Bits and Bites from Around the World > Pope tells US Catholics to vote for lesser of evils (ouch); Bear attacks man in Crowsnest Pass

 

Pope slams Harris and Trump, tells U.S. Catholics

to vote for ‘lesser evil’

By Michelle Butterfield  Global News

Posted September 13, 2024 1:28 pm

 3 min read

Pope Francis said that American voters face the choice between “the lesser evil” in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, taking aim at both Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump, and emphasizing that he believes both are running for president on anti-life policies.

“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants or the one who (supports) killing babies,” Francis said, speaking to journalists aboard the papal plane Friday, as reported by The Associated Press. “Both are against life.”

The in-flight press conference, which took place on a chartered flight from Singapore to Jakarta as part of a 12-day tour, saw the Pope urge Catholics to vote with their conscience.

“In political morality, in general they say that if you don’t vote, it’s not good, it’s bad. You have to vote, and you have to choose the lesser evil,” he said.

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Man in serious condition after bear attack

near Alberta-B.C. border

By Simon Little & Elissa Carpenter  Global News

Posted September 13, 2024 6:53 pm

 1 min read

A bear attack in the Crowsnest Pass near the Alberta-B.C. border on Friday has left one man in hospital.

Alberta Fish and Wildlife said the attack happened northwest of Coleman, Alta., in the Alison Creek Road area, just after noon.

Alberta RCMP say two hikers were in the remote area together. One was able to signal for help with a Garmin SOS device.

STARS Air Ambulance airlifted the victim from the area.

Alberta Health Services said the patient, a man in his 40s, was in serious condition but is expected to survive.

It was not immediately clear if the bear was a grizzly or a black bear.

RCMP and Alberta Fish and Wildlife are investigating the incident.

Venezuela's Precipitous Descent into Autocracy

2 political figures killed as Venezuela holds

unpopular vote for new assembly

President Nicolas Maduro vows to go after political foes

after election with aim to rewrite constitution

The Associated Press 

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro greets supporters in Caracas on Saturday.

(Miraflores Palace/Handout via Reuters)

Gunfire has killed a candidate in Venezuela's controversial election for a new assembly tasked with rewriting the country's constitution, as well as an opposition activist, officials said Sunday.

Jose Felix Pineda, a 39-year-old lawyer described as a popular candidate for the Constituent Assembly, was shot in his home in Bolivar City on Saturday night, a tweet from the country's public ministry said.

A group of people broke into his residence and "fired several shots," it said.

Ricardo Campos, a youth secretary for the opposition Democratic Action party, was shot and killed during a street protest in the same city early Sunday, said Henry Ramos Allup, a deputy in the National Assembly and the party's national secretary general.

Two other men were shot and killed during a protest on Saturday night in the town of Chiguara in Merida State in the country's northwest, Venezuelan newspaper El Universal reported.

The violence came before voting began in an election held after four months of political upheaval, which has left about 100 people dead and thousands injured and detained.

President casts pre-dawn vote

President Nicolas Maduro asked for global acceptance on Sunday as he cast an unusual pre-dawn vote for an all-powerful constitutional assembly that his opponents fear he'll use to replace his country's democracy with a single-party authoritarian system.

Accompanied by close advisers and state media, Maduro voted at 6:05 a.m. local time — far earlier and less publicly than in previous elections.

In one of the latest clashes between protesters and the government, a 61-year-old nurse was shot and killed by men accused of being pro-government paramilitaries during a protest at a church, close to the school where Maduro voted.

Maduro and his socialist administration deny links to violent paramilitaries and say the political opposition is responsible for the violence that has left at least 113 dead and nearly 2000 wounded in four months of protests.

"We've stoically withstood the terrorist, criminal violence," Maduro said. "Hopefully the world will respectfully extend its arms toward our country."

Venezuelans living in Bogota, Colombia, demonstrate against the constitutional assembly promoted by President Nicolas Maduro's government. The sign reads, 'Out with Maduro, no more dictatorship.' (Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters )

The opposition is boycotting Sunday's vote, contending the election has been structured to ensure Maduro's socialist party continues to dominate; all 5,500 candidates for the 545 seats in the constituent assembly are his supporters and the vote's success is being measured by turnout.

The government is encouraging participation with tactics that include offering social benefits like subsidized food to the poor and threatening state workers' jobs if they don't vote.

'Hoping for housing'

Opinion polls say more than 70 per cent of the country is opposed to Sunday's vote and by mid-morning, turnout appeared light in a dozen sites visited by The Associated Press, with dozens or hundreds of voters lining up at polling sites that saw thousands by the same time in previous elections. Some were frank about their motivations for voting: staying in the government's good graces to receive aid.

"I'm here because I'm hoping for housing," said Luisa Marquez, a 46-year-old hairdresser.

Others said they were there out of conviction that the constitutional assembly would help the government fend off what they called an international capitalist conspiracy to undermine Venezuela's socialist system with the help of the domestic opposition.

Communist paranoia, apparently, stems from socialist paranoia.

"The crisis, the shortages of food and medicine, that isn't the government's fault," said Luis Osuna, a 42-year-old private bodyguard. "Those who are attacking us to kill us with hunger and blame the government are the same enemies the government's always had."

Once one of Latin America's wealthiest nations, Venezuela has spiraled into a devastating crisis during Maduro's four years in power, thanks to plunging oil prices and widespread corruption and mismanagement. Inflation and homicide rates are among the world's highest and widespread shortages of food and medicine have citizens dying of preventable illnesses and rooting through trash to feed themselves.

The special assembly being selected Sunday will have powers to rewrite the country's 1999 constitution but will also have powers above and beyond other state institutions, including the opposition-controlled congress.

Opponents have 'prison cell waiting' 

While opinion polls say a vast majority oppose him, Maduro made clear in a televised address Saturday evening that he intends to use the assembly to govern without limitation, describing the vote as "the election of a power that's above and beyond every other. It's the super power!"

He said he wants the assembly to strip opposition legislators of their constitutional immunity from prosecution and indicated he is eager to prosecute many more members of the opposition parties that control a handful of state governments along with the National Assembly, providing one of the few remaining checks on the power of the socialist party that has ruled this OPEC nation for nearly two decades.

A demonstrator looks on during a rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas on July 28, 2017. (Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

"The right wing already has its prison cell waiting," the president said. "All the criminals will go to prison for the crimes they've committed."

And the number one crime in Maduro's eyes is, not supporting Maduro.

Saying the assembly will begin to govern within a week, Maduro said its first task in rewriting the constitution will be "a total transformation" of the office of Venezuela's chief prosecutor, a former government loyalist who has become the highest-ranking official to publicly split from the president.

There is no room in Maduro's Venezuela for an honest bureaucrat.

The Trump administration has imposed successive rounds of sanctions on high-ranking members of Maduro's administration, with the support of countries including Mexico, Colombia and Panama.

Vice-President Mike Pence promised on Friday that the U.S. would take "strong and swift economic actions" if the vote went ahead. He didn't say whether the U.S. would sanction Venezuelan oil imports, a measure with the potential to undermine Maduro but cause an even deeper humanitarian crisis here

Maduro's supporters on the Supreme Court set off the protests and clashes between police and demonstrator when they tried to strip the National Assembly of its powers in April.

The opposition has organized a series of work stoppages, as well as a July 16 protest vote that it said drew more than 7.5 million symbolic votes against the constitutional assembly. It called Saturday for roadblocks to start before dawn Sunday and a mass march on Caracas' main highway.

"A new stage in the democratic struggle starts tomorrow," Julio Borges, the president of the National Assembly, said at a news conference called by Democratic Unity, a coalition of some 20 opposition groups. "This new stage will need more courage ... street protests will get stronger."

This deplorable situation will certainly get much worse before it gets better; if it ever gets better.

Look-out Canada, Tomorrow's Going to be Different Than Today

Election Day in Canada (Democracy in action, or Trudeaumania 2.0)

National party leaders (today). Left to right: Stephen Harper, Conservative;
Elizabeth May, Green; Justin Trudeau, Liberal; Tom Mulcair, NDP

A marathon 11 week federal election campaign ended yesterday as Canadians vote for a new government today. 11 weeks is twice the normal duration for an election; Prime Minister Stephen Harper gambled that his two main opponents would shoot themselves in the foot somewhere along the way, however, both emerged with all toes still wiggling. Harper also thought he had an advantage because the Conservative election vault was much more full than those of his opponents. That 'advantage' hasn't really materialized in any noticeable form, nor has it resulted in tipping the polls.


Change (Doesn't matter if it's good or bad)

The theme for this election campaign has been 'change'. Both the Liberals and the NDP convinced Canadians that change was needed. They had the assistance in this endeavour of the CBC - Conservative Bashing Corporation - Canada's public broadcaster whose budget was frequently a victim of Conservative budget cuts. But it wasn't just the CBC who were tired of Harper, Canada's 2 other national TV networks also wearied of the distance Harper put between them and himself, making it difficult to get interviews or inside information. Harper deemed this necessary to control the message, but it certainly did not win him any friends in the national broadcasters.

There are, at least, a dozen other areas where Stephen Harper could be soundly and justifiably criticized, and perhaps twice that many. So 'change' would certainly be a good thing in the minds of most Canadians. The environment, indigenous missing women, smothering scientific research by government researchers, First Nations, etc., etc., are all areas where it would not be difficult to improve on Stephen Harper's record. And while these are all important issues, are they worth 'change' in other areas?


Canada survives 2 global downturns

Canada survived the 2008 economic crash better than any major economy. We were the envy of the G7 and received many accolades because of it. It may have been Stephen Harper's destiny that the crash in oil prices happened when it did. The resultant downturn in employment and investment in the oil fields threw Canada into a brief and very limited recession from which it is already emerging.

The Liberals and the NDP, however, blame Harper for every aspect of that downturn, as if he controlled global oil prices. They also blamed him for all the effects of the 2008 downturn caused completely by American recklessness in mortgage and banking areas. I thank God a Liberal or NDP government was not in control for either of those downturns or this country would have been bankrupt long ago.

So prudent financing, if it were to suffer change would become reckless spending resulting in increased taxes. Canadians pay fewer taxes than we have for many years, but that is also liable to 'change'. A Liberal government would leave us at the mercy of foreign whims and failures even more so than now.


Election results 3 possible scenarios (none of which are good)

The most likely scenario for election results is a minority Liberal government. The Liberals and the NDP are both left-leaning parties and should have little difficulty working together for a couple years. A Harper minority is also possible. That would be an interesting situation since all the other political parties are left-leaning, so it would be a great challenge for Harper to work with any of them. In that case, either another election would be called, or the Governor General may turn to one of the other leaders and ask him to try and form a government.


Trudeaumania 2.0 (God save us)

There is also the possibility of a Liberal majority government. In spite of polls have all three major parties in nearly a statistical dead-heat for most of the campaign, the Liberals and their leader, Justin Trudeau, have been surging in the past two weeks to move very clearly ahead of the others. The surge is almost completely based on the popularity of Trudeau. This, should it continue today, could be called Trudeaumania 2.0.

Being old enough to remember Trudeaumania 1.0, I have to tell you that this is very disconcerting. TM 1.0 was the wave that Justin's father, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, rode to become Prime Minister, some 50 years ago. He was, almost certainly, Canada's first rock star. He became more popular than the Beatles. 


Keynesian lunacy (or loonacy)

Trudeau, the senior, however, was a disaster for Canada. His Keynesian economics has left Canada in a position where it may never be able to pay off the debt he incurred. Canada's national debt is nearly $613 billion dollars and increases by 2 million dollars per day. Why is it increasing if the budget has been balanced? Because we are paying $86 million per day in interest on the debt. That's $31 billion per year. What a spectacular waste of money, and Trudeau wants to increase that considerably over the next 3 years, by the end of which we will likely be paying $100 million per day in interest. What could we do with an extra $36.5 billion dollars in our yearly budget?

Trudeau, the junior, seems to have adopted his father's economic philosophy. Keynesian economics is basically spending the money you expect to make next year because of the growing economy. It's kind of like running out and buying a new truck on payments because you are expecting to get a raise. It's all good if the raise come through, but if it doesn't, you're in trouble. You could end up selling the truck at a loss because you can't afford the payments, and then have to make payment on a debt with no truck to show for it.


NEP (Father of the Reform Party)

Keynesian economics makes no provision for possible downturns in the economy. The raise has to come through or our debt just gets bigger and bigger. Trudeau, the senior, used this same idiotic logic when he sent Marc Lalonde, his right-hand man, to negotiate the National Energy Program with Alberta. The policy laid out how much Ottawa would get out of the Alberta oil revenues. The amount was set on an ever-increasing scale with no provision for a drop in oil prices. Astonishing stupidity! So when oil prices dropped, Ottawa was collecting most of the profits from Alberta oil. It was estimated that the program cost Alberta between 50 and 100 billion dollars in the 6 years that it ran.


Vote

So, go out and vote Canada. But please, vote with your head, not your heart. Selecting a Prime Minister is not a romantic adventure, nor is it an entry-level job. God bless, and help, Canada.