The Caravan - What Up Steve?

China's relentless push to reduce US influence in the Asia-Pacific region

 
China's relentless push to reduce US influence in the Asia-Pacific region

Chinese military leaders calls for war-readiness in Parliament

China's biggest problem? Too many men

China's nuclear arsenal 'many times larger'


Russians Conduct Huge Nuke Drill

North Korea ends peace pacts with South, Threatens Pre-emptive Nuclear War

India: ‘Be prepared for irrational nuclear war’ – The New Indian Express

U.S. nuclear commander: Sequester may affect readiness in 6 months

The antiquation of America’s nuclear weapons

LYONS: Obama’s dangerous anti-nuclear obsession

Obama rejected tough options for countering Chinese cyber attacks two years ago

Inside the Ring: Asia pivot threatened

China navy seeks to "wear out" Japanese ships in disputed waters

Iran and North Korea Deal to Work Together Includes Nukes

Chinese Missiles Bound for Terrorists Raise Concerns on China

China exports much stronger than expected, imports weak

 
Obama pushes ahead with export control changes, makes it easier to export sensitive military items to adversaries

The Obama Administration Wants to Sell You a Used Trade Policy

Did Navy make Pearl Harbor mistake again?

Facing the Threat of the Trans-Pacific Treaty

Concerns Grow As Local Police Look More And More Like The Military

Study shows Super PACs made mockery of campaign law

New Treasury Secretary Jack Lew potential Citibank Operative

'Pay-to-Play' Corruption: Chevron, Campaign Contributions and Government Contracts

Police fire teargas on China village after land grab protest

Escape from a Chinese Propaganda Mill!

Canada's Reckless Banks Inflate House Price Bubble

Feds spent $21M of taxpayer money on Economic Action Plan ads in 2011-12: annual report

Oil in Eden: The Battle to Protect Canada's Pacific Coast


Following The 'Foreign Money Trail' on Northern Gateway


Manning to Re-brand Conservatives as Green

Lack of Scientific freedom in Canada

Rule changes threaten Roma refugee claimants, Conservatives discriminate against Roma

News Release — Canada Welcomes Record Number of Immigrants, Visitors and Students from Communist China in 2012

 
How the Communists plan to absorb Canada

Richmond filling schools with brainwashed mainlanders student exchange program, effort to influence perceptions, feelings, place future operatives on path to influence

No room for Vancouver kids in downtown schools

Departments ignore House of Commons committee's request for documents

Job search shows feds want discreet, consensus-seeking PBO to replace Kevin Page

Why won’t Prime Minister Harper remove Arthur Porter from the Privy Council?

Justin understands you want proportional representation, but you don’t get it.

A short video about our first past the post voting system

What will it take to make a Liberal-NDP deal happen?

Probe Details How Clark, Aides Erased Communications Trail

The Elements of BC Liberal Style

Coal Opponents Forging Cross-border Ties

South of Border, Hot Debate Involves BC Coal Port Plans

Mining worries raised amid celebration of Sacred Headwaters deal

Vancouver resource company defends controversial Greek gold mine project

Greenland warns EU may miss out on its mineral wealth

Space mining could eventually surpass Earth mining, conference hears

Falklands votes in sovereignty referendum rejected by Argentina

A decade after US-led invasion, Kurds look to Turkey, the West, mull future without Iraq

Why the West is in Decline

Ruins of Detroit. Once the engine of middle class prosperity

Why the West is in Decline.

(A)

1. The failure of civilizations is a failure of leadership.

2. Our civilization has failed as evidenced by its wealth being used to build up rivals. Rivals buy control of what used to belong to us with wealth we outsourced to them.

3. Therefore, our selection process does not produce capable leaders.

(B)

1. Economic power currently buys political power.

2. Economic power does not = leadership skill.

3. Economic power does not = representation of the national interest.

4. Economic power does not care about national security or sovereignty.

(C)

1. Just as there was a separation of Church and State, there now must be a separation of Economic power from Political power.

2. Economic Inequality is much less corrosive to society than Political Inequality.

3. We are facing a crisis that requires the power of the national mind to be harnessed in order to generate as many solutions as possible.

4. Currently, only economic power is allowed representation in politics, to the exclusion of the people. This monopoly on power must be broken.

5. Therefore, money must be removed from politics. Electoral systems must be reformed to regulate the influence of established political parties and eliminate the infrastructure of their campaign war machines. Voting systems should be amended to offer the people real opportunity to participate. Elections should be about ideas, not money.

6. Political parties are a great threat to national security; they put their own interest above that of the nation. We must always be on guard against the political-industrial complex; the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

The decline of the West is systemic. It is not in any one failed policy or leader but a result of an evolved form of organization that has led to a state of constant failure and an inability to adapt to a changing external environment.

If you are living in the West chances are you live under the control of two or more dominant political parties. The existence of more than one party provides you with some protection from human rights abuse because if one party goes to far in its abuse of the people the other party will win the next election. While better than living under one party control, this is still not an ideal system and is not what true democracy looks like.

Political parties are machines that run on money whose objective is to win elections. Messages are tightly controlled, photo-ops carefully choreographed, talking points annoyingly repeated. Entire staffs are hired to develop marketing plans designed to strategize what segments of the market are to be targeted at what time and with what message. The entire political process has become dehumanized. Politics has become big business most likely due to the fact that the cogs who currently occupy the machine share the same trained incapacities of a modern business “education”.

Brand names win elections not ideas. In these modern times no one wins after an election has been held. No one but the powerful interests behind the major political parties and the well-paid shills who occupy the seats once designated for representatives of the people.

Is it any wonder why no one shows up to vote, why no one gets involved? Many know full well how the system works and what reasonable person would want to commit their life to towing the party line. It takes a certain breed of arrogance and incompetence to suckle at the public trough as a career backbencher. It takes another breed of psychopathy to steal from the public as an unelected senator.

They have made the cynical calculation that the people don’t care. That the majority have fallen for the cult of the self and worship materialism, the god of distraction. You must prove them wrong. The public interest will only ever be defended by the public. Therefore, any political system that hopes to serve the public interest must not exclude the great majority of its citizens from participation in the political process.

Political equality is the great equalizer. If we could enact reforms that would break the monopoly of power held by the established parties, then each locality would be free to elect local representatives based on the ideas of the individual candidates. Those representatives would not be constrained by the dictates of the parties. They would be free to actually represent their constituents.

The campaign would not be fought by wealthy organizations in 30-second substance-less ads on national television; it would be fought in the webpages of official party policy documents and in local debates and local speeches among local citizens. The campaign would not be a battle for control of territory but a conversation among neighbors who are concerned about the issues facing them.

The objective would not be party victory; it would be national victory.

The objective would not be party victory; it would be national victory.

The problem we face in modern democracy is a lack of choice. We have major parties that operate within the rigid framework of the modern political-industrial complex. This constrains our decision making process and limits our potential policy options.

Not every citizen has access to a national campaign organization and a state of the art voter database. Does the existence of those privileges justify the monopoly on power enjoyed by those who poses them?

This state of affairs is bringing about our long-term national suicide.

All because those with privilege put the preservation of privilege above the preservation of the nation. This is the definition of globalism; loyalty to wealth, status, and private business venture over loyalty to the continued existence of your sovereign nation. This is the neo-liberal ideology of the global aristocracy.

We are living in a New World Order where national boarders are being replaced with class boarders. One world where the worst aspects of communism and capitalism have combined to create a hybrid monster system of global scope.

If your nation is to survive and not be absorbed into this global feudalism you need to separate economic power from political power. 

-No political advertising permitted, all debate takes place in local forums, local candidates, stick to the issues and no corporate control/sponsorship of the forums

-No campaign staff permitted, no “strategic outreach” teams/ marketing contractors, candidates should be able to stand on their own two feet and speak their truth, candidates should stand amongst each other with political equality, this way the established powers with big campaigns would not monopolize the process, this way decisions would be made based more on policy and less on the ability to get the message out through a national organization, no public relations/ spin doctors 

-No government money used to advertise policies of parties currently in power  

- Limit campaign donations to $20 per citizen per year with no tax deduction given

-No corporate donations, no lobbying, no special access to public officials

-No party control over how representatives choose to vote, all votes = free votes

-Enact a single transferable ballot proportional representation system, whereby parties who only get a minority of the votes do not get 100% power and voters can vote freely based on conscience without being forced into strategic voting

 (What is Single Transferable Ballot?) (Why does your vote not always count?)

-Bring democracy to the senate, or any other legislative body filled with appointed “representatives”

-Ensure that watchdog organizations are not appointed/ controlled by the people they are supposed to be watching

-Ensure the speaker of the house is non-partisan, is selected either through promotion from within the civil service or elected as an independent

-Increase oversight of the financial affairs of representatives to prevent corruption

-Index the pay and benefits of representatives to the average pay and benefits of the people, give them an incentive to improve things for the country not just the 1%

-Authorize the security services to keep a close eye on representatives to prevent foreign interference in our political affairs

The idea is that if the monopoly on power held by the major parties were broken we would have a much better chance at reversing the decline. As things stand the major parties endorse outsourcing while much of the public does not. There is a fairly commonly held view that we outsourced our economy to China, and if the public were ever allowed a chance to bring the jobs home they would take it.

Take for example the last American election. Both candidates had to say that they were against outsourcing and they would re-negotiate trade agreements as they always say but never do. Americans knew nothing would change but they only had two parties to vote for and both have allowed American industrial capacity to be outsourced over the past 30 years. America did not have a real choice.

Break the old party monopolies, divorce money from power, and we have a chance.

CBC - Secret document details new Canadian foreign policy

Stephen Harper Trades Canada Away

Secret document details new Canadian foreign policy

" Draft policy calls for closer economic ties 'even where political interests or values may not align' "

Respect for Human Rights Better plan for Trade and Investment: MP Irwin Cotler

12 Reasons Why Globalization Is A Major Problem: Gail Tverberg 

 

Globalization levels the playing field, in a way that makes it hard for developed countries to compete. A country with a lower cost structure (lower wages and benefits for workers, more inexpensive coal in its energy mix, and more lenient rules on pollution) is able to out-compete a typical OECD country. In the United States, the percentage of US citizen with jobs started dropping about the time China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. - See more at: http://www.economywatch.com/economy-business-and-finance-news/12-reasons-why-globalisation-is-a-major-problem-gail-tverberg.26-02.html#sthash.kewzAwZz.V7JoIdKS.dpuf

Globalization levels the playing field, in a way that makes it hard for developed countries to compete. A country with a lower cost structure (lower wages and benefits for workers, more inexpensive coal in its energy mix, and more lenient rules on pollution) is able to out-compete a typical OECD country. In the United States, the percentage of US citizen with jobs started dropping about the time China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. - See more at: http://www.economywatch.com/economy-business-and-finance-news/12-reasons-why-globalisation-is-a-major-problem-gail-tverberg.26-02.html#sthash.kewzAwZz.V7JoIdKS.dpuf

The failure of one country has the potential to pull many others down, and with it much of the system. - See more at: http://www.economywatch.com/economy-business-and-finance-news/12-reasons-why-globalisation-is-a-major-problem-gail-tverberg.26-02.html#sthash.kewzAwZz.V7JoIdKS.dpuf

CNOOC completes $15.1-billion takeover of Calgary oil and gas producer Nexen

Investigation into massive data breach widens to Justice Department

CHINA'S 'SOFT POWER' AND A REAL 'RED DAWN'

" Beijing is now a major financial partner in Hollywood, a place where money has always trumped art, let alone truth. Communist China will now take a direct hand in the manufacturing of what American audiences see. "

" The main goal is to desensitize the American people to Communist China's growing military power, outright aggression against its neighbors, and the continuing brutal oppression of its own people. "

" These are also developments which China's smiling Communist elite do not want Americans to think about. We are to think of the Peoples Republic in terms of valuable business partners and graceful practitioners of Tai Chi. "

The Coming Water Wars

Dear Stephen Harper: Tibet is Burning

105th Tibetan Self-Immolates Inside China

"illegal" Student Protests in Montreal

Climate change, urban growth, agriculture driving water study need: report

BC Liberals planned to use gov't resources to win "ethnic" vote 

 

The 17-page document is a "Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan" aimed at co-ordinating party, caucus and government resources to "re-engage with ethnic voters and media." It includes plans to work on a media strategy, build a database of contacts and find "quick wins" such as apologizing for past injustices. - See more at: http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2013/02/27/BC-Libs-Outreach/#sthash.UJh00ypO.dpuf

The 17-page document is a "Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan" aimed at co-ordinating party, caucus and government resources to "re-engage with ethnic voters and media." It includes plans to work on a media strategy, build a database of contacts and find "quick wins" such as apologizing for past injustices. - See more at: http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2013/02/27/BC-Libs-Outreach/#sthash.UJh00ypO.dpuf

The 17-page document is a "Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan" aimed at co-ordinating party, caucus and government resources to "re-engage with ethnic voters and media." It includes plans to work on a media strategy, build a database of contacts and find "quick wins" such as apologizing for past injustices. - See more at: http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2013/02/27/BC-Libs-Outreach/#sthash.rPEMcv2B.dpuf

White House says it will seek "fast-track" trade authority

Ex-security officials press Obama to cancel cuts to nuclear arsenal

Deterrence Works, Argues Top Air Force Official

Big cuts spur calls to Congress from irate constituents

" "They want to kill us all," Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, said of his constituents. "

Obama Officials Refuse to Say if Assassination Power Extends to US Soil

" Since then, the administration – including the president himself and his nominee to lead the CIA, John Brennan – has been repeatedly asked whether this authority extends to US soil, i.e., whether the president has the right to execute US citizens on US soil without charges. In each instance, they have refused to answer. "

The Missing Recovery

" Foreign hires are not additions to the work force, but replacements. The corporations force their American employees to train the foreigners, and then the American employees are discharged. Obviously, if skilled employees were in short supply, they would not be laid off. Moreover, if the skills were in short supply, salaries would be bid up, not down, and the 36% of those who graduated in 2011 with a doctorate degree in engineering would not have been left unemployed. The National Science Foundation’s report, “Doctorate Recipients From U.S. Universities,” says that only 64% of the Ph.D. engineering graduates found a pay check. "

" By focusing on the bottom line at all costs, corporations are destroying the US consumer market. Offshoring jobs reduces labor costs and raises profits, but it also reduces domestic consumer income, thus reducing the domestic market for the corporation’s products. For awhile the reduction in consumer income can be filled by the expansion of consumer debt, but when consumers reach their debt limit sales cannot continue to rise. The consequence of jobs offshoring is the ruination of the domestic consumer market. "

" To sum up, the corporations’ focus on the bottom line has disconnected US incomes from the production of the goods and services that the American people consume, thus weakening and ultimately destroying the domestic consumer market. The Fed’s focus on saving banks, which mindless deregulation allowed to become “too big to fail,” has created a bond market bubble of negative real interest rates and a dollar bubble in which the dollar’s exchange rate has not declined in keeping with the large increase in its supply. Both the corporations and the Fed have created a stock market bubble based on profits obtained from labor arbitrage (the substitution of cheaper foreign labor for US labor) and from banks speculating with the money that the Fed is providing to them.

This situation is untenable. Sooner or later something will pop these bubbles, and the consequences will be horrendous. "

Growth, Debt and Trade

" The current economic model assumes that perpetual growth is possible on our fragile and finite planet. This economic model is dependent on consumption and the waste that accompanies consumption means that most of what we buy is cheap and ends up in our waste streams within six month of purchase. The economy is financed by debt and debt levels are unsustainable and growing. Virtually all levels of government, individuals and families carry too much debt compared to their income.

The globalized economy was made possible by cheap fossil fuels and globalized trade. Fossil fuels are no longer cheap and most countries’ economies are contracting.

BC Greens will work with British Columbians to plan for and transition to an economy based in place and community where trade is local and based in durable goods and services. "

Why It’s Smart to Be Reckless on Wall Street

"Find a best friend at a competing bank or hedge fund and take opposite sides of the same large bet."

China moves mobile missiles near coast amid tensions with Japan over islands

China to intensify Sea patrols

Buchanan: World turns to Nationalism

" How does the Chinese Communist Party justify control of all of China’s institutions today — economic, political, military and cultural?

If Marxism is mocked behind closed doors by a new economic elite and tens of millions of Chinese young, what can cause the nation to continue to respect and obey a Communist Party and its leaders, besides the gun?

The answer of Europe in the 1930s is China’s answer today.

Nationalism, tribalism, patriotic war if necessary, will bring the masses back. If the Chinese nation is being insulted, if ancestral lands are occupied by foreigners as in olden times, the people will rally around a regime that stands up for China. Nationalism will keep Chinese society “under control while you go forward.” "

Tensions rapidly escalating around South China Sea

" China’s assertion that almost all of the South China Sea and adjacent waters are part of its territory seems to be growing more dangerous with each passing week. "

Revanchist China

" Having dominated East and Southeast Asia for all but the last two centuries of the past two millennia, China is chafing at the current US-led regional order of sovereign states, in which even the smallest enjoys the same rights, privileges, and protection as the largest. Modern China has benefited enormously from this arrangement; nonetheless, there is keen resentment that the Chinese civilization-state’s vast achievements over several thousand years offer China no special status.

To a people imbued with a deep sense of superior moral worth, historical achievement, and victimization by foreign powers, this state of affairs is unjust and unnatural. It follows that pulling back from any territorial dispute with smaller and inferior states would be seen as a humiliating defeat, rather than a step toward ensuring long-term regional stability. "

Internet Sleuths Add Evidence to Chinese Military Hacking Accusations

The cacophony of the world

" The information revolution has created a more global, interdependent, and transparent world than ever. But this has led, in turn, to an anxious, Balkan-ising quest for identity. "

China tests Japanese and US patience

" According to Abe, relations between China and Japan have been suffering due to unintended consequences of moves by the Communist Party of China to retain its legitimacy. China’s economic opening led to unequal prosperity, eliminating the Party’s main pillar of support, equality. To counter that, the Chinese government pursued a two-prong strategy of economic growth and patriotism. Economic growth required Beijing to expand its sourcing of commodities, moving China naturally onto the sea. Meanwhile, patriotism, tinged with anti-Japanese teaching, has come to pervade the educational system and society.

Abe argued that China is pursuing a path of coercion or intimidation, particularly in the East and South China seas, as part of its resource-acquisition strategy. Anti-Japanese undercurrents in Chinese society due to the inculcation of patriotism have won domestic support for the assertive Chinese actions. "

Taiwanese Groups Condemn Organ Harvesting in China

" The statement calls for the Chinese regime to release all prisoners of conscience, and requests that the Taiwanese government and other governments implement legislation to prohibit organ transplantation using organs from illicit sources. "

The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking

" The existence of many individual camps and ghettos was previously known only on a fragmented, region-by-region basis. But the researchers, using data from some 400 contributors, have been documenting the entire scale for the first time, studying where they were located, how they were run, and what their purpose was. "

Censoring the Internet a Lucrative Industry in China

" Coming across the message “this page cannot be displayed” while browsing the Internet is a common experience for Chinese netizens, and is often a sign the content was removed by Internet censors. "

Exclusive: China plans bond overhaul to fund $6 trillion urbanization - sources

" The Party aims to bring 400 million people to cities over the next decade as the new leadership of president-in-waiting Xi Jinping and premier-designate Li Keqiang seek to turn China into a wealthy world power with economic growth generated by an affluent consumer class. "

Inside the Ring: Chinese pressure points

South Korea's ongoing security dilemma

Iran's 'Plan B' for a nuclear bomb

Report: North Korean test may mean Iran has a nuclear missile warhead

Syrian strife prompts Israeli rethink on Golan

The Copyright Propaganda Machine Gets a New Agent: Your ISP

" It’s been a long time coming, but the copyright surveillance machine known as the Copyright Alert System (CAS) is finally launching. "

Grassroots Group OpenMedia.ca Hopeful Pro-Privacy MP Borg’s Online Privacy Bill Will Lead to Important Safeguards

Maine setting standard for EMP defense

" Maine’s state legislature is stepping out to confront a problem Washington has been avoiding, taking action to guard the electrical grid system in the state against a natural or man-made electromagnetic pulse attack. "

Monsanto drags over 400 U.S. farmers to court over GM seed patents

U.S. dairy industry petitions FDA to approve aspartame as hidden, unlabeled additive in milk, yogurt, eggnog and cream

China Has Its Own Debt Bomb

Capital Flight from Russia Tells a Tale About Regime Failure

Why the Euro Crisis Isn't Over

Canada’s innovation is lagging

Drug war has become 'slow motion holocaust' says new documentary.

Alberta's Tar Sands Pollution Refugees

Riding official blogs about party corruption 'Why I quit the BC Liberals'

Good Policy = Localize + Sustainability + Security

Union support, affidavits boost lawsuit's efforts to halt Canada-China investment deal

 

Union support, affidavits boost lawsuit's efforts to halt Canada-China investment deal

" Unions, citizen groups, and environmentalists have joined a growing chorus alarmed about a secretive investment deal with China, voicing their support yesterday for a First Nation's lawsuit seeking to halt the agreement.

The groups said they are concerned about the lack of public consultation and aboriginal consent, and provisions allowing companies to sue governments over legislation, contained within the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA). "

" "This deal would critically impact every provincial government's ability to make autonomous decisions directly affecting the well-being of their citizens," said Hupacasath First Nation councillor Brenda Sayers. "Our environmental laws have been gutted, so there's very little environmental protection or process around how resources are removed... This is a very big deal for Canada. It is critical for Canadians, at this point in time, to pay attention to this."

The lawsuit presents an opportunity to educate people about the "secretive and extreme" FIPA deal, said Jamie Biggar, executive director of Leadnow.ca. After the agreements came to light last autumn, the advocacy organization fundraised more than $30,000 among its 225,000 members to support Hupacasath's injunction request. "

" "The reason why these negotiated behind closed doors -- the reason this is not going to Parliament and why it's not being brought in front of the public -- is because, for past trade agreements, the government has realized the public does not support [them]," "

" "These free trade agreements give corporations power over governments, and limit a government's ability to put regulations and laws in place to protect the rights of citizens, the land and natural resources of our country," she said. "If corporations think that rules and regulations to protect our labour rights, human rights or our environment get in their way, they can sue our government.

"With no debate or consultation, the Harper government is prepared to undermine our rights -- labour rights we have fought for as unions, human rights, democratic rights and the right to protect our environment, and most importantly, the rights of First Nations over lands and resources."
With tensions rising in the province over Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, and Kinder Morgan's plans to expand its own pipeline from the Alberta oil sands, some have suggested the real intent of the FIPA may be to lock in oil exports to Asia. "

Chinese Idiom: Subduing the Enemy Without War 不戰屈人

"According to ancient Chinese general Sun Zi (孫子), or Sun Tzu, author of the famous military classic “The Art of War” (孫子兵法), this is the ultimate strategy that should always be attempted first before resorting to battle.

Sun Zi believed that the skillful leader subdues the enemy’s army without fighting, captures the enemy’s cities without attack, and overthrows the enemy’s nation without a lengthy operation."

Lead Now

" If the Canada-China FIPA passes, China’s companies could sue Canada if any Canadian government - including our provinces - makes any decision that put our health, jobs and environment before their profit. Worse yet, these suits would be decided by unaccountable arbitrators in secret courts outside our legal system.



That’s not how Canada is supposed to work. We live in a democratic federation, and our provinces should have to consent to any major federal decision that would undermine their authority. Our provinces can defend their constitutional powers from FIPA. If Christy Clark, BC’s premier, acts now to defend the rights of British Columbians, she could stop Harper from locking us into FIPA for 31 years. "

We need to send a flood of messages to ensure our premiers act. Please join us:
http://www.leadnow.ca/stop-fipa-bc

" Four months ago, Prime Minister Harper quietly announced that he wanted to pass the biggest trade deal in a generation without a single vote in Parliament. Your campaign raised the alarm about the danger of FIPA’s secret investor-state courts. You united Canadians, divided Harper’s caucus and made him think twice about ratifying this bad trade deal.

The Hupacasath First Nation are taking this FIPA to court to defend their rights. "

" FIPA would expose Canada to lawsuits from China’s massive companies in secret investor-state courts -- outside Canada’s legal system -- that have a track record of systematically ruling against the interests of Canadians. Under this system, Canada has already been sued more than any industrialized country in the world. 

Investor-state lawsuits undermine our democratic control. "

" Our provinces have defended our rights before. In the 1990s, BC played a leadership role in the successful fight against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). A BC legislative committee publicly studied the MAI and expressed serious concerns about the fact that it would expose Canada to investor-state arbitration. It found that if the federal government fails to gain the express consent of the province, “the Province must vigorously defend its authority on behalf of all British Columbians."



Let’s call on our premiers to use every tool they have - political and legal - to stop the Canada-China FIPA from being ratified unless the secret investor-state courts are removed, public consultations are held in every province, and our provinces consent to the deal through a democratic vote in their legislature. "

With hope and respect,

Emma, Jamie, Matthew and the whole Leadnow.ca team

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: Chinese need for conflict is deeply ingrained

" "China has a “deeply ingrained” need to spar with Japan and other Asian neighbors over territory, because the ruling Communist Party uses the disputes to maintain strong domestic support, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an interview.

Clashes with neighbors, notably Japan, play to popular opinion, Abe said, given a Chinese education system that emphasizes patriotism and “anti-Japanese sentiment.” "

‪Brainwashed School Children in China 2009‬

China Anti Japanese Student Brainwashing 2012

How can you support your leaders when they provide support for the objectives of the Communist Party of China and it's campaign of one-world hatred and oppression. We should not do business or provide resources to a force that is so anti-human. Below is footage of what martial law under Chinese Communist occupation looks like. Is Canada next?

In Tibet you can be arrested for merely walking outside your door and saying:
 "long live the Dali Lama".

It's sad, the Chinese have been trained to hate from a young age, like the Hitler youth.
At one point you can see about 50 Chinese with guns cuffing a scared old woman and laughing.
  

LEAKED Video from Tibet Show China's Ongoing Brutal Repression On Tibetans

This is what martial law looks like, we have to stop the New World Order.

China's sensitivity over Tibet

Chinese Police Detain, Beat Tibetan Protesters

" Of the 104 Tibetans who set themselves on fire since February 2009, 22 were under the age of 18, Save Tibet said. They have taken part in the fiery protests to demonstrate against the Chinese regime’s policies in Tibetan areas, calling for cultural and religious freedom, as well as the return of the Dalai Lama. "

Australian Legislator Proposes Criminalizing Organ Tourism

" He related a recent discussion he had with a doctor: A patient told the doctor that they would not be attending treatment the following day, because they were going to China, where their donor was about to be shot. “That’s a chilling prospect,” Shoebridge said, “and one which we have a moral duty to address.” "

" While Chinese officials admit—after years of denials —that organs come from prisoners, they do not specify which types of prisoners. Available evidence suggests that in large part, the organs have come from practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted in China since 1999.

The research of two Canadians, human rights lawyer David Matas, and former parliamentarian David Kilgour, indicates that from 2000 to 2005, 41,500 organs were harvested from Falun Gong prisoners. The consultation paper produced as part of Shoebridge’s bill amendment includes reference to the Kilgour-Matas report. Gutmann estimates the figure was 65,000 by 2008. "

Why can't Canada's wealthiest province break even? Blame the paradox of plenty.

" To most Canadians this curious disclosure seems confounding, if not paradoxical. How can "the economic engine" of Canada run five government deficits in a row yet promise prosperity for the nation? Is no one in charge? "

"Terry Lynn Karl, the acclaimed author of Paradox of Plenty, describes the petromania resource curse more directly: Easy access to oil wealth lowers "financial discipline within bureaucracies and leads to reckless budgetary practices. Most importantly, it preempts efforts to mobilize domestic resources through taxation" which, in turn, creates more dependence on oil."

" Alberta must "redirect the revenues gained from the sale of resources away from the government's budget and toward saving," conclude the pair. "

" "As we noted previously this is the solution to the problem of energy price volatility that has been successfully employed by energy-rich Norway and that has been frequently urged upon the Alberta government. Unfortunately, it is a solution that has eluded the government of Alberta." "

"Easy wealth seems to discourage hard thinking, the same way scarcity stimulates innovation."

" In a petro state politicians and business leaders become so tied to the perverse incentives of mining oil, says Terry Lynn Karl, that they "develop networks of complicity based on the classic exchange between the right to rule and the right to make money." "

" How do you know when you live in petro state? Here are some key signs:

When your government pays 30 per cent of its road, education, and hospital bills with finite and volatile hydrocarbon revenue.

When your province posts five budget deficits in a row during a so-called "bitumen boom."

When the government approves 100 bitumen projects over a ten-year period without a cumulative impact assessment.

When your government fires the Chief Elections Officer, Lorne Gibson, in 2009 for doing his job and reporting on widespread electoral fraud.

When your government estimates that cleaning up toxic waste in the tar sands will cost more than $20 billion but asks industry to set aside only $1 billion.

When the province's oil and gas regulator argues in Queen's Court that it owes "no duty of care" to Albertan landowners or the province's groundwater.

When a bunch of Calgary lawyers decide that the best market for their self-branded "ethical oil" are Chinese national oil firms directed by the world's leading moral philosophers, the Communist Party of China. "

Fracked Gas Won't Solve Energy Crunch: Report

" Governments and financial analysts who think unconventional fossil fuels such as bitumen, shale gas and shale oil can usher in an era of prosperity and energy plenty are dangerously deluded, concludes a groundbreaking report by one of Canada's top energy analysts. "

" The latest panaceas championed by industry and media talking heads are too expensive and will deplete too rapidly to provide either energy security or independence for the United States, concludes the 62-year-old geologist who worked for Natural Resources Canada for 32 years as a coal and gas specialist. "

Unconventional fossil fuels all share a host of cruel and limiting traits says Hughes. They offer dramatically fewer energy returns; they consume extreme and endless flows of capital; they provide difficult or volatile rates of supply overtime and have "large environmental impacts in their extraction." "

‘Cancer Villages’ in China Acknowledged by Regime

" The Chinese regime for the first time admitted the existence of so-called “cancer villages”—areas near factories and polluted waterways where cancer rates have increased to startlingly high levels.

Over the years, Chinese environmental activists have said there is a strong link between increased cancer rates and industrial pollution—in part due to corrupt officials looking the other way when developers and businesses violate environmental regulations. Investigative journalist Deng Fei in 2009 showed some of the worst-hit areas using Google maps. "

Fracking: Feds Throw Wrench in High Profile Lawsuit

" The $33-million lawsuit alleges that Encana, one of Canada's largest natural gas producers, drilled and fracked shallow coal bed methane wells directly in the local groundwater supply between 2001 and 2004 near Rosebud, Alberta and thereby polluted Ernst's water well with enough toxic chemicals and methane to make it flammable. "

Ai Weiwei world famous artist Persecuted for belief in Compassion

North Korea set to conduct intermediate-range missile test

Syrian Rebels Attack Hezbollah

A Toothless Trade Secret Strategy

Housing Bubble 2.0? – Why The US Property Market Is Headed For Another Crash

Cyber-hacking War Finally gets Major Coverage

Cyber-hacking threat

 

MPs on Chinese hacking

Notice how the Conservatives try to avoid saying anything about China when questioned. Harper was on TV the other day saying that the best way to open up closed societies was to engage them in commerce. The opposite is what is happening, the dictatorships are getting stronger and influencing our democracies with all the money we outsourced to them. This has only made the enemy stronger, and provided the communist tyrants legitimacy.

Harper lets communist China have free rein over Canadian telecommunications

 

 

The Canadian Government’s 40 Hour Cyber Security Work Week

" …Government and private-sector systems are attacked by hackers, organized crime and state actors [China anyone? this government won’t say] on a “constant basis,” said [public safety minister] Toews…

Now I guess they think those types don’t work during Ottawa’s night:

  …the [Canadian Cyber Incident Response] centre [within Public Safety Canada] was still not operating on a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week basis, as originally intended, shutting down weekdays at 4 p.m. Ottawa time and closing for the weekend. The government plans to extend those hours to 9 p.m., seven days a week, but not round-the-clock… "

Chinese firm's Canadian contracts raise security fears

" Even Canada's own intelligence agencies have warned the Harper government of the risks of throwing open the door to Chinese telecom companies.

Despite all the warnings, the federal and Ontario governments have rolled out the red carpet to Huawei, officially praising the Chinese company's partnerships in Canadian telecom projects with Telus, Bell, SaskTel and WIND Mobile.  

During a recent visit to China, for instance, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was "honoured" to have witnessed the signing of large contracts for Huawei to provide Telus and Bell with the latest LTE high-speed wireless networks across Canada. "

Canada must ramp up cyber security in wake of alleged China-led attacks, experts say

" “The Canadian government has been somewhat remiss in its approach to the problem” of cyber security, said Queen’s University professor and internet security expert David Skillicorn. "

China's military hacking attacks

 

Canada's reaction to cyber attacks

 

 

Chinese Army Unit Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S.

 

Chinese Army Hackers Are Trying to Bring Down U.S. Infrastructure

 

US ready to strike back against massive cyberattacks as firm details link to Chinese military

 

BBC reporter detained investigating China hacking

 

 

China military unit behind prolific hacking

 

China rejects Philippine effort at UN mediation over South China Sea territorial dispute

 

Russian military expert: “If Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not solved in 2013, war will be inevitable”

 

Job-Killing Trade Deficits Soar under "Free Trade" Agreements

 

HD misled saying it needed Chinese specialists for 'long wall' mining

" The company said it intended to use the so-called long-wall technique to harvest coal from its Murray River mine and insisted the Chinese workers were needed for their specialties in the use of it. "

"But according to documents obtained by the union, HD Mining's application to the B.C. Ministry of Natural Resource Operations in June 2011 shows during a two-year bulk sample collection period the company had no plan to employ the long-wall technique. "

Pipeline industry pushed changes to Navigable Waters Protection Act: documents

" Documents obtained through the Access to Information Act show it came, in part, from the pipeline industry.

The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association met with senior government officials in the fall of 2011, urging them not just to streamline environmental assessments, but also to bring in "new regulations under (the) Navigable Waters Protection Act," a CEPA slide presentation shows. "

Environmental law centre seeks investigation of muzzled federal scientists

" The complaint arises from a sweeping Conservative communications policy under which federal scientists must get permission before speaking publicly — permission that is often denied, delayed or limited to approved talking points. "

The Making of a Natural Gas Glut

" In recent years Wall Street banks helped a wave of foreign energy companies including Chinese, Norwegian and Japanese firms buy up shale oil and gas leases across North America, even though too few wells had been drilled to assess their longevity and quality.

"Shale gas accounted for $46.5 billion in deals in the U.S. alone in 2011," explains Rogers. "The mergers and acquisitions market for shale assets exploded in the prior two years directly in sync with the downward descent of natural gas prices. In much the same way as mortgage backed securities bolstered the banks' profits before the downturn, energy M&A had now become the new profit centre within these banks." "

Andrew Nikiforuk: The Big Shift

" He also warns that all citizens should prepare for "high and likely volatile oil prices," and that governments should be "educating their citizenry of the risk of contraction to minimize potential future social discord." "

If we are concerned about the availability of energy, why is the government in such a rush to ship the oil to foreign dictators.

NDP Pledges Election Reforms Libs Stalled

" 'City Hall for Sale'

The Tyee began raising awareness of the gaps in the regulation of municipal politics in 2007. "It is entirely possible for offshore money to buy a municipal election in British Columbia," said Patrick Smith, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University, quoted in the series "City Hall for Sale."

"And it would be easy for the recipient of that money to hide it from public view," Smith said. "I think that's pretty stunning." "

BC's small surplus depends on asset sales and optimism

" The sale of government assets will raise $475 million. "

Selling off property to pay the bills, selling off non-renewable resources for a piece of what they are worth, does that sound like strategic fiscal management to you?

OpenMedia's Steve Anderson - Crafting a connected future

‪Chinagate: Who's Minding the Resource Store?‬

Harper lets communist China have free rein over Canadian telecommunications

‪Chinagate: Who's Minding the Resource Store?‬

Tibet's 100th self-immolation takes place in protest against Chinese rule

Tibetan monks protest

Harper: Don't Sell Nexen out to China, Stand up for Tibet

Tenzin Lobsang's message to Prime Minister Harper

 

Colonization. You saw Tibet, don't let it happen to you.

A personal message to Prime Minister Harper of Canada from Rinchen Dolma

Harper China pipeline

Canada's environmental activists seen as 'threat to national security'

" increasingly conflating terrorism and extremism with peaceful citizens exercising their democratic rights to organise petitions, protest and question government policies, said Jeffrey Monaghan of the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. "

" In 2011 a Montreal, Quebec man who wrote letters opposing shale gas fracking was charged under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act. "

" He said there was real anger among Canadians about the degradation of the natural environment by oil, gas and other extractive industries and governments working for those industries and not in the public interest. Security forces should see Greenpeace as a "plus", a non-violent outlet for this anger, he argued. "It is governments and fossil fuel industry who are the extremists, threatening the prosperity of future generations." "

Gordon Wilson speaking on the Canada-China Treaty

Idle No More

‪NO to FIPPA Christy Clark's Office‬

Pt2 NO to FIPPA Christy's Office

Online groups back electoral co-operation, boost Liberal hopeful Murray

" Murray is proposing that Liberals, New Democrats and Greens hold run-off nominations to choose a single candidate to run in ridings won by the Conservatives last time with less than 50 per cent of the vote.

Her proposal is for one-time co-operation in the 2015 election, after which she is promising reform of the electoral system so that each party's share of the popular vote would be more accurately reflected in the House of Commons in future. "

Delta port expansion plans opposed

" "The watering down of the environmental assessment process, the consultation process that is a manipulative coverup of their intentions — it's a desire to use fine, fine land for industrial purposes," Huntington said. "

Company to sue B.C. government over Morrison Lake gold mine rejection

Theft of Public Resources.

Bloated bills prompt review of carbon trust

" So far, almost all of the sales have been from private corporations, including TimberWest and the energy giant Encana. Most of the purchases have been made by public agencies, which are forced by government regulation to buy enough offsets at the fixed price of $25 a tonne to counter their emissions.
Reaction to the spectre of schools being forced to turn over scarce dollars to the likes of Encana forced the government to provide extra funding last year, but otherwise, Pacific Carbon Trust has operated largely unchecked. "
" Dubious benefits. High costs. Loose oversight. The “next administration” may be well advised to let the sun set on the Pacific Carbon Trust. "

Report: Canada Should Toughen Rules for Foreign Firms

" The 88-page report, “Canada First: Leveraging Defence Procurement Through Key Industrial Capabilities,” is aimed at addressing growing frustration among Canadian defense firms who complain they have seen little quality work from the billions of dollars of military contracts awarded in the past several years by Canada’s ruling Conservative Party. Those include the purchases of tanks, helicopters and transport aircraft.

The report from special procurement adviser Tom Jenkins noted that the Canadian government intends to invest 240 billion Canadian dollars ($232 billion) on new defense equipment in the next 20 years.

It recommended developing, at least initially, key industrial capabilities in six areas: Arctic and maritime security, soldier protection, command and support, cybersecurity, training systems and in-service support. "

Vows of Change in China Belie Private Warning

" “Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Soviet Communist Party collapse? An important reason was that their ideals and convictions wavered,” Mr. Xi said, according to a summary of his comments that has circulated among officials but has not been published by the state-run news media.

“Finally, all it took was one quiet word from Gorbachev to declare the dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party, and a great party was gone,” the summary quoted Mr. Xi as saying. “In the end nobody was a real man, nobody came out to resist.” "

China muscles US in Pacific

"Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu, at the People's Liberation Army's National Defence University, told Fairfax Media this week that American strategic influence would be confined ''east of the Pacific midline'' as it is displaced by Chinese power throughout east Asia, including Australia."

" It clashes with comments days earlier by his university colleague, General Zhu Chenghu, who told a conference in the US: ''We have no intention of driving the US out of east Asia or the western Pacific.'' "

Why America Is Losing the War Against China's Hacker Spies

" In the last 10 months, Chinese hackers have doubled their forces, with 10 teams deploying 300 malware groups. "There is a tremendous amount of manpower being thrown at this from their side," Stewart, the face of our anti-malware campaign. told Businessweek. Meanwhile, most American businesses and agencies are "outmatched by an enemy with vast resources and a long head-start," Lawrence and Riley write.

There is one slightly encouraging tid-bit in the Bloomberg piece, however. At least some of our important national security organizations have enough resources to combat the hackers. Lawrence and Riley list the Pentagon and a "handful of three letter organizations" as "possibly" having enough manpower to combat the vast Chinese effort. "

Russia tests U.S. air defenses with nuclear-armed bombers over Guam

" Even as President Obama advocates reducing the U.S. nuclear arsenal and transitioning the military to enhanced emphasis on commandos and drone aircraft for active use in hotspots around the world, Russia’s defense model revolves around heavy strategic and conventional deterrence models which American policymakers have long since abandoned as being “outdated Cold War thinking.” "

" Both Russia and China have taken seriously the need to invest in strategic weapons platforms, while the United States’ strategy of calculated nuclear ambiguity and minimal deterrence has placed the defense of the United States behind words rather than weapons. "

" When was the last time the Pentagon actually calculated or assessed how many of our bombers, tankers and ships would be caught on the ground or in port during a nuclear first strike? Is this even a consideration these days? Or is Iran and third world dictators who abuse their people the only enemies of the United States our leaders have the imagination – or political agenda – to prepare against? "

Report: Iranians at N. Korea nuclear test

Wall Street's Derivative Shell Game