a short and pithy book title any more? Ed.]

The author of Clinton Cash is Peter Schweizer, a former "speechwriting consultant" [Not the same as a speechwriter? Ed.] for President George Bush I, a fellow of the Hoover Institution (a California-based think tank), president of the Government Accountability Institute, and a senior editor-at-large for the news and opinion website Breitbart.com. (Click here to see the Breitbart promo, with a Fox News video.)

Mr. Schweizer's argument is made clear by the book's title. He alleges that while Ms Clinton was Secretary of State during the first Obama maladministration, her family's non-profit organization, the Clinton Foundation, was accepting donations from foreign interests. And her husband -- Clinton I, as he will be known if she wins in 2016 -- laughed as he banked six-figure fees for speeches overseas, all this in exchange for special considerations and favours.

One example of mutually advantageous dealings between the Clinton Foundation, foreign donors and the US government was given by the International Business Times earlier this month in "As Colombian Oil Money Flowed To Clintons, State Department Took No Action To Prevent Labor Violations". The article sheds some harsh light on the sheds into the Clintons' relations with Colombian petroleum company Pacific Rubiales and its founder, Canadian-born billionaire Frank Giustra, who just happens to sit on the board of... wait for it... the Clinton Foundation.

Conservative/Republican pols have been talking about Clinton Cash for some time. Senator Rand Paul alluded to the "big news" when he began his presidential campaign a couple of weeks ago. And the liberal chattering classes are soiling their shorts in advance. In New Book, ‘Clinton Cash,’ Questions Foreign Donations to Foundation, Amy Chozick of the New York Times calls Mr. Schweizer's work the "most anticipated and feared book" of the presidential cycle so far.

Walt has already rushed down to the Fort Mudge library to reserved his copy of Clinton Cash, and suggests you do likewise.

ABC nations finally sending military help to Ukraine

The government of Steve Harper finally acknowledged this week that there's a war going on of more importance to Canadians than the Islamic civil war. The Canucks are joining the Brits and the Yankees in sending military advisors and trainers, as well as materiel, to Ukraine. The total number of ABC troops helping the Ukrainians preserve their freedom will now be 1075: 800 Americans, 200 Canadians and, errr, just 75 Britons. Something disproportionate about those numbers, but never mind.

Canuck Defence Minister Jason Kenney -- who spends 1000s of dollars a year on loafer lightener -- was at pains to reassure that his nervous countrypersons that the Canadians will be stationed in the western Ukraine, just a few miles from the Polish border.* With an election looming, Mr. Harper isn't going to make the mistake of putting them in harm's way, as he did in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Dear Leader has ensured the re-election of Conservative MPs in Vegreville and other Ukey areas of western Canada. Brilliant.

* Ed. here. I'm reminded of an old Ukrainian joke...
Only half an hour after the beginning of classes at school, the teacher sees little Walter falling asleep at his desk. "What's the matter with you?", she asks him. "Aren't you feeling well?"
"No, I'm not," says the kid. "I didn't get any breakfast before I came to school this morning."
Later, the teacher asks Walter a geography question. "Where is the Polish border?"
"In bed with Mama!" answers Walter. "That's why I didn't get any breakfast!"

"Ol' Duff" on trial at last

As I write, lawyers for the Crown and the Honourable Mike Duffy are on their feet in an Ottawa courtroom, beginning the third week of the trial of the Canadian Senator (suspended) on over 30 charges of bribery, fraud, corruption, premeditated flatulence and mopery in the first degree. Click here to see Walt's previous post (11 April) with links to comments by Chris Hall and Rick Salutin.

Last week's proceedings focused on some of the expenses claimed by the Puffster -- that's him on the right -- lauded by Prime Minister Steve Harper -- on the left. [Strange place for him? Ed.] "To Duff, a great journalist and a great senator," reads an endorsement written by Mr. Harpoon on one photo entered into evidence.

"Thanks for being one of my best, hardest-working appointments ever."-- as "my hardest-working senator" and "one of my best appointments".

"Ol' Duff" -- as he likes to call himself, as opposed to "fat f[that's enough! Ed.] -- got the Canadian taxpayer to pay for:
- framed enlargements of pictures of Barbara Bush and his (Duffy's) children
- the services of a makeup artist to prettify himself and Mr. Harpoon for the picture above
- massages and workouts with a fitness trainer, which evidently didn't have any effect

It's not the piddling amounts spent on these things that's at issue. [You call $10,000 for the trainer "piddling"? Ed.] It's the way the bills were paid. Last week we learned that Senator Puffy couldn't get the expenses approved by the beancounters in the Senate's admin department, so he gave a contract to a cement-forming company -- really -- run by his old buddy from the CTV days, Gerry Donohue. Mr. Donohue was paid 10s of 1000s of dollars per year -- whatever part of Duffy's budget hadn't been already used up yet -- out of which Donohue paid the trainer, the makeup artist, the picture-framer and several others.

What Mr. Donohue operated was a personal slush fund to pay whatever Ol' Duff wanted paid, with no oversight and no accountability. Very much at issue is the question of intent. The position of the defence is that the Senate's rules regarding expenses were vague and hard to understand, and that the honourable senator thought he was following the rules, although a few trifling mistakes may have been made.

If that's the case, why did he direct payment out of the monies which Donohue received for doing "editorial and research consulting"? If the expenses were not allowable under Senate rules, why would Duffy not pay them out of his own pocket? Walt is waiting for the honourable senator (suspended) to take the stand and answer those and similar questions.

Footnote: The presiding judge, Charles Vaillancourt, said last week that, at the rate the evidence is going in, there's no way the trial is going to finish in June, as was hoped. We may have to wait until the fall -- September or October -- to hear from Senator Puffy. Having him tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth -- hah! -- could be extremely embarrassing for the Dear Leader, who should be in the stretch drive of his campaign for re-election by then. Unless of course Steve calls a snap election after tabling his government's budget... tomorrow!