Canada’s Navy and the $40 Billion Question by YVES ENGLER

[jemgirl]

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/11/canadas-navy-and-the-40-billion-question/

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Umm...okay.

I have actually sailed on many of the ships and missions described in the "article" and know most of the people quoted, personally.

To say that this article misrepresents the facts would be charitable. I have never participated in gunboat diplomacy and I have sailed a lot. Unlike the author, I have an actual working knowledge of the rationale behind each of these missions. They were not gunboat diplomacy.

One final thought, just for scale. 40 billion spent on ships over the next 30 years would represent about the same money we spend per year as we do on the CBC (about a billion a year). Unlike the approximately 150 billion that the NDP intends on spending over the same period on national daycare. Or as I like to call it- residential school for everyone's kids...

Nice try, Jemgirl.  :

 

[FSTO]

Couldn't of said it better SeaKing TACCO.
A garbage article is the nicest thing I could say about it.

 

[Tibbson]

I say why stop at $40 billion?  Pension us all off and use the money to fund free national day care, free medical marijuana for everyone even if they are not sick, free student loans, wide open borders immigration and alternative fuels from Goose poop.  And just think of the numbers of sleeping bags the Govt could sent to the Ukraine since we won't need them anymore.

 

[Edward Campbell]

There is no record of Lenin or Stalin actually saying it, but Yves Engler nearly perfectly defines the "useful idiot" who parroted Soviet Russian/Communist propaganda back from the 1920s through to 1980s.

                             

M Engler also defines a large segment of the NDP's political base in Canada. If M Mulcair becomes prime minister of Canada he will have to contend with (appease) that base, now and again, just as Stephen Harper has had to do with his "base."

 

[The Bread Guy]

M Engler also defines a large segment of the NDP's political base in Canada. If M Mulcair becomes prime minister of Canada he will have to contend with (appease) that base, now and again ....

If you're interested, try reading a bit of this to get a feel for the more .... "devoted" support around this base - more from the same author on this site here.

 

[George Wallace]

I say why stop at $40 billion?  Pension us all off and use the money to fund free national day care, free medical marijuana for everyone even if they are not sick, free student loans, wide open borders immigration and alternative fuels from Goose poop.  And just think of the numbers of sleeping bags the Govt could sent to the Ukraine since we won't need them anymore.

Is that not the "Platform" of one, if not two, of the current Political Parties?  >

 

[medicineman]

Interesting...especially the part that doesn't allow you to comment at the bottom.

MM

 

[Lumber]

From the article:

For HMCS Toronto’s Captain Stephen Virgin, the circumnavigation was largely about preparing NATO forces for a future invasion. “These are areas that the force might have to go back to some day and we need to operate over there to get an understanding of everything from shipping patterns to how our sensors work in those climates.”

At first I thought, ok, relax everyone, this guy just has a different political opinion from most of us, he sees things differenetly, and everyone is entitled to their views. Then I read that one line that I highlighted above and I... I just... I can't even... not worth it.

 

[Kirkhill]

Election season can be the worst time to be a radical. ...

There’s not much to do for those who believe in dealing with environmental destruction, colonial pillage, alienation and inequality: the fundamental features of capitalism. If you see radicals out and about during election season, they’re either eating ballots or sporting a cynical grin as they wrangle volunteers at a temporary NDP campaign office for some fast cash. If they’re not decrying the pitifully limited range of debate, they’re probably just crying.

We can either join the flock of Shepherd Mulcair or assume the role of black sheep, baying from the edge of the field, but too weak to face down any wolves alone. Does it have to be this way? Is there something better? We believe so.


Elections can be a unique opportunity to bring up issues and assert some “radical” influence. Here’s an example.



During the 2006 election, a small group of Haiti solidarity activists mounted a campaign to defeat then-Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew. Pettigrew had played a role in overthrowing Haiti’s elected government, and covering up the human rights violations and killings that followed.

We didn’t back a candidate; our only goal was to unseat Pettigrew. We fashioned some posters featuring Pettigrew’s image with the words “WANTED FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN HAITI”. It wasn’t subtle, but it had the virtue of being true, and the Minister had declined several opportunities to change course. We mustered a crew of a dozen or so activists and saturated the riding, handing out over 12,000 flyers at metro stops and on the street. We put up 2,000 posters in the riding and organized a few actions. Our message was hard to avoid.

We even got a little overzealous, and postered over some of Pettigrew’s election signs — a federal offense. In one instance, Pettigrew’s campaign manager saw two of us and called the police. But even that hurt the Foreign Minister. We sent out a press release concerning our arrest, and were rewarded with our first coverage in two years of campaigning in the crime-obsessed tabloid paper, Journal de Montreal. A photo of our poster appeared on page five.

...

It was exhilarating, even if the victory was ultimately overshadowed by a Conservative minority government. ....


Saturation, we believe, is key. To substantially impact the discussion, the message must be unavoidable for thousands of people in a sustained way.

....

Tactical election interventions can leave a dent in the political landscape. And they can be fun — the adrenaline rush and camaraderie of a campaign without the watered-down impact. That said, an election campaign on its own is still a dead end. The best interventions are going to be one stop on the way to a more distant destination.

Excellent catch Midori  ;D

Let us all remember to have fun out there.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/canadian-elections-crashing-the-parties-possibilities-for-radical-election-organizing/5466023

How many dead babies should we plaster across the screen today?

And we are back to Alinsky's Rules

Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.

Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people.
The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.

Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”

Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.

Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. “If your people aren’t having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”

Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.

Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”

Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When Alinsky leaked word that large numbers of poor people were going to tie up the washrooms of O’Hare Airport, Chicago city authorities quickly agreed to act on a longstanding commitment to a ghetto organization. They imagined the mayhem as thousands of passengers poured off airplanes to discover every washroom occupied. Then they imagined the international embarrassment and the damage to the city’s reputation.

Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, “Okay, what would you do?”

Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.

According to Alinsky, the main job of the organizer is to bait an opponent into reacting. “The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.”

What do you reckon Mr.  Campbell?  Is this an effective response to the self-identified leftists?

Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”

Should we adopt Alinsky's Rules of Debate?

What would a campaign look like then?

A small bunch of people have great fun making a racket ridiculing individuals and tagging them with claims that outlast facts - all the while dodging anything that looks like a debate on policy. And by all means, never confuse your supporters with facts.  And don't bore them.  Never forget this is all about having fun.

 

[cupper]

It's a good thing that no one told him about our army and air force. I think he would have shit a brick.  :facepalm:

 

[Retired AF Guy]

Couldn't of said it better SeaKing TACCO.
A garbage article is the nicest thing I could say about it.

Considering the writer is also the author of "The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy" its not to surprising what his slant is.

 

[Halifax Tar]

From the article:

At first I thought, ok, relax everyone, this guy just has a different political opinion from most of us, he sees things differenetly, and everyone is entitled to their views. Then I read that one line that I highlighted above and I... I just... I can't even... not worth it.

I was on Toronto for that deployment.  I didn't know we were prepping for an invasion.  I thought we had some anti-piracy mission

 

[daftandbarmy]

I was on Toronto for that deployment.  I didn't know we were prepping for an invasion.  I thought we had some anti-piracy mission

I think he was basing his impressions on what really happened during your runs ashore  ;D

 

[Halifax Tar]

I think he was basing his impressions on what really happened during your runs ashore  ;D

lol What ever could you be alluding too ?

 

[The Bread Guy]

I was on Toronto for that deployment.  I didn't know we were prepping for an invasion.  I thought we had some anti-piracy mission

LIES, all lies - at least according to this guy ....

• "Canadian Gunboat Diplomacy"
• "Canada and Gunboat Diplomacy"

;D

 

[Retired AF Guy]

LIES, all lies - at least according to this guy ....

• "Canadian Gunboat Diplomacy"
• "Canada and Gunboat Diplomacy"

;D

If you are a sucker for punishment, their Facebook page is here:

https://www.facebook.com/GlobalResearchCRG

The scary thing is that these guys are professors teaching in some of our more prestigious universities. No wonder our younger generation is screwed up.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Look, the gentlemen (I use the term loosely here) never graduated form the easiest university to graduate from: Concordia. He was VP of its student union, the single most left-wing wing nut student union in Canada but was enough of a wing nut himself that he managed to get himself removed from office for his action.

BTW, he also wrote an oped piece in the Gazette here in Montreal some time ago, where he (seriously) proposed that the boulevards and streets of Montreal be sold to developers to build housing and commercial buildings ... as a way to eliminate cars from the city.  I kid you not.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Look, the gentlemen (I use the term loosely here) never graduated form the easiest university to graduate from: Concordia. He was VP of its student union, the single most left-wing wing nut student union in Canada but was enough of a wing nut himself that he managed to get himself removed from office for his action.

BTW, he also wrote an oped piece in the Gazette here in Montreal some time ago, where he (seriously) proposed that the boulevards and streets of Montreal be sold to developers to build housing and commercial buildings ... as a way to eliminate cars from the city.  I kid you not.

So we can expect him to emerge during the next election as a candidate for the Federal Green party then?  ;D

Meanwhile, on the Left Coast

Canada’s Pacific Fleet replaced with a giant floating dog bowl

VICTORIA (The News Desk) — Motivated in part by continued funding shortages, the Royal Canadian Navy is phasing out its entire Pacific Fleet in favour of an enormous floating dog bowl.

“Imagine you’re an enemy of Canada; you’re approaching the West Coast, you see this dog bowl and you think, ‘Jeez, think how big this dog must be,’” said vice-admiral Mark Norman, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, speaking at the Thursday christening of the bowl.

A briefing document stated that the 300-metre-wide bowl is made of fibreglass supported by concrete pontoons. With an expected service life of 30 years, it is designed to serve all of Canada’s marine patrol and anti-submarine requirements along the British Columbia coast.

http://syruptrap.ca/2015/09/canadas-pacific-fleet-replaced-with-a-giant-floating-dog-bowl/