Imagine

Imagine there's no energy markets Is it so much to ask? No market for coal or oil Or fract natural gas? Imagine all the people Deciding on the price This is the one John Lennon missed, being a little over-focused on the mystical, as was his bent. He only saw working class heroes in their representational form, fetishized and sentimentalized.

Remember Iraq?

What with ISIS and the Ukraine and those Boka Haram boys and Charlie Hebdo, poor old Iraq is buried back on page six. You remember Iraq, the country we liberated from the dictator? Sure you do. Well, bombings that kill 35 to 50 people don't even rate a mention now that we have extricated ourselves, now that The Troops (that Everyone Supports) have come home. Brian Williams takes heat for stretching the Truth about his "experience" and Jon Stewart's departure makes the front page two days in a row. You know what? All we can do is liberate them and if they can't take that ball and run with it, well, must be something wrong with their culture. Or even deeper, something wrong with their genetic make-up. Which brings us to poor John Kerry. a tragic figure for the ages. Thank God he did not become president, I mean everything he touches turns into a disaster. See the photo of the global leaders after the Ukraine deal? Who is not there? See the Israeli/ Palestinian Peace Process big John was going to facilitate? Kerry doesn't even have their phone numbers. Our great pals the Egyptian regime, our great pals in Turkey, he never saw the Islamic State as a real actor, never saw anything really. So sad. In Chapel Hill parking is at a premium. In Georgia Justice Moore looks to biblical law. Naomi Klein would have us believe climate chaos "changes everything" but when you look around, nothing is changing, really.

Another Irritating Canadian

So then they send their Premier of Alberta down to do some PR work, trying to move in on OUR exceptionalism, saying how we are all North Americans and shit. We could kick their ass with one hand tied behind our back! Talking about the Free Trade Agreement on NPR, now that his economy is shrinking and currency going to pot. Neolib Jim Prentice has obviously been pounding the Thatcher koolaid, telling us : "whether Canadian oil carried by Market Forces will be transported by train or pipe..." bend over baby because Market Forces don't stop for nobody! He continues: "Under the Free Trade Agreement this is a Free Market Product that is moving across the continent one way or another." What right do you puny humans have to stand in the way of these supernatural forces? The next story on the radio is about the effect the shrinking loonie is having on Northern Montana business and the owner of a car dealership says: "Canadians aren't allowed to purchase new vehicles in the states due to marketing agreements." But surely this can't be that Free Market the Premier was so worked up about? Can Jim salvage this failed ideology? Will Obama tell him to pond sand? Will the Canuks take us to the World Court for interfering with their profit? Stay tuned.