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Tuesday May 3, 2022

May 3, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 3, 2022

Pulling back from wider war in Europe

August 15, 2008

As bad as the war in Ukraine has already been, it may soon get a lot worse.

So far, the death and destruction has been confined to Ukraine itself. It’s a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but the conflict has at least been contained.

But what if it spills over into other parts of Europe, or turns into a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia? Or more directly, between the United States and Russia? That would be far more dangerous.

This is not idle speculation.

As Ukrainians put up fierce resistance to the invaders, bolstered by political support and a flood of weaponry from the West, it looks like the war will drag on. The possibility of a deal to end the fighting, a lively possibility a few weeks ago, has faded.

April 28, 2022

And the longer the conflict lasts, the greater is the risk it will spread. Not necessarily because either side has a grand design for major conflict, but by a series of escalations and miscalculations. We know from Europe’s bloody history that this is how small wars become big ones.

Once again, the danger of escalation is coming mostly from Russia. This past week, it cut off shipments of natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria and ramped up warnings about its nuclear capability.

It also looks like Moscow may be eyeing the tiny former Soviet republic of Moldova, squeezed between Ukraine and Romania, as its next target. Russia already has troops there, and a Russian general has publicly said his country intends to take over all of southern Ukraine and then link up with Moldova, the justification being to end “oppression of the Russian-speaking population.”

Behind all that, it seems, is deep frustration within the Russian military over its setbacks against Ukrainian forces and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy of abandoning the goal of controlling the entire country in favour of a more limited campaign to dominate the east and south.

February 23, 2022

“Russia’s military believes that limiting the war’s initial goals is a serious error,” Russian journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan write for the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. “They now argue that Russia is not fighting Ukraine, but NATO.”

All of which suggests that behind the facade of unity behind Putin, Russia’s military and security apparatus is seriously divided, with a powerful faction arguing in favour of expanding the war, not ending it. They’re pushing for even more aggressive action in Ukraine itself, as well as a push beyond its borders.

On the other side, western allies are escalating their support for Ukraine. More sanctions, more troops in the region (Britain announced 8,000 more last week), and more heavy weaponry.

Some have read much into the statement by U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin that Washington wants “to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

Marvellous Maps

For them, that reveals a hidden “real reason” why the U.S. (and presumably Canada, France, Germany et al) are backing Ukraine. This, however, ignores the fact that Russia brought the alliance against it entirely on itself with its unprovoked aggression. And what decent person, in the end, doesn’t want to see Putin rendered incapable of inflicting similar violence on others?

Regardless of the rights and wrongs, the prospect of a wider war is horrifying. Right now there’s a consensus in the West around supporting Ukraine. But there’s no consensus around pursuing a broader campaign against Russia as such.

The danger, however, is that we may find ourselves on that road without quite realizing it.

While there’s still time, the world needs to find a way to back away from the brink. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Posted in: International Tagged: 2022-15, Bulgaria, Estonia, Europe, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, map, maps, Moldova, octopus, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, world

Saturday March 12, 2022

March 12, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 12, 2022

Bye-bye to the Big Mac: Russia’s war heralds a dark, isolated economic era

August 10, 2007

The big western brands showed Vladimir Putin how to do it. While the Kremlin’s army was getting bogged down in Ukraine, Coca-Cola and Starbucks lost no time in closing their doors to Russian customers.

But the most emblematic move of all came from McDonald’s, which has shut all 850 of its outlets in Russia. The availability of Big Macs in the Soviet Union was seen in 1990 as evidence that the west’s old cold war foe was turning its back on communism, but the past fortnight has rekindled memories of the bad old days. There were queues outside McDonald’s when it first opened in Moscow. Last week, Russians queued for one last burger before the pull-out began.

One of Putin’s predecessors in the Kremlin – Lenin – once said there were decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen, and that’s true of the period since Russian troops moved across the border into Ukraine on 24 February.

Posted in: International Tagged: 2022-10, consumerism, invasion, leaf blower, map, maps, McDonald’s, Russia, Soviet, Soviet Union, Ukraine, USSR, Vladimir Putin, war, Western, world

Friday July 16, 2021

July 23, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 16, 2021

Greens adopt a climate of cruelty in self-destructive attack on party leader

It is the sovereign purpose of the Green Party of Canada to save the world from planet-destroying global warming.

June 18, 2021

Its second purpose appears to be to badmouth Israel whenever an opportunity to do so presents itself.

It is really, really difficult to see how the second of these relates to the first. They are wildly dissimilar undertakings. For example, you may read hundreds and hundreds of books and articles about Israel and the Middle East and only rarely, if at all, come upon such phrases as carbon capture, biofuels, green new deal or tips on how to get the most out of your basement heater.

The topics or issues are, if you will forgive the phrase, a world apart, and yet within the Green party, the members’ stand on Israel apparently stimulates a passion surpassing even their horror of the planet’s imminent collapse.

October 7, 2020

Surely, I hear some mumbling, you exaggerate. Not at all. The recently elected leader of the Canadian greens, the accomplished Annamie Paul, has brought upon herself a great green fury. Not from any slackness on the global warming file. On global warming — the evils of oil companies, love of solar panels and giddiness over windmills — she is as green as the next planet saver, a veritable oak in the forest of green politics.

But on the matter of Israel, which as I’ve hinted has to be seen as desperately disconnected from any form of meteorological Armageddon, she had expressed a moderate view. In the most recent breakout of Middle East tension she called for “both sides to cease violence,” the burden of her position being that “Violence and confrontation will not bring resolution, only more suffering.”

That surely is an unexceptional statement. Indeed Ms. Paul’s words are intimately similar to the words and thoughts of the world’s most respected and venerated climate leader, Greta Thunberg. The gallant Ms. Thunberg spoke as the recent conflict raged: “I am not ‘against’ Israel or Palestine. Needless to say I’m against any form of violence or oppression from anyone or any part.”

October 14, 2015

But not on the side of the Canadian Green party, many of whose key figures and executives have been putting Annamie Paul through the political grinder, and being very public about it as well. They have relieved her of her staff. They are threatening an executive vote of non-confidence. Jenica Atwin, the only Green member ever elected in an Eastern climate (New Brunswick), took such offence from Paul’s moderate statement, that she is now gathered into the generous bosom of the Liberal party. Elizabeth May, who was originally a supporter of Ms. Paul, has been most uncharacteristically silent, as the new leader faces deep challenge and — check the Twitter feeds — some very harsh and frequent abuse.

In the most unkindest cut of all, Green party brass have moved to block the funding for their leader’s riding campaign. I have seen party leaders under siege and attack before. And these were real parties, by which I mean they had more than two or three seats in the House of Commons. In other words, the leadership was a real prize. But there is nothing in the memory to match the harshness and political cruelty directed to a leader who took over the position only nine months ago. And certainly nothing to match the grounds on which she is being attacked — the Middle East — which is, from any rational viewpoint, so utterly, almost infinitely unrelated to the one and central issue of every green party in the world: global warming.

September 17, 2007

The full-on public campaign against Annamie Paul coming from her own party’s supporters is as hot and heavy as any they have waged against Fort McMurray and the oilsands. And that’s a measurement that’s hard to meet.

But this little porch of a party that thinks it’s a mansion, is giving what it so likes to call “the old-line parties” a marvellous lesson in how to self-destruct with the most damage to your main issue, and how to drop below even a meagre two seats in Parliament once Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waves the election wand. It is also a first-class illustration of the old maxim, the smaller the prize, the messier the fight to own it. (Rex Murphy – The National Post) 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2021-25, Canada, conflict, Green Party, Israel, logo, map, maps, mideast, Palestine

Friday March 12, 2021

March 19, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 12, 2021

Summer Dreaming

New variants of the coronavirus are spreading rapidly in Ontario and unless they are better controlled, the province risks facing a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, an expert panel advising the province’s government said on Thursday.

February 17, 2021

It warned that the next few weeks are critical as the progress made in bringing the coronavirus under control in the province has stalled.

“Variants of concern continue to spread across Ontario. Our ability to control the rate of spread will determine whether we return to normal or face a third wave of infection,” the panel said in briefing material.

While mutations in viruses are inevitable, strains identified as “variants of concern” have worrisome changes that may give the virus advantages, increasing transmissibility or reducing the effectiveness of vaccines, according to the briefing materials released by the province’s science advisory and modeling consensus tables.

Graphs published online ahead of the briefing showed cases of the new variants in Ontario have jumped from below 5 per 100,000 residents each week in early February to nearly 20 per 100,000 residents each week in early March.

That increase has been balanced to some extent by a decline in cases of earlier variants of the virus. (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-canada-ontario/coronavirus-variants-could-cause-third-wave-in-ontario-expert-panel-idUSKBN2B32WV

April 18 2020

Meanwhile, as vaccine rollout continues to ramp up in Canada and the United States, some American politicians are calling on the Biden administration to reopen the Canada-U.S. land border by this summer.

In a letter addressed to U.S. President Joe Biden, Rep. Brian Higgins of New York asked that Biden work with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for “a partial re-opening of the Northern Border by Memorial Day of this year with a full re-opening by July 4.”

Higgins, who also chairs the congressional Northern Border Caucus, wrote that the current border restriction between the two countries “tears at the fabric of our community and is a critical problem for individuals, families, and businesses.” (CTV) 

 

Posted in: Canada, Ontario, USA Tagged: 2021-10, Border, covid-19, Doug Ford, map, maps, Ontario, pandemic, reopening, Trade, variant, virus

Tuesday November 24, 2020

December 1, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 24, 2020

Here’s a Colour coded map of Covid Ontario

November 5, 2020

The Ontario government released a brand new colour-coded framework last week that outlines rules, restrictions and zones for every region throughout the province based on its local COVID-19 situation. To help you keep track, we’ve created a map of each region and its current designated zone.

The framework includes five different zones, each with a specific colour attached: Prevent-Green, Protect-Yellow, Restrict-Orange, Control-Red and Lockdown-Grey. 

In the green zone, “restrictions reflect broadest allowance of activities in Stage 3,” according to the province, while the highest-risk settings remain closed. In the yellow zone, enhanced targeted enforcement, fines and enhanced education to limit further transmission are present, and public health measures for high-risk settings are also in place. 

November 12, 2020

The orange zone, meanwhile, includes enhanced measures, restrictions and enforcement while avoiding any closures, and the red zone includes broader-scale measures and restrictions across multiple sectors to control transmission (similar to modified Stage 2).

“Restrictions are the most severe available before widescale business or organizational closure,” says the province of the red zone. 

The grey zone can be compared to a modified Stage 1 or pre-Stage 1, according to the government, with widescale measures and restrictions, including closures, to halt or interrupt transmission.

Marvellous Maps

Regions have been placed in specific zones based on a number of indicators and thresholds, including case rates, per cent positivity, health system capacity and more. 

While no regions have been placed in the Lockdown-Grey zone just yet, the province’s COVID-19 hotspots — Toronto, Peel, Hamilton, York and Halton — are all currently in the red zone, and both Toronto and Peel have additional restrictions in place, introduced by their local public health authorities. 

The COVID-19 Pandemic

Provincial public health officials will be constantly reexamining the indicators and thresholds to determine whether regions should move forward or backwards through the zones. (BlogTO) 

 

Posted in: Ontario Tagged: 2020-40, Coronavirus, county, covid-19, infection, lockdown, map, maps, mask, Ontario, pandemic, peel, Toronto
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Please note…

This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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