Clearing Alberta & Palestine: How Western elites oppose conservation & democracy
On the white rentier elites’ hegemonic quest to proration human life and oil through scourge, war and the ongoing control of Alberta and Palestine.
Credit: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division & Magellan Geographix & (WT-en) Shaund at English Wikivoyage
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“the owl of Minerva begins its flight only with the onset of dusk.”
— Friedrich Hegel (1820)
“Never forget the British are the most cunning people...absolute masters in the art of...manipulating the press & public opinion.”
— Japanese naval attaché to 1st Nazi hung at Nuremburg (1935)
Written by: Regan Boychuk
1. Clearing Alberta yesterday & today
For more than a century and a half, the Stoney Nakoda First Nations, situated in southern Alberta, have been subjected to the machine of colonization, and continue to suffer at the center of an imperial plot to kill us all by unconstrained carbon production on a finite planet. Within months of Calgary’s incorporation (1884), Canada’s first national park was created nearby in Banff (1885) and summarily severed the Stoneys from their spiritual and ceremonial essence at the mountains, the hot springs and their gathering and hunting grounds. The town of Calgary had been incorporated by British authorities during Zionists’ first congress in Germany in November 1884, just a few years after Americans and Zionists had begun colonizing Alberta and Palestine—the ultimate pressure points in the coming Age of Oil. To make way for European settlers – the process of clearing the plains of Indigenous peoples from their lands – was critical to colonisation. In 1888, the British opened the first Residential School near Calgary to force assimilation on the Indians, coupled with biological warfare through airborne diseases (common cold, tuberculosis, smallpox, etc.), and further fueled by the spread of the eugenics movement from 1890. By the end of the First World War, 88 per cent of Indigenous youth interned in that very Residential School were infected with tuberculosis, while 40 per cent of southern Alberta’s Blackfoot First Nation had been culled. Textbook liberal imperialism.[1]
In January 1926, shortly after a ‘well-mannered backstairs’ coup installed premier John Brownlee, Alberta’s provincial government granted the first lease on Stoney land to the Rockefellers. That spring, the province’s United Farmers government passed legislation attempting to conserve oil, which resulted in Lord Balfour’s Second Declaration calling for British kings to have a veto over all the empire’s legislation—Alberta’s oil conservation law being their first victim. As hope sprung again in 1945 at the end of the Second World War, it appeared as if our foreign overlords might allow the Stoneys and the province to properly conserve Canada’s largest natural gas field. It was not to be. Atomic bombs were dropped that summer, and in autumn Alberta’s top regulator collapsed—genuine conservation had been thwarted, and Shell decided to postpone its development with the Stoneys.[2] Then as now, the oil industry has control of enough oil and gas in Alberta to make the planet inhospitable—and they are not about to let anyone manage it responsibly. Reform continues to be existentially urgent.
And the same way the plains of Alberta were cleared more than a century ago, settlers in Alberta are now enjoying the logical conclusion of colonization and liberal imperialism. We suffer both racism and airborne epidemic diseases (Covid-19 and measles) running unchecked in 2025; it would appear that all Albertans are Unpeople now. Thankfully, the Stoneys leave a legacy confirming the remaining power and utility of the rule of law against imperialists: In 1998, the Stoney Nakoda Nation successfully sued Alberta’s colonial oil industry for cheating the First Nation for decades, by mismanaging their natural gas royalties. The rule of law remains empire’s kryptonite. Alberta’s only leader ever to emerge independent of empire, Peter Lougheed (premier from 1971-1985), was the patron saint of Alberta sovereignty—but his time in power was cut short and it was left to the Stoneys to pick up the torch knocked from Lougheed’s hand. Years later, when considering his political opposition, Lougheed assured graduate students at the University of Calgary: “We’re going to use their rules, their laws, their regulations against them—and we’re going to beat them.” The Stoney Nakoda were listening and recognized his wisdom. Their unique legal accomplishment in 1998 is in desperate need of repetition through to its logical conclusion: polluters pay, while remaining resource rent is captured by transparent, accountable, and responsible government to fund oilfield cleanup, reparations, and a transition to a sustainable future.[3]
2. 250 years of pretending? 1775-2025
King Charles III’s recent invitation to a re-elected US President Donald Trump to rejoin the British empire was warmly received. That calls into question whether the American revolution was ever genuine to begin with. We will soon find out. In hindsight, it is difficult not to share the wonder of the Native American leader who offered diplomatic commentary to Connecticut’s Governor during the first year of war between “Old and New England” in 1775: “The quarrel seems to be unnatural. ... The present situation of you ... two brothers of one blood ... is new and strange to us. We Indians cannot find, nor recollect in the traditions of our ancestors, the like case, or a similar instance.”[4]
This study will probe that sage observation in search of insight into the history and remaining future of Turtle Island. The conclusion is inescapable but may yet still be reversible: 20th-century western democracy has been an imperial façade, now abandoned in the face of a final war for the domination of a dying planet. Conservation and the rule of law should be preferable to all except rentiers, imperialists, and other blue-blooded sociopaths—but which class of society’s interests will prevail remains open to challenge.
The veracity test for the success of the American revolution must be its own Declaration of Independence, where British royalty’s “establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States” was proven in the first instance by the absence of the rule of law when it came the king’s many mandarins and thugs. (Such things are slow to change: accountability and reform are typically thwarted by shared elite interests and ample intellectual subservience.) If not because legal equality was always the right thing to do, then re-establishing the rule of law today is an existential priority for the species—nowhere less so than in the heart of the empire along Wall Street on the isle of Manhattan.[5]
Lawless rentiers were the problem in 1775 and they remain humanity’s greatest threat two and a half centuries later. Short may they still rule.
British, American, and Russian elites planned global domination through one great war more than a century ago, but it did not quite work out. Instead, today we approach a third and final world war to avoid democracy and the rational conservation of resources on a finite planet. In hindsight, it appears imperial monarchs were colluding to vanquish the German empire and establish energy-based currencies (not unlike today’s cryptocurrencies). [6]
That combustible combination of oil and banking has been at the root of all three world wars, and throughout, imperialists’ highest and quietest priority has remained the control of Alberta and Palestine. Humanity cannot save itself from climate change collapse or terminal war without rescuing from empire Alberta-the-oil-depot and Palestine-the-landed-aircraft-carrier.
Shortly after having conjured the oil-rich Canadian province of Alberta and having put on hold German and Zionist ambitions in the Ottoman province of Palestine, Anglo-American imperialists began laying track towards the First World War in 1907. A generation later, with Palestinian rebellion stirring against Jewish colonization and Germany angling to take the Russian bait a second time, American-Anglo imperialists laid track towards the carnage of the Second World War from January 1936. And with today’s threats to the United States’ supremacy/solvency mounting (including related challenges to the oil industry’s legal impunity), Western imperialists have been gathering steam towards a third world war since August 2021.[7]
Each world war was preceded by fake political movements. The so-called Progressive Movement (1890-1920) included rabid imperial presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, then nephew Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal (1933-38), and today Big Oil’s Tea Party (1993-) that gave birth to President Donald Trump and Canada’s 'Freedom' Movement (2022-), through which Premier Danielle Smith was reborn. Each time, the false promise of democratic control/rational development of resources was a head-fake by liberal imperialists, followed by a sharp ‘right-turn’ in politics at home.[8]
We are amidst the third and terminal round of this sociopathic game. If only to further stuff already overfull pockets and temporarily prolong western imperialism’s bloody rule, the looming phase shift into a third hot world war would consciously foreclose any remaining hope of a sustainable future for organized human society. The tables cannot be turned fast enough on our rentier masters—but when we do, capturing nature’s remaining surplus within our environmental limits remains our only hope for salvaging a future worth striving for.[9]
3. 'Loss' of America answered with bitumen 1780-1820
The British drive towards the world’s largest oilfield in northern Alberta after ‘losing’ America “proved to be one of the most repugnant chapters of native-newcomer relations in Canada”, relying “on alcohol, violence, murder, and the slave traffic of women.” Back home, British imperialists established a secret society to win back America and federate their global empire under a single white government; the Independent Order of Oddfellows was created on a date of recently rejuvenated significance: January 6th 1798.[10]
Shortly after Emperor Napoleon had been defeated, the British established the American Odd Fellows in Baltimore in 1817. By 1821, the British also invented “the gold standard” inviting other states to join an international financial regime based on collateral held mostly by imperial London.[11]
Two years later, Washington’s Monroe Doctrine was an aspirational assertion of ownership over half of the globe’s resources/collateral; Presidents Roosevelt I & II added corollaries extending the Monroe Doctrine in 1904 (excluding outside investment before trillions in Alberta oil and gas were developed) and in 1938 (absorbing Canada before trillions worth of Alberta bitumen were developed). The supposedly progressive US President Woodrow Wilson thought Roosevelt I’s Corollary “unanswerable”, but understood it impolitic to say so publicly; the relevant documents were kept secret until after the principles had been successfully applied to both Newfoundland and Alberta in 1933 and 1935.[12]
But before such imperial success could be realized, Alberta and Palestine remained to even be colonized yet at the end of the US Civil War and Canadian Confederation in the 1860s. The Odd Fellows sustains a potential lack of genuineness of the American revolution, but how does it fit with the US Civil War? One of the least-known writings of one of the best-known liberals may offer insight into a little-known incident on the eve of civil war: John Stuart Mill’s 1859 “A Few Words On Non-Intervention” personifies the imperialism of liberals. After much soul-wrenching whining about the lack of trust in the bloody British empire’s motives, Mill offered liberals public-relations advice on not playing into the rhetoric of those accurately recounting their vast crimes.[13]
Mill pretended his empire bore the cost of war, but “it shares in fraternal equality with the whole human race.” “The more blameless and laudable our policy might be,” Mill lamented, “the more certainly we might count on its being misrepresented and railed at by these worthies.” Perhaps such long-term considerations were on the mind of US President Abraham Lincoln two years later, when he was confronted by his Secretary of State and the New York Times with a proposal to attack the Spanish and French empires instead of the slave-owning South in April 1861.[14]
Lincoln opted to pursue control of the remainder of the continent only after having vanquished the Confederates and burnished America’s democratic bona fides—was the future heir of liberal imperialism learning at London’s knee?
4. Alberta, Germany & Palestine cross paths 1876-84
In 1876, John Glenn and Sam Livingston became the first European settlers to farm in the Calgary area of what became the Canadian province of Alberta. Two years later, the first Zionist agricultural colony was established in Ottoman province of Palestine. By 1882, British officials were lighting the first fires of modern anti-Semitism in the Austrian empire that would forge Adolph Hitler, while the Geological Survey of Canada was investigating bitumen to strategize development.[15]
That imperial development began with an inquiry into which epidemics the First Nation populations were susceptible to – critical insight into the genocide of Alberta’s Indigenous. As this study’s title suggests, imperialists do not conserve oil; they instead choose to ‘conserve’ a growing list of such Unpeople.[16]
A 33-year-old George Murdoch arrived in Calgary when it was a town of just 200 in May 1883. The local daily newspaper was founded that August in anticipation of the national railway’s arrival. Two days before Calgarians agreed to nominate candidates for civic office in January 1884, Murdoch was elected inaugural secretary of Calgary’s Free Masons.[17]
When Calgarians directly elected their first political representatives, there was the first of what would become a pattern of oilfield accidents during important election campaigns. When Calgary’s Free Masons were formally instituted two weeks later, Murdoch was elected the lodge’s senior warden.[18]
The imperial projects in Alberta and Palestine have been intimately connected from inception. The oil capital of Alberta was incorporated by British authorities during Zionists’ first congress in Germany. Eying Palestine and chaired by Auto-Emancipation author Leon Pinsker, the mostly Russian meeting preceded Theodore Herzl’s State of the Jews and his Zionist Congress in Switzerland by more than a dozen years.[19]
Less than a month later, Murdoch was elected Calgary’s first mayor, establishing the town’s first court and school board; he was also active in local literary and historical societies. Before the end of 1884, Calgary’s young mayor instituted another imperial conspiracy in Cowtown that tied it together with Germany and Palestine: [American] Odd Fellows Alberta Lodge #1.[20]
Future Senator James Lougheed first met Canada’s first prime minister in Calgary in 1886. A prominent investor in Calgary’s first newspaper, Lougheed “had been consistently loyal to the prime minister amidst the volatile western politics of the 1880s”. The United States opened its first military junior college in 1887 and the next year former President Lincoln’s advisors revealed US Secretary of State’s 1861 plan for territorial conquest instead of civil war. The next month, in March 1888, the Dominion government received official report of the world’s largest oilfield in what would become the imperial prize of Alberta; Canada’s first prime minister appointed the 35-year-old Lougheed a Senator-for-life the next year.[21]
5. Modern imperialism ‘more subtly obtained’[22] 1890-1905
Western civilization’s turning point came at the end of the 19th century when the American frontier had been settled, social tensions were rising, and a severe financial crisis loomed. Unlike before the Civil War, this time American leaders chose foreign expansion as part of their solution to domestic pressure for democratic reform. American robber barons throughout remained confident in their control before, during, and after the formal expansion of democracy—something which might be explained in part by their knowledge that the world’s largest oilfield would soon be in their back pocket.[23]
The curious timing of the Progressive Movement suggests American political reform was evolving in a less-than-organic fashion. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 coincided with the launch of the progressive movement, rather than being the product of its organization and agitation. That the so-called Progressive Movement would eventually reveal itself to be an imperial ruse was hinted at by its initial focuses: ‘antitrust’, ‘conservation’ and eugenics. The first two require scare-quotes because both have often betrayed on behalf of imperialism, while the third was developed, implemented, and exported despite millions of mortal consequences in many US states, Social Credit Alberta, and Nazi Germany.[24]
While the American frontier was closing and robber baron monopolies were proliferating, the Democratic Party was pushing the easy-money equivalent of today’s crypto-currencies: silver as a second collateral base to expand the number of American dollars in circulation. After the Comstock Lode in June 1859, the “Free Silver” movement eventually drove American migration and half of the world’s silver production west to the mines of Nevada, Idaho, and Montana from where settlers were then drawn north by the Alaskan goldrush from 1896.[25]
Washington’s expansionist dual-collateral currency therefor played no small part in settling Alberta with a great many Americans by WWI. The new scramble for silver and gold was accompanied by a new ideology for eliminating pesky social problems: Eugenics. Developed in Britain for export, “Dr. Alexander Peter Reid is regarded as the first person to have brought forward the ideas of eugenics within a Canadian context” in 1890. Eugenics was the empire’s “new political economy”.[26]
At this same turning point in western history, arch British imperialist Cecil Rhodes declared his life’s ambition in 1891: “bringing of the whole civilized world under ... British Empire ... rule, the recovery of the United States of America, the making of the Anglo-Saxon race into one Empire.” Rhodes proposed the founding of a world-wide conspiracy called the Round Table and was established by Lord Milner in 1908-1911—starting in Canada.[27]
Meanwhile, the Anglican Church’s St. Barnabas Sarcee Residential School opened near Calgary, where a medical survey later found 88 per cent of students infected with tuberculosis. Unpasteurized milk was the quiet weapon of choice for Rhodes’ liberal imperialists and was wielded at Indigenous youth internment camps, where in 1907 it was publicly reported “the prime conditions for the outbreak of epidemics had been deliberately created.” It wasn’t muckraking journalism, it was liberal imperialists broadcasting what they could get away with utilizing bad faith and illiberal cultural hegemony.[28]
As soon as recession had come to America in 1893, the Sherman Antitrust Act was blamed and repealed (a pattern to be repeated), while the easier money of “Free Silver” became the central plank of the Democratic Party (another pattern). That same year saw the Supreme Court rule income taxes unconstitutional, further endearing Anglo-American elites to each other.[29]
The imperial eugenics movement was simultaneously taking shape and (together with American myths about ‘the wild west’) helped fuel America’s decade of jingoistic imperialism. The closing of the American frontier presented the United States’ the choice between eugenics and easy money or conservation for the first time. Their decision was unbefitting of a republic but personified by future ‘Rough Rider’ and US president Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1894, “Teddy” wrote what could be Israeli mantra today: “The most ultimately righteous of all wars is a war with savages ... The rude, fierce settler who drives the savage from the land lays all civilized mankind under a debt to him.” Roosevelt I was part of an American tradition with big plans: “it is of incalculable importance that America, Australia, and Siberia should pass out of the hands of their red, black, and yellow aboriginal owners, and become the heritage of the dominant world races.” (Roosevelt I later approved Balfour’s first declaration because there would only be peace in the Middle East if Zionists were given Palestine.[30]
That summer of 1894, the Canadian government called a Colonial Conference to continue discussion of an earlier proposal for what has grown to become the all-white Five Eyes espionage network. That fall, an imperial spectacle of anti-Semitism began when “Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French artillery Captain, is convicted of selling military secrets to Germany and sent to prison on Devil’s Island.” By the next summer, US Democrats “went forth openly and boldly and courageously proclaiming their belief” the American dollar should be backed by both silver and gold.[31]
Meanwhile, the secular colonialist Theodore Herzl began his Zionist work.[32] The following year, Henry Ford built his first car and Herzl’s State of the Jews was published in the capital of the Austrian empire. Former Nebraska Congressman William Jennings Bryan re-invigorated the Free Silver Movement the following summer with one of the most famous speeches in American history, while Herzl told the Rothschilds: “A colony is a little state, a state is a big colony. You want to build a small state, I, a big colony.”[33]
A 1901 editorial in Banker’s Magazine nicely summarized from the horse’s mouth the oligarchical nature of North American politics at the dawn of the 20th century:
as the business of the country has learned the secret of combination, it is gradually subverting the power of the politician and rendering him subservient to its purposes. More and more the legislatures and the executive powers of the Government were compelled to listen to the demands of organized business interests. That they are not entirely controlled by these interests is due to the fact that the business organization has not reached full perfection. The recent consolidation of the iron and steel industries [and the oil and refining industries before them] is an indication of the concentration of power that is possible. Every form of business is capable of similar consolidation, and if other industries imitate ... the productive forces are all mustered and drilled under the control of a few leaders ... eventually the government of a country ... must become the mere tool of these forces.[34]
Shortly after Britain moved to reserve Alberta’s oil reserves for its imperial navy in the spring of 1905, the US navy discovered what became system dynamics a second time. (System Dynamics is the powerful mathematical tool enabling the analysis of complex systems that has since given rise to computers, simulation, and artificial intelligence—and was only declassified after 70 years in 1972.) When the Canadian province of Alberta was carved out of Canada’s Northwest Territories in September 1905, what appeared as rivalry between Britain and the US was actually collusion.[35]
Virtually all Canada’s national parks were in Alberta, after “there had been a number of sweetheart deals [with the Americans]” in smoke-filled London backrooms, “often to the advantage of assorted political friends of federal politicians, for the exploitation of forest, mining, and hydroelectric resources within these alienated lands, even including park land.” By 1907, German oil ambitions in the Middle East had been thwarted, the British North American Act was amended to include a new province drenched in oil, and the unlikely starting line of all three world wars (the small Ontario town of Wheatley) received the natural gas hookup that would later serve as the starting gun on the paths to World Wars II and III.[36]
6. The path to WWI 1907-14
The road to the Great War began in 1907 when the president of the all-white Princeton University penned an essay for military students at the American equivalent of Britain’s Eton College. And that road towards WWI ended with the assassination of an archduke, snuffing out reignited German oil ambitions in the Middle East. Future American president Woodrow Wilson was talking about Alberta and its oil when he instructed future US military leaders that “Concessions obtained by financiers”, like Rockefeller’s secret 1898 purchase of Canada’s oil industry, “must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process.”[37]
At the start of this period in 1907, techniques for sexual sterilization (the result a decade and a half of development) transformed eugenics from a malignant idea into policy – starting with Indiana’s criminals and Alberta’s First Nations. By the end of the march to war, the infamous Ludlow Massacre in Colorado in April 1914 looks like cover for seizing foreign oil reserves on both ends of North America just as world war approached. The pretext for invading Mexico had been supplied by Randolph Hearst’s yellow press, but the invasion’s location was adjusted to push out the Rockefellers’ main British rival; the Marines invaded while Congress was still debating authorization.[38]
A month later, oil was discovered in the new province of Alberta, which would become the British empire’s single largest source during WWI. Within weeks of Alberta oil being discovered, future Canadian prime minister (1921-30 and 1935-48) William Lyon Mackenzie King (WLMK) received a rather mysterious telegram from the newly-minted Rockefeller Foundation, and another from the long-time president of Harvard encouraging King to accept the Rockefellers’ “immense” opportunity for WLMK to “greatly serve all white race industries”.[39]
Before the end of the month, the Ottoman Empire again promised it would grant Germany an oil concession, but “Unfortunately, that was the very day that the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, triggering the First World War.” According to Britain’s grand geopolitical strategist, Harold Mackinder: “We all know that the murder of the Austrian (German) Archduke in Slav Bosnia was the pretext ... But ... these events were the result of a fundamental antagonism between the Germans, who wished to be Masters in East Europe, and the Slavs, who refused to submit to them.”[40]
Before the summer of 1914 ended, Canada’s War Measures Act passed, providing for “censorship and control and suppression of publications, writings, maps, plans, photographs, communication and means of communication.” Imperial censorship in the colonies has been explicit ever since, and did much more than keep subjects mistakenly thinking they are citizens in a democracy. Western military censorship was also the main factor in influenza killing tens of millions during and after WWI.[41]
That sort of thing must put a smile on the face of imperialists, rentiers, and their banksters—by their anti-human logic, far preferable to democracy and the conservation of resources on a finite planet.
With the first of world wars just six months away, a young Liberal First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill told his cabinet colleagues: “We are not a young people with an innocent record and a scanty inheritance ... and our claim to be left in the unmolested enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, mainly acquired by violence, largely maintained by force, often seems less reasonable to others than to us.” It was true, “We have engrossed to ourselves an altogether disproportionate share of the wealth and traffic of the world”, but false of Churchill to pretend, “We have got all we want in territory”.[42]
By November of the following year, in similar secrecy, ‘Progressive’ US President Woodrow Wilson and his Secretary of State decided “The integrity of other nations” was “an incident, not an end”. A couple weeks later, Round Table recruits at the yellow Manchester Guardian across the pond argued “the whole future of the British Empire as a Sea Empire” depended upon Palestine becoming a buffer state inhabited “by an intensely patriotic race.” Who can argue today they have not been successful?[43]
British imperial desires were echoed back across the pond days later, when President Wilson replied enthusiastically to his secretary of state’s codification of an expanded Monroe Doctrine that excluded foreign investment or lending in the US’ hemisphere. Wilson recognized that saying so was only for “informal discussion with our Latin American friends from time to time ... for the sake of a frank understanding.” The link between British and American oil policy in the inter-war period was illustrated in Lord Balfour’s little known (but equally important and vitally connected) second declaration in 1926.[44]
In a re-assertion of imperial power when Britain pretended to conserve Alberta’s oil, Lord Balfour recommended the British monarch be given a veto over any legislation passed by the empire’s parliaments by exercising long-forgotten reserve powers through Governor and Lieutenant Generals. The anti-democratic cause was championed by quisling Canadian prime minister Mackenzie King, first used against Alberta legislation conserving oil, and was codified in the 1931 Statute of Westminster. It has since been used to veto much legislation, as well as to replace the government of Australia in 1975.[45]
Western democracy has been a façade ever since.
7. The path to WWII 1936-41
Both Alberta and Texas were put in their imperial places in August 1935 by installing a Social Credit government under Ernest Manning and creating the Interstate Oil Compact Commission. The new year quickly brought the march to world war. The deeply yellow Maclean’s magazine coyly attributed Social Credit’s election win to the US Democratic Party’s Free Silver-advocate, William Jennings Bryan. Two weeks later, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows’ building in Wheatley, Ontario had its gas meter read. The next day: “Villagers first on the scene said they saw four balls of smoke and flames burst through the roof of the building and then the entire structure crumbled into a heap.”[46]
A few days later, the British king was euthanized—seeming to leave the British throne to a Nazi sympathizing-prince and marking the peak of western assurance that Hitler’s western flank was safe enough to attack Russia.
(There is evidence indicating King George V would have stopped his physician Lord Dawson if he could have.
At the time, Dawson was already known to practice euthanasia. In fact, he was so well known for it that a contemporary rhyme about him even predicted that he might one day bring the King’s life to an early end: "Lord Dawson of Penn; Has killed many men; That is why we sing; 'God Save the King'".
The king’s final words upon receiving the lethal injection? “God damn you”. Such imperial fratricide was part of luring Germany into attacking Russia; British appeasement peaked accordingly in 1936, as Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland and began preparations for war that included a major synthetic fuels program.)[47]
Back in Alberta, America’s quisling premier Bible Bill Aberhart stood up in the legislature on the anniversary of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus to announce the province would default on upcoming bond payments and fall into receivership and foreign control. That summer of 1936, America’s quisling prime minister began a multi-million-dollar renovation turning the only military fort protecting Canada from American invasion into a museum.[48]
Ten days later, the US President met with Canada’s Governor-General for the first time on Canadian soil. Ten days after that, one hundred Canadian athletes helped further lure Hitler into attacking Russia: “while marching past Hitler’s box in the [Olympic] opening ceremonies, they gave the Fuhrer the extended-arm Nazi salute—the only Commonwealth team to do so”.[49]
Two days after that, American lacky Ernest Manning passed legislation to create a provincial savings and loan ‘bank’ – re-establishing in Alberta the link between oil and banking broken by the 1929 US stock market crash. Unlike Bible Bill’s clown parade of disallowed legislation, Manning’s savings & loan bill received royal assent from the Governor-General while the special legislature session was prorogued in September. Coincidentally, that same day, American entrepreneurs and Alberta officials declared the first commercial bitumen plant open for business.[50]
Even in early 1938, as the Canadian and US militaries & elites were integrating, imperial elites were aware of the threat of climate change. In February 1938, a young amateur engineer told the Royal Meteorological Society in London that humans’ burning of fossil fuels was making the planet warmer, “a trend, he noted, that could accelerate.” Rentiers remain constitutionally incapable of conserving their wealth/energy, only Unpeople. Despite pretending again it was committed to conservation of resources in the interests of peace before World War Two, as already noted, it was 'Indians' that were rationed, not oil.[51]
WWII’s quickening approach also occasioned Alberta’s US-installed government expanding the list of Unpeople by legislating involuntary sterilization in Alberta in 1937, complete with impunity for imperial medical practitioners. (Echoes of which we feel today during the current pandemic. Eerily reminiscent of tuberculosis in Indigenous internment camps, Alberta officials are yet to acknowledge that Covid-19 is airborne.) Before the end of the year, the “Edmonton Bulletin published a special report on the eugenics debate in Canada”.[52]
With Germany finally set to destroy itself against Russia (an outcome known beforehand to US and Britain, who had begun uncovering the secrets of system dynamics), imperial planners set about re-ordering the world in their interests. Britain’s main objective was trying to hold on to any of its empire. At Harvard in the fall of 1943, Winston Churchill warned “it would be a most foolish and improvident act on the part of our two Governments, or either of them, to break up this smooth-running and immensely powerful machinery the moment the war is over.” Better than “taking away other people’s provinces or land, or grinding them down in exploitation ... The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”[53]
At the end of WWII, the grey-haired and grizzled Churchill[54] was only slightly more honest than he had been before WWI: “The government of the world must be entrusted to satisfied nations … none of us had any reason to seek anything more … Our power placed us above the rest. We were like rich men dwelling at peace within their habitations.”[55]
Though Anglo-American imperialists may have been thrilled with their vast holdings in 1945, there was still furious US pressure shifting loot between imperial bosses: Shell hit pause on Canada’s largest gas field in 1945 after Alberta’s first local regulator was assassinated and Shell later walked away from one of the world’s most profitable oilfields just before oil was discovered by the Rockefellers.[56]
8. (Re)privatizing imperialism 1948-98
George Keenan and Paul Nitze were lead architects of the post-WWII order, the first and second directors of post-war policy planning at the US Department of State. Their challenge: “We have about 50 percent of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population.” Keenan’s planners recognized in 1948: “Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity.”[57]
That American imperialists were ready and willing was demonstrated a few days later when revelations the Rockefellers were stealing Alberta’s new oil production brought down Ernest Manning’s quisling government. America ‘dealt in straight power concepts’: instead of reform, Alberta got the largest onshore oil spill in Canadian history and a promise from the re-elected foreign lackie premier that the provincial government would never to collect more than 1/6th of citizens’ oil and gas revenue. A treasonous promise from quisling Ernest Manning that remains true to this day, where his son still remains a towering figure in ‘national’ politics.[58]
A couple weeks before the Israeli state would assert independence in May 1948, Keenan penned a second important imperial memo that supplied the intellectual basis for the covert aspects of US Cold War foreign policy:
The creation, success, and survival of the British Empire has been due in part to the British understanding and application of the principles of political warfare ... It would seem that the time is now fully ripe for the creation of a covert political warfare operations directorate with ... complete authority over covert political warfare operations conducted by this Government.[59]
It practically goes without saying that the rule of law is incompatible with political warfare, but if the dark forces were going to get their way domestic and international law would have to be ignored. At that same moment Keenan plotted political warfare in 1948, Israeli ethnic cleansing was being unleashed with American assistance. The international community made it clear Palestinians had the right to return, but in the face of hegemonic imperial power, justice remains unrealized more than 75 years later.[60]
Military censorship and political warfare were supplemented with an enormous increase in military arms under Keenan’s planning successor and fellow ‘dove’, Paul Nitze. Even before the Korean War, imperialists “paved the way for the most comprehensive re-armament programme the United States had ever undertaken in time of peace.” What imperial strategists were aiming at was revealed shortly after the second major challenge to the post-war order: after Iran’s 1951’s nationalization of its oil, Iraq revolted against the British-installed king in 1958.[61]
The imperial principle in question was well-articulated at the time by Professor William Elliott, a Rhodes scholar, US presidential advisor, and Henry Kissinger’s mentor at Harvard:
“it is evidently absurd to apply a concept of absolute as that of sovereign right ... If tribal chieftains ... should claim absolute over resources on which the whole of western Europe depends for its industrial life-blood ... the best way to help ... convince the governments of these territories ... is ... To enlist the intellectuals of this area ... We need to stimulate bold new thinking ... and to show that indigenous leaders can, with better training ... convince the colonial peoples that the resources of the countries they inhabit are a trust to the world”[62]
These are not merely academic discussions. The risk that locals might claim sovereignty over oil caused Americans to hold the first-born son of Alberta’s quisling premier in New York state until the first bitumen mine was approved by Ernest Manning in 1962. Both his parents were enthusiasts of eugenics, but were coy with the reporter who eventually asked them if Keith had been sterilized in Alberta or the US. The financial burden of sending a son away to school was considerable for a single-income household on the frugal salary of the puppet leader of a colony in receivership; luckily, there were charity-minded oilmen from down south to help out Alberta’s ‘premier’.[63]
The post-war period was marked by American prosperity but was not without challenge. Nonetheless, through nationalizations, revolutions, and wars in the Middle East, western oil companies led by the Rockefeller and Windsor family-controlled majors successfully maintained the steady flow of oil: “If anyone was expert in the subject of controlling supplies, it was not OPEC, but they.”[64] Such success was the culmination of privatized innovations in system dynamics that advanced imperial capabilities, while disadvantaging citizens.
Some of the most important advances took human form in engineer Jay Forrester, who developed the first computers capable of realizing system dynamics, revolutionizing many scientific fields—beginning with economics. The first 17th-century economists had recognized the complex feedback-loop character of the economy; classical economics set about obscuring that essential fact. Even a century later, the first neoclassical economists realized they still lacked the necessary tools to study systems as complex as an economy, but a Russian novelist imagined something like system dynamics could solve the dilemma.[65]
Bakers’ dozen post-WWII imperial memorandum
War naturally centralized power, but the transparency of democratic governance poses threats to private power. The new imperial capabilities of computers and system dynamics were operationalized through a series of memorandums that spell out the evolving private-public partnership of modern imperialism. System dynamics is essential for conserving resources, so Harvard professor Elliott’s Memo on the absurdity of local control of vital resources quickly sorted out imperial policy on resource ownership in 1958.[66]
Intending to shape and control the potential insights of system dynamics, the Rockefellers set about probing the rest of the world’s capacity for the analysis of complex systems; finding no one else with Forrester’s capacity, the Rockefellers steered planning into the private sector from 1968. Imperialists recognized that ensuring the success of their project would require hampering any free press, which began at the New York Times in 1969 with the Rosenthal Memorandum giving corporations a veto over investigative journalism.[67] Explains a lot.
Another way to discredit others’ use of system dynamics was to have it adopted and ‘fail’. Jay Forrester assisted patriotic Canadians trying to break away from American empire in 1970 with his proposal for the Science Council of Canada – but the 1973 war in the Middle East, the oil embargo and resulting recession, and imperial hostility to independent development effectively buried Canadian government use of system dynamics to manage national affairs.[68] Reminiscent of the 1890 anti-trust act the US revoked at the onset of recession in 1893, or David Rockefeller’s attempts to stave off official use of system dynamics before WWII.
Other Rockefeller Men like Yale University’s William Nordhaus were quick to attack system dynamics as declassification approached, though he could muster no better than a misguided and stubbornly dishonest critique. System dynamics is also essential for pollution control, so fellow Rockefeller Man Milton Freidman accused corporate executives concerned with curbing pollution of being the “unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society”.[69]
Future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell penned his famous memorandum on campus activism the week between the end of the international gold standard and the ‘loss’ of Alberta to democracy in August 1971. Harvard political scientist and Rockefeller Man Samuel Huntington wrote an important 1975 memorandum on the ease with which political parties can be (and have been) subverted by imperial interests.[70]
The extreme right-wing of American politics was further invigorated by the election of Ronald Reagan, and Rockefeller economists Richard Posner and George Stigler urged further easing of anti-trust restrictions for their patrons. Posner & Stigler’s efforts were incomplete and the Savings & Loan Debacle of the 1980s led to the unfortunate outcome that bankers were going to prison for funding Ponzis. Later to succumb to the efforts of US financial regulators like Bill Black, prominent S&L fraudster Charles Keating penned a memo in April 1987: The “HIGHEST PRIORITY” should be to “GET BLACK … KILL HIM DEAD.”[71]
There have also been important imperial memos crafted in the colonies: On the same day that US bombs first began falling on Baghdad in January 1991, Alberta regulators met secretly with industry to conclude an illegal deal to prevent the oil industry being held accountable for end-of-life cleanup. In 1995, the Clinton administration’s Strategic Command warned against “portray[ing] ourselves as too fully rational and cool-headed” when it came to nuclear weapons. “That the US may become irrational and vindictive if its vital interests are attacked should be a part of the national persona we project.” And a thirteenth imperial memo that keeps on giving: in 1998 Booz Allen recommended the CIA continue leaking information about the Kennedy assassination to waste the time and energy of concerned citizens.[72]
The consequences of the anti-democratic evolution of US imperial policy since WWII has not been just exponential financialization and the pauperization that follows, but also the privatization of advanced (complex system) knowledge, the dramatic shrinking of participatory politics, and a marked decline in public debate. As Jay Forrester correctly foretold a half-century ago, “Understanding the behavior of our social systems is the next great intellectual frontier.”[73]
Fatefully, however, that intellectual frontier has been the preserve of the private sector and their state intelligence services to be used against citizens around the world—Canadians in particular, on account of our addresses atop so much ‘American energy’. The sum total effect of these factors is driving the planet towards one last world war in defense of the divine right of kings and their vile maxim.[74]
9. The path to WWIII 2021-25
The small Ontario town of Wheatly is where all three world wars have begun. As the chess pieces were first moved in 1907, Wheatley received the natural gas hookup that would serve as the starting gun for the next world wars in 1936 and 2021. This third world war lacks an obvious casus belli, except that the power of US empire is in inevitable decline in relative terms to the rest of the world and was facing a significant threat to its legal/climate impunity in its northern colony.[75]
Decades of runaway growth in the American money supply would not have been possible without imperialism’s WWI perversion of accounting. Amazingly and revealingly, since the Great Recession, international accounting bodies “explicitly state the accounting equation does not have to balance.” In fact, for the oil companies that engineered this fraud, the “worse the firm’s credit rating, the lower the present value cleanup obligations.” Imperial impunity writ large.[76]
“In the end,” oilpatch lawyers reported in the Alberta Law Review, “the provinces and regions may be responsible for the costs of aging infrastructure where a company is insolvent.” On account of its unpopularity with the locals, “This absolute indemnity is entirely unique to Canada and understandably causes concern for foreign investors.”[77] Such investor concerns are highly attended to in a colony.
In September 1990, Alberta’s Department of Energy published a report on ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It argued that, with strong government leadership, we could have a growing economy and emissions in the province could still be cut 7.3 per cent by 2005. Instead, quisling premier Ralph Klein disbanded the energy efficiency office that produced the paper shortly after becoming premier. The following month, the infamous American oilfield tax credit was extended to ponzi oil and gas companies stateside. And the same day bombs first fell on Baghdad in January 1991, comprador regulators in Alberta made the Secret No-Lookback Deal with industry. It was a moment of global hope when the Cold War ended, but imperial planners beat back the threat.[78]
Much like when the gold standard ended and Alberta won independence two decades earlier, the 1992 sequel to Limits to Growth and the second Earth Summit caught the imperial president’s ire. In addition to overseas adventures, Emperor Bush demonstrated his ire in Alberta, where his lacky “sliced dramatically into the budgets, capacities, and the autonomies of the civil service, local governments, universities, school boards, health authorities, and regulators” until a “diverse range of state and democratic institutions in Alberta have been captured to significant degrees by the oil industry.”[79] A decade later climate action in Alberta was further undermined by fraud.
In 2002, premier Ralph Klein’s comprador government commissioned a public opinion poll on climate change that found inconvenient levels of support for climate action by Albertans. The Globe and Mail noted the results – 70 per cent wanting ratify Kyoto and willing to spend $500/month or more to do so – “would appear to undermine the Alberta government’s staunch opposition to the deal.”[80]
By the fall, the Klein government launched a $1.5 million propaganda campaign against Kyoto, including newspaper/radio/television ads and national/international speaking engagements. In September, after the Society of Medical Officers President David Swann spoke to the media about their resolution supporting Kyoto, Dr. Swann was swiftly fired. The health board chairman that fired him explained, “Terminating jobs in the oil and gas industry is no healthier for the region than ratifying Kyoto”. Polled again days after Swann’s firing with a more elaborate question, only 27 per cent of Albertans supported implementing Kyoto; 70 per cent were opposed.[81] Oily imperialism inverted reality in its Alberta colony.
As it has turned out, the province’s crude oil and natural gas industries were mostly exempted from the new carbon tax until 2023 and in-situ bitumen projects face a carbon tax burden (after rebates) of only ~20 cents/barrel. The biggest bitumen miner, Suncor, tells investors that concerns over such costs are overblown.[82]
As for cleanup, a rare use of system dynamics on the oil industry in Alberta implied “that wells are typically left inactive not because of the option to reactivate but rather to avoid costly environmental obligations.” There are large and mounting costs in Alberta to the fact “there is a limit to how much we can constantly say no to the political masters in Washington.”[83]
Racism is old, but eugenics combined it with technology in 1907 to become policy in Indiana and Alberta. The timing of the second world war was not unrelated to the development of atomic weapons that facilitated imposing American will on the world in 1945. And the timing of World War Three is not unrelated to the rise of Artificial Intelligence—an outgrowth of system dynamics that were at the center of WWI and evolved with computers in the private sector after 1956. Even before the Odd Fellows building in Wheatley, Ontario was allowed to blow up a second time, Israel was using AI to facilitate its May 2021 slaughter in Gaza.[84]
One of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Artificial Intelligence startups has been supplying the kill lists for Israel’s ongoing AI-assisted genocide. ‘It would have been a nightmare’, said one former Palantir engineer, ‘if J. Edgar Hoover had these capabilities in his crusade against Martin Luther King’. Through a spike in AI, ‘US tech giants have quietly empowered Israel to track and kill many more alleged militants more quickly in Gaza and Lebanon’—raising concerns ‘about tech’s role in who lives and who dies’, according to an in-dept investigation by the Associated Press.[85]
One of the most striking results reveals imperial hostility towards the democratic necessity of unyellow journalism: Computer-assisted imperialists have assassinated more journalists than killed in all previous wars combined—a darkly impressive achievement, credit for which is shared amongst their Five Eyes surveillance collaborators/apologists.[86]
Donald Trump’s first presidential administration (2016-20) personified imperialists’ sociopathic disregard for conservation on a finite planet. When activists and dissidents succeeded in publishing a dangerous threat to oil industry impunity in Alberta, the natural gas was already leaking in the Odd Fellows building in Wheatley, Ontario that had marked the beginning of the march to WWII in 1936. On August 26, 2021, the Odd Fellows building finally exploded again—marking another turning point in world history.[87]
By the summer of 2023, Trudeau was being prepared to fall in a federal colour revolution to compliment the provincial colour revolution the previous summer that had installed Alberta premier Danielle Smith. The Canadian Liberal party has been an imperial plaything since long before Sir Wilfred Laurier facilitated the secret sale of Imperial Oil to the Rockefellers in 1898 and it will continue to be an imperial plaything after Justin Trudeau: $25 billion in pipeline cost overruns were laid at his feet in August 2023 and the following month his Parliament was forced to give a Ukrainian Nazi, not one, but two standing ovations.[88]
On the anniversary of both the 1798 founding of the Odd Fellows conspiracy and Trump’s 2020 insurrection, Justin Trudeau resigned on January 6, 2025. That same day, it was reported the Alberta Energy Regulator is perfectly aware its environmental record is indefensible but chooses to do nothing.[89] The American noose is tightening around Canadians’ necks.
The esteemed author of the United States’ Declaration of Independence wrote privately in 1786, “Our confederacy must be viewed as the nest from which all America, North and South is to be peopled”, but that “We should take care too not to ... press too soon” against the remainder of the continent. Better for other empires “to hold them till our population can be sufficiently advanced to gain it from them [piece] by [piece].”[90] It would appear Canada’s ‘time’ is fast approaching.
Trump’s talk of formally purchasing Greenland should be seen as a proxy for the quiet-colony-that-cannot-be-discussed: Alberta. As in 1868, the “political reasons for the purchase of these northern lands were related to [the US’] desire to acquire Canada.” Seen in light of the accelerating march towards a third hot world war, Trump’s tariffs are clearly not as advertised.[91]
Rather, the United States and its proxies are girding for a third hot world war; the US empire is polarizing trade ties and consolidating control over its many foreign lackies. Cryptocurrencies offer another chance for elites to elude the worst consequences of the coming bankster-imposed recession, but the democratic control of credit and economic planning in the public interest still offer the potential of a bright future in alternative. Absent urgent reform, imperialists will do us all in at their convenience.
When the king was finally forced to sign Magna Carta in 1215, half of England was under foreign occupation and the implementation of Magna Carta was left to a 9-year-old king in 1217. Imperial power concedes nothing without a fight – and today it is on the far side of its apex, but far from the nadir it had faced in 1215 when the western rule of law was first glimpsed.[92]
Even though financial crisis and international tensions are by now inevitable, a last chance to peacefully solve these existential challenges remains. Unpayable US debts could still be calmly resolved in the public interest by the euthanasia of rentiers and a citizen debt jubilee to jumpstart a cooperative transition to zero carbon within sustainable environmental boundaries.
The only remaining future is one where the public interest is our humanity’s collective god. System dynamics can help us glimpse past the complexity to the higher principles of sustainability and in order to navigate the decline of from sociopathic hegemony. May that god finally kill the king.[93]
Quotes
#1: Hegel 1820 pp. 23 (Owl of Minerva), 392n31: ‘The owl is the sacred bird of Minerva (Greek: Athena), goddess of wisdom. The apparent meaning of this famous saying is that a culture’s philosophical understanding reaches its peak only when the culture enters its decline.’ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (trans.) Allen W. Wood Elements of the Philosophy of Right (ed.) H.B. Nisbet (1820; Cambridge: Cambridge University 1991)
#2: Preparata 2005 p. 234 (Japanese embassy attaché Navy Captain Arata Oka to Greater German Reichstag member Joachim von Ribbentrop in London Spring 1935): “Never forget that the British are the most cunning people on earth, and that they graduated to absolute masters in the art of negotiation as well as in that of manipulating the press and public opinion.” Quoted in Guido Giacomo Preparata Conjuring Hitler: How Britain and America made the Third Reich London: Pluto 2005;
Lawson 2007 p. 823 (future Nazi foreign minister learned banking from Round Tablers in Montréal): “a clerk who trained in the same branch, recalls that "Von Ribbentrop was a young man of outstanding ability. He was so anxious to learn the Canadian banking system that he used to stay until the last man left the office at night. He spoke immaculate English, and gained the confidence of all with whom he came into contact. "” Robert Lawson “Joachim von Ribbentrop in Canada, 1910-1914: A note” International History Review v29#4 (December 2007): 821-32;
Cozine 1969 p. iii (28 April 1935): “The Anglo-German Naval Agreement ... shocked the world. No one at the time, not even the London Cabinet, could adequately explain the accord, but because of subsequent developments, scholars have classified the detente as English appeasement motivated by fear of Germany. But this explanation, which has never been seriously challenged and is the position of an English expert on the event, Donald C, Watt, raises several unanswered questions. The agreement came as a complete surprise and was contrary to established British policy” Walter Dean Cozine “The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935: A study of the nexus of British naval policy and foreign policy” (MA thesis: North Texas State University 1969): 85pp
References & Excerpts
[1] Rollinmud & Getty 2014 pp. xii-xiii (Banff created w/i months of Calgary’s 1884 incorporation): “Mason neatly ties together his personal experiences in meeting and gaining the trust of Nakoda community members as he sought out their perspectives on their historic roots in Banff National Park. The park was created in 1885 to protect and to exploit the hot springs that were (and are) the spiritual essence of the Nakoda’s relationship with the land. ... Mason ... demonstrate[s] how Nakoda society has been impacted by government policies ranging from conservation laws to changes brought about by economic enterprises like the Banff Indian Days. He describes how the colonizing priorities and the political-economic imperatives of the Dominion government were able to sideline and ignore the treaty rights of all First Nations people in Canada.” Chiniki Nation elder Rolland Rollinmud and Stoney Nakoda Nation research director Ian A.L. Getty “Foreword” to Courtney W. Mason Spirits of the Rockies: Reasserting an Indigenous presence in Banff National Park (Toronto: University of Toronto 2014): xi-xiii;
Black 2018 pp. 12-13, 48 (on rentier links between resources + interior ministries + ‘national parks’ in both US & Canada): “The Interior Department in the United States has historically performed a radically different set of functions than the Ministries of the Interior across Europe and the formerly colonized world, on which it was directly modeled. ... the US variant instead came to oversee natural resources and indigenous affairs, a distinction shared with other settler states like Canada and Australia ... the Canadian Department of the Interior was born ... made in the exact image of the American version to dispose of the dominion of land expropriated from First Nation and Métis peoples. Like the US Interior Department, the Canadian version managed the extension of settlers and private interests in mining and timber through surveying, parceling, and leasing land” Megan Black The Global Interior: Mineral frontiers and American power Cambridge: Harvard University 2018 [excerpt];
Daschuk 2013 (on the colonial experience in Western Canada) James Daschuk Clearing the Plains: Disease, politics of starvation, and the loss of Aboriginal life Regina: University of Regina 2013 [excerpt];
Mason 2014 pp. 48, 47 (Stoneys ‘managed challenges w/ incredible adaptability & resilience’): “Nakoda peoples were faced with difficult circumstances that would alter many aspects of how they lived in the Banff–Bow Valley and the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies. Even though these changes would have serious consequences for their communities, throughout this period they managed these challenges with an incredible degree of adaptability and resilience. ... Powwows, reunions, political meetings, hunting trips, and festivals such as the Banff Indian Days are only a few of the ways that some Nakoda peoples created openings to redefine their ways of living, their cultures, and the very lands they occupied. While seriously constrained by colonial structures, these opportunities also represented new forms of resistance and possibilities for many community members.” Courtney W. Mason Spirits of the Rockies: Reasserting an Indigenous presence in Banff National Park Toronto: University of Toronto 2014 [excerpt];
For further references, see sections 3-6 below.
[2] For references, see sections 6-8 below.
[3] ERCB 2013 pp. 1-2 (Lougheed never forgot 1st contact as premier w/ colonial Resources Conservation Board in Sept`71): New Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed “was enjoying the garden of his southwest Calgary house ... selecting Alberta’s first Conservative cabinet for the government swearing-in ceremony when ERCB chairman George Govier strode into the backyard. "It was just so startling to me," Lougheed recalled in an interview four decades later. ... Govier dropped by because he needed to know whether he should keep an imminent date in Poland for a conference of regulatory chiefs from around the world. ... "I had no idea that we belonged to an international network of regulators, like a cartel. I was surprised. It was a shock." ... the Conservatives began to revisit and revamp provincial policies on everything from liquor laws, civil rights, and mental health care to oil and gas royalties [but the ERCB] "was one of the very few entities we inherited from the Social Credit era that we didn’t really change," Lougheed said.” Gordon Jaremko Steward: 75 years of Alberta energy regulation Calgary: Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board 2013;
(‘we’re going to beat them’) Former Premier Peter Lougheed quoted to me by a graduate specializing in public policy, law and administration in the University of Calgary’s Master’s program, where Lougheed was a graduate program evaluator in the early 1990s;
1998 ABQB 286 pp. 5, 32 (Stoneys at center of conservation efforts 1926+1945+1962 & rule of law 1998): “Between 1926 and 1962, the Stoneys granted eight surrenders of oil and gas rights over portions of the reserve to the Queen. ... One surrender dated January 12, 1926 ... The first lease was ... granted to the California Standard Company on December 1, 1962. ... The California Standard Company changed its name to Chevron Standard Limited ("Chevron") on August 11, 1965.” Stoney Tribal Council v. PanCanadian Petroleum Limited (9 April 1998) Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta Reasons for Judgement #286: 26pp + 3 appendices;
Snow 1977 pp. 16, 23-24, ix (‘Treaty should never be broken’–Chief Snow): “My people were hospitable and generous and shared what we had with the newcomers. We were quite prepared to share the land as well. But the newcomers were not satisfied with just sharing it. ... In other words, all this time we thought missionaries were making the best possible deal for us, but in fact they were working to secure land for white settlers. But as ... the terms of the British North American Act required, whitemen’s land claims were not going to be accepted before the government made apparently legal and fair agreements with the Indians by treaty. ... And so, between August 3, 1871 and September 22, 1877, seven treaties were concluded with the majority of the Indian tribes of the North West Territories. The Lieutenant-Governor of the Territories ... was delegated to carry out the government’s obligations of extinguishing or taking away our title to the land. ... The Treaty is a Sacred Covenant made before the Great Creator. Therefore, it should never be broken by either of the parties concerned. But whenever I have heard an interpretation of those agreements and promises from government officials, I have been made aware of how different the officials’ view is from that of our tribal elders. The difference separating the two versions is as great as the difference that separates night from day.” Chief John Snow These Mountains are our Sacred Places Toronto: Samuel-Stevens 1977;
Steinhauer 1977 (‘Anyone who’s wondered why the Indian is not content should read this book’): “I am amazed at the amount of research John Snow has put into compiling these pages. Anyone who has wondered why the Indian is not content with his lot in life should read this book. I am sure that after reading its pages their attitude toward Indian people may change somewhat.” Province of Alberta’s 1st First Nation Lieutenant-Governor Ralph G. Steinhauer “Foreword” to Chief John Snow These Mountains are our Sacred Places (Toronto: Samuel-Stevens 1977): vi;
Mill 1848 bk2, ch2, §5, v1, p. 269 (‘height of injustice to let gift of nature be engrossed by individuals’): “The essential principle of property being to assure to all persons what they have produced by their labour and accumulated by their abstinence, this principle cannot apply to what is not the produce of labour, the raw material of the earth. If ... there were any means of discriminating what is derived from each source, it not only would not be necessary, but it would be the height of injustice, to let the gift of nature be engrossed by individuals.” John Stuart Mill Principles of Political Economy: With some of their applications to social philosophy London: John W. Parker 1848
[4] BBC News 28/2/25 (invitation to reverse American revolution): “UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer hand-delivered a letter from King Charles to US President Donald Trump during his visit to the White House. The King invited Trump to the UK for an unprecedented second state visit. ... The prime minister was once known as "no drama Starmer", but there was plenty of theatricality in how Sir Keir handed over the invitation for a state visit from King Charles. The PM produced the letter, with its Buckingham Palace crest, and the sprawling black ink signature of King Charles, with a showman’s flourish. It may as well have been an illuminated scroll. This was an "unprecedented" second invitation, Sir Keir said, laying on the flattery, and letting the US president open the letter like he was going to announce himself as an Oscar winner. "Isn't it beautiful?" said Trump.” Sean Coughlan “Trump’s letter from the King: What does it say and what does it mean?” BBC News (28 February 2025);
Newsweek 6/3/25: “a day after discussing sovereignty with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a meeting in London ... Some interpreted the move as a signal by the king to Donald Trump that he is Canada’s sovereign in the context of the US president suggesting Canada should become the 51st state.” Jack Royston “Did King Charles issue secret signal to Donald Trump with military dress?” Newsweek (6 March 2025);
Daily Mail 20/3/25 Richard Eden “Exposed: Secret offer King Charles is planning to make to Donald Trump that would make America ROYAL again” London Daily Mail (20 March 2025);
Daily Mail 21/3/25: “"I Love King Charles. Sounds good to me!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.” Emily Goodin “Trump stunningly agrees US will become 'associate member' of the Commonwealth: 'I love King Charles'” London Daily Mail (21 March 2025);
Narwhal 25/3/25 (AB quisling threatens unity, appeases Trump): “"I also made it clear that Alberta, as owner of the resource, will not accept an export tax or restriction of Alberta’s oil and gas to the United States, and that our province is no longer agreeable to subsidizing other large provinces who are fully capable of funding themselves," [Alberta premier Danielle] Smith said.” Drew Anderson “Alberta vows diplomacy with US—and threatens 'unprecedented national unity crisis' in Canada: Danielle Smith makes extreme demands at home—while doing everything she can to appease Trump’s America” Narwhal (25 March 2025);
FT 25/2/25 (increased 51st state pressure): “Trump has said he wants to annex Canada and has vowed to press ahead with 25 per cent tariffs on imports from the country when a one-month reprieve elapses on March 4. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who will step down from office on March 9, was recently caught on an open mic warning that Trump’s ambition to absorb the US’s northern neighbour was a "real thing".” Demetri Savastropulo and Ilya Gridneff “White House official pushes to axe Canada from Five Eyes intelligence group: Peter Navarro wants to increase pressure on country Donald Trump has threatened to annex” London Financial Times (25 February 2025);
Reuters 27/2/25 (no date yet for “unprecedented” visit): “"This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented," Starmer told Trump, before gently pressing the president for an answer to the invitation. "The answer is yes," Trump responded. He told Starmer he would attend with first lady Melania Trump. "We look forward to being there and honoring the king ... Your country is a fantastic country, and it'll be our honor to be there." No date for the visit was announced.” “King Charles invites Trump for unprecedented second UK state visit” Reuters (27 February 2025);
CP 24/4/25 (King Charles II’s 1670 charter for Canada for sale?): “Hudson’s Bay heads to court seeking permission to auction off 1,700 pieces of art and more than 2,700 artifacts ... It is still unclear what specific artifacts could be included in the auction beyond the 355-year-old royal charter that launched the company. ... The charter, granted by King Charles II in 1670, is "one of the most significant archival documents that exists in Canada," said Cody Groat, chair of the Canada Advisory Committee for Memory of the World, which is under the umbrella of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Groat called the document "foundational" to discussions around political governance in Canada and treaty negotiations with Indigenous people. That’s because the charter, which established Hudson’s Bay as a fur trading company, also granted it "semi-sovereign rights" which allowed it to operate both "as a business entity and as a colonial government at the same time," Groat said.” Sammy Hudes “Grand chief requests halt to auction of Hudson’s Bay items linked to First Nations” Canadian Press (24 April 2025);
SIPRI 2025 (“unprecedented” +9.4% in military spending 2024): “World military expenditure reached $2718 billion in 2024, an increase of 9.4 per cent in real terms from 2023 and the steepest year-on-year rise since at least the end of the cold war.” “Unprecedented rise in global military expenditure as European and Middle East spending surges” Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (28 April 2025);
Oneida leader quoted in Wunder 2000 pp. 67, 73, 91 {including italics}: “On the eve the American independence, Native Americans couldn’t make sense of "this dispute between two brothers." An unidentified Oneida leader offered diplomatic commentary to Governor John Trumbull of Connecticut in 1775:
"The quarrel seems to be unnatural. You are two brothers of one blood. ... We [Oneidas] are unwilling to join on either side in such a contest, for we bear an equal affection to both you Old and New England. ... The present situation of you two brothers is new and strange to us. We Indians cannot find, nor recollect in the traditions of our ancestors, the like case, or a similar instance." ...
[The American War of Independence] turned out to be a civil war fought on Native homelands, and the results of the war left many Indians destitute. Like the Bosnians, the Rwandans, and the Cambodians of the twentieth century, the Oneidas, the Cherokees, and the Stockbridge Indians of the eighteenth century experienced vicious murders of leaders, a scorched-earth policy, forced refugee retreats, land confiscations, massive migrations, economic disruptions, and death by starvation and disease. Neither the ideology, platitudes, nor promises of the Declaration of Independence offered solace. ... Indians bore the brunt of this war, only it was not a war for independence but a war of submission designed to destroy culture and identity.” John R. Wunder “"Merciless Indian Savages" and the Declaration of Independence: Native Americans translate the Ecunnaunuxulgee document” American Indian Law Review v25#1 (2000/2001): 65-92
[5] Declaration of Independence 1776 (4th of July): “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. ... For protecting ... large bodies of armed troops ... by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States” Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, John Hancock, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott and Matthew Thornton “Declaration of Independence” Second Continental Congress (Philadelphia: 4 July 1776);
Wunder 2000 pp. 86-87 quoting the Declaration of Independence: “During the United States wars of conquest in the nineteenth century, the American military ravaged communities, burnt villages, and destroyed lives. Mercenaries, such as the Indian police, murdered Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and other Indian leaders. War, from the deliberate spreading of infectious, lethal diseases among unsuspecting populations to the mutilations of women and children, was waged "with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation."” John R. Wunder “"Merciless Indian Savages" and the Declaration of Independence: Native Americans translate the Ecunnaunuxulgee document” American Indian Law Review v25#1 (2000/2001): 65-92;
Tocqueville 1835 p. 385 (visiting French intellectual US colonialism): “the Americans of the United States have accomplished .... extermin[ation of] the Indian race [and] depriving it of its rights ... with singular felicity; tranquilly, legally, philanthropically, without shedding blood, and without violating a single great principle of morality in the eyes of the world. ... it is most logically established and most learnedly proved, that "... the Indians had no right"” Member of the Institute of France and Chamber of Deputies Alex de Tocqueville (trans.) Henry Reeve Democracy in America v1 of 4th edn. (1835; New York: J. & H.G. Langley 1841);
Adams 1841 (Former President reflecting honestly on Indian Affairs): “I was excused from that service at my own request, from a full conviction that its only result would be to keep a perpetual harrow upon my feelings, with a total impotence to render any useful service. ... The States ... broke down all the treaties which had pledged the faith of the nation ... Georgia extended her jurisdiction over them, took possession of their lands, houses, cattle, furniture, negroes, and drove them out from their own dwellings. All the Southern States supported Georgia in this utter prostration of faith and justice; and Andrew Jackson, by the simultaneous operation of fraudulent treaties and brutal force, consummated the work. The Florida War is one of the fruits of this policy, the conduct of which exhibits one (un)interrupted scene of the most profligate corruption. All resistance against this abomination is vain. It is among the heinous sins of this nation, for which I believe God will one day bring them to judgment — but at His own time and by His own means. I turned my eyes away from this sickening mass of putrefaction, and asked to be excused from serving as Chairman of the committee.” Former Secretary of State (1817-25) and US President (1825-29) John Quincy Adams Diary (30 June 1841) in v10 of Charles Francis Adams (ed.) Memoirs of John Quincy Adams: Comprising portions of his diary from 1795 to 1848 (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1876): 491-92;
Parsons 1973 p. 340 (Adams’ statement against interest): “Such an outburst is remarkable in itself, but even more remarkable when it is compared to Adams’ earlier career ... a member of the British negotiating team ... after conversations with Adams [in 1814:] "I had till I came here no idea of the fixed determination which prevails in the breast of every American to extirpate the Indians and appropriate their territory; but I am now sure that there is nothing which the people of America would so reluctantly abandon as what they are pleased to call their natural right to do so."” Lynn Hudson Parsons “"A Perpetual Harrow upon My Feelings": John Quincy Adams and the American Indian” New England Quarterly v46#3 (September 1973): 339-79;
For the mechanics of the crimes and relevant expertise for how to re-establish the rule of law on Wall Street (& thereby helping enable it elsewhere in the empire), see the public servants and policy priorities profiled in Lovell 2025 Producer Patrick Lovell with Rose Ann Rabiola Miele “The Clean New Deal: A declaration to reboot the American dream” (2025);
For the long & rich history of urgently needed debt forgiveness, see Hudson 2018 Michael Hudson … And Forgive Them Their Debts: Lending, foreclosure and redemption from Bronze Age finance to the Jubilee year Dresden: Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends 2018
[6] Seemingly unappreciated is the fundamental shift represented in setting a monetary standard against a “stock” like gold and oil reserves vs. a “flow” like cryptocurrencies, which only represent the electricity required to 'mine' them. Any such shift would render any form of conservation an impossibility – something only in the interests of the imperial world’s rentier elites, dooming the rest of us unless soon thwarted.
NY Tribune 4/12/21 (Ford & Edison would replace gold w/ energy 1921): “Henry Ford and Thomas A. Edison arrived here today to inspect the Muscle Shoals nitrate plant, which the Detroit automobile manufacturer proposes to take over from the government, and almost immediately Mr. Ford declared the purpose of his vast new project. It is not to make money, or, primarily, to stimulate the unemployment of a million men now idle, or to make the South an industrial center. His purpose, he said, is to end all wars forever.” “Ford would replace gold with energy currency and stop wars: Declares if government will give him Muscle Shoals plant he can demonstrate success of plan to substitute natural wealth as basis of world’s money” New York Tribune (4 December 1921): 1, 6;
NYT 4/12/21 (‘only way to break control of bankers is to smash gold as a basis for currency’): “"The United States, the greatest Government of the world, wishing $40,000,000 to complete a great public benefit is forced to go to the money sellers to buy its own money. At the end of thirty years the Government not only has to pay back the $40,000,000, but it has to pay 120 per cent interest, literally has to pay $88,000,000 for the use of $40,000,000 for thirty years. And all the time it is the Government’s own money. The money sellers never created it. They got it from the Government originally. The Government first gave credit, now it must pay for the use of what it gave. Think of it. Could anything be more childish, more unbusinesslike!" ... "...The only way to break control of these international bankers, the way to end their exploitation of humanity forever, is to smash gold as a basis for the currency of the world." [..."But what have you to substitute?" he was asked.] "There would be the best security in the world. Here [skeleton of the great Wilson dam] you have a river capable of furnishing 1,000,000 horse power. It has been here for, say, 100,000,000 years. It will be here as long as there is rain and mountains to shed the rain into the rivers. This energy is wealth in productive form. Now, which is the more perishable, the more secure, this power site and its development, or the several barrels of gold necessary to make $40,000,000? This site, with its power possibilities, will be here long after the Treasury Building is a ruin." ["But have you two worked out a plan of values?" he was asked.] "Yes, we have. We have that ready when Congress wishes to hear about this plan. ... Under the new currency system a certain amount of energy exerted for one hour would be equal to one dollar. It is simply a case of thinking and calculating in terms different than those laid down to us by the international banking group to which we have grown accustomed that we think there is no other desirable standard. We should change our minds on that question. The only difference between the currency plan and the bond plan is that there is no interest to be paid and the Wall Street money merchants, who do nothing to build the dam and deserve nothing, will get nothing."” Henry Ford “Ford hopes to use Shoals as step to end wars” New York Times (4 December 1921): 1, 20;
Federal Reserve, FDIC & Currency Comptroller 2023 p. 1 (regulators warn about crypto 2023): “It is important that risks related to the crypto-asset sector that cannot be mitigated or controlled do not migrate to the banking system.” Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency “Joint statement on crypto-asset risks to banking organizations” (3 January 2023): 3pp;
Reuters 11/4/25 (Trump pledged to be “crypto president” 2025): “Trump on the campaign trail pledged to be a "crypto president" and courted cash from the industry by promising to promote the adoption of digital assets. In his first week in office, Trump ordered the creation of a cryptocurrency working group tasked with proposing new digital asset regulations, and in March signed an executive order to create a federal stockpile of bitcoin.” Hannah Lang “Trump signs bill to nullify expanded IRS crypto broker rule” Reuters (11 April 2025)
[7] Chomsky 2003 pp. 2-3 (‘fear of US reached remarkable heights worldwide’): “The year 2003 opened with many indications that concerns about human survival are all too realistic. To mention just a few examples, in the early fall of 2002 it was learned that a possibly terminal nuclear war was barely avoided forty years earlier. Immediately after this startling discovery, the Bush administration blocked UN efforts to ban the militarization of space, a serious threat to survival. The administration also terminated international negotiations to prevent biological warfare and moved to ensure the inevitability of an attack on Iraq, despite popular opposition that was without historical precedent. Aid organizations with extensive experience in Iraq and studies by respected medical organizations warned that the planned invasion might precipitate a humanitarian catastrophe. The warnings were ignored by Washington and evoked little media interest. A high-level US task force concluded that attacks with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) within the United States are "likely," and would become more so in the event of war with Iraq. Numerous specialists and intelligence agencies issued similar warnings, adding that Washington's belligerence, not only with regard to Iraq, was increasing the long-term threat of international terrorism and proliferation of WMD. These warnings too were dismissed. In September 2002, the Bush administration announced its National Security Strategy, which declared the right to resort to force to eliminate any perceived challenge to US global hegemony, which is to be permanent. The new grand strategy aroused deep concern worldwide, even within the foreign policy elite at home. Also in September, a propaganda campaign was launched to depict Saddam Hussein as an imminent threat to the United States and to insinuate that he was responsible for the 9-11 atrocities and was planning others. The campaign, timed to the onset of the midterm congressional elections, was highly successful in shifting attitudes. It soon drove American public opinion off the global spectrum and helped the administration achieve electoral aims and establish Iraq as a proper test case for the newly announced doctrine of resort to force at will. President Bush and his associates also persisted in undermining international efforts to reduce threats to the environment that are recognized to be severe, with pretexts that barely concealed their devotion to narrow sectors of private power. ...
By early 2003, studies revealed that fear of the United States had reached remarkable heights throughout the world, along with distrust of the political leadership. Dismissal of elementary human rights and needs was matched by a display of contempt for democracy for which no parallel comes easily to mind, accompanied by professions of sincere dedication to human rights and democracy. The unfolding events should be deeply disturbing to those who have concerns about the world they are leaving to their grandchildren. Though Bush planners are at an extreme end of the traditional US policy spectrum, their programs and doctrines have many precursors, both in US history and among earlier aspirants to global power. More ominously, their decisions may not be irrational within the framework of prevailing ideology and the institutions that embody it. There is ample historical precedent for the willingness of leaders to threaten or resort to violence in the face of significant risk of catastrophe. But the stakes are far higher today. The choice between hegemony and survival has rarely, if ever, been so starkly posed.” Noam Chomsky Hegemony or Survival? America’s quest for global dominance New York: Metropolitan 2003;
ALDP 2021 (estimates job benefits from starting oilfield cleanup) Regan Boychuk, Mark Anielski, John Snow Jr. and Brad Stelfox “The Big Cleanup: How enforcing the Polluter Pay principle can unlock Alberta’s next great jobs boom” Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project (June 2021): 40pp [group defunded; although bad faith compradors continue using the group’s name today, none of ALDP’s work is available online any longer];
Fix 2023a (models o&g solvency w/ cleanup costs & future revenue @ $5-500/bbl) Blair Fix “How to make the oil industry go bust” Real-World Economics Review #103 (31 March 2023): 2-25
[8] Nesbit 2016 (Big Oil + Tobacco + Koch bro’s plot to take over Republican Party 1993): “The long rise of the Tea Party movement was orchestrated, well funded, and deliberate. Its aim was to break Washington. And it has nearly succeeded, as America saw in the debt-ceiling debacle of 2011, prompted by the Republican Party’s demand that the president negotiate over deficit reduction in exchange for an increase in the maximum amount of money the US Treasury is allowed to borrow. There are no mistakes or accidents in the Tea Party movement. Its leadership has made certain of that.” Former FDA and White House communications official, Climate Nexus Executive Director Jeff Nesbit “The secret origins of the Tea Party: How Big Oil and Big Tobacco partnered with the Koch brothers to take over the GOP” Time (13 May 2016);
CP 14/2/24 (tea party/freedom movement insurrection in Ottawa & US-AB border January 2022): “The Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s analytical brief traces the evolution of the "Freedom" movement that began to emerge following the early 2022 protests that paralyzed downtown Ottawa and key Canada-US border points. In early February 2022, the streets around Parliament Hill were jammed with protesters, many in large trucks that rolled into the capital beginning in late January. Initially promoted as a demonstration against COVID-19 health restrictions – including lockdowns and vaccine mandates – the gathering attracted people with various grievances against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government.” Jim Bronskill “'Freedom' movement fighting against 'perceived government overreach': CSIS” Canadian Press (14 February 2024);
Hays 1959 p. 1 (right turn a century ago): “This crusading quality of the conservation movement has given it an enviable reputation as a defender of spiritual values and national character. ... But, however much an asset in promoting conservation, this dramatic fervor has constituted a major liability in its careful analysis. For the moral language of conservation battles differed markedly from the course of conservation events. Examining the record, one is forced to distinguish sharply between rhetoric and reality, between the literal meaning of the terminology of the popular struggle and the specific issues of conservation policy at stake. Conservation neither arose from a broad popular outcry, nor centered it’s fire primarily upon the private corporation. Moreover, corporations often supported conservation policies, while the "people" just as frequently opposed them.” Samuel P. Hays Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The progressive conservation movement, 1890-1920 Cambridge: Harvard University 1959 [excerpt];
Kolko 1963 pp. 300-1 (‘only Thorstein Veblen understood US power relations in Progressive Era’): “Despite his many shortcomings, only Thorstein Veblen, of all the American intellectuals of the Progressive Era, understood the main drift of American power relations in the period preceding the First World War. One can still read Absentee Ownership, published in 1923, with utmost profit, for Veblen captured the indispensable reality of the domination of business over American politics, ethics, and the key institutions of society. … For all of Veblen’s deficiencies, his contribution toward a theoretical comprehension of American history in this century has never been equaled.” Gabriel Kolko The Triumph of Conservatism: A reinterpretation of American history, 1900-1916 New York: Free Press 1963;
Carey 1997 p. 18 (democracy, corp power, propaganda): “The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy. There have been two principal aspects to the growth of democracy in this century: the extension of popular franchise (i.e., the right to vote) and the growth of the union movement. … American corporations have met this threat by learning to use propaganda, both inside and outside the corporation, as an effective weapon for managing governments and public opinion.” Alex Carey Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Corporate propaganda versus freedom and liberty Andrew Lohrey (ed.) Urbana: University of Illinois 1997;
Ferguson & Rogers 1986 (right turn a generation ago) Thomas Ferguson and Joel Rogers Right Turn: The decline of the Democrats and the future of American politics New York: Hill & Wang 1986;
Turchin et al. 2018 (today’s right turn) Peter Turchin, Nina Witoszek, Stefan Thurner, David Garcia, Roger Griffin, Daniel Hoyer, Atle Midttun, James Bennett, Næss Knut Myrum and Sergey Gavrilets “A history of possible futures: Multipath forecasting of social breakdown, recovery and resilience” Cliodynamics v9#2 (2018): 124-39;
Turchin 2021 Peter Turchin “Multipath forecasting: The aftermath of the 2020 American crisis” Open Science Framework PREPRINT (March 2021): 20pp
[9] Meek 2003 p. 19 (according to 1st economists, “net product” = “disposable surplus over necessary cost”): “In this circle of economic activity, production and consumption appeared as mutually interdependent variables, whose action and interaction in any economic period, proceeding according to certain socially-determined laws, laid the basis for a repetition of the process in the same general form in the next economic period. Within this circle, the Physiocrats then endeavoured to discover some key variable, movements in which could be regarded as the basic factor causing an expansion or contraction in the 'dimensions' of the circle, i.e. in the general level of economic activity. The variable which they hit upon was the capacity of agriculture to yield a 'net product' [a sum of 10% profit earned on expenses and unearned excess profits/“rent”], i.e. a disposable surplus over necessary cost.” Ronald L. Meek The Economics of Physiocracy: Essays and translations London: Routledge 2003;
Smith 1776 bk1, ch11, v1, p. 276 (rentiers as an order/class of society): “There are three parts of produce and three original orders of society. The whole annual produce of the land and labour of every country … naturally divides itself … into three parts; the rent of land, the wages of labour, and the profits of stock; and constitutes a revenue to three different orders of people; to those who live by rent [rentiers], to those who live by wage [labourers] and to those who live by profit [capitalists]. These are the three great, original and constituent orders of every civilized society, from whose revenue that of every other order is ultimately derived.” Adam Smith An Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations 5th edn. (ed.) Edwin Canaan (1789; Chicago: University of Chicago 1976);
Ferri & Minsky 1991 p. 9 (Smith 1776 🡪 laissez-faire): “Adam Smith’s invisible hand conjecture that each agent "... intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention" [Smith 1776 bk4, ch2, v1, p. 477] is the foundation upon which exogenous shock models of business cycles rest. The Smithian conjecture has been transformed into the theorem that "A competitive equilibrium is a Pareto optimum." The "invisible hand" proposition leads to laissez-faire as a policy position.” Piero Ferri and Hyman P. Minsky “Market processes and thwarting systems” Levy Institute Working Paper #64 (November 1991): 30pp;
Pollin 1997 Robert Pollin “'Socialization of investment' and 'euthanasia of the rentier': The relevance of Keynesian policy ideas for the contemporary US economy” ch3 in Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer (eds.) The Relevance of Keynesian Economic Policies Today (London: Macmillan 1997): 57-77 [excerpt];
Hudson 2018 (debt jubilee) Michael Hudson … And Forgive Them Their Debts: Lending, foreclosure and redemption from Bronze Age finance to the Jubilee year Dresden: Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends 2018;
Hudson 2022a (choice is between 3 types of economies) Michael Hudson The Destiny of Civilization: Finance capitalism, industrial capitalism or socialism Dresden: Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends 2022;
Turchin 2023 pp. xiv-xv (‘central questions of the book is who rules & how do elites maintain their dominant position?’), 3 (‘elites are “power holders”’), 192-93, 189, 202 (‘the wealth pump is the heart of the multipath forecasting model + 1 of the most destabilizing social mechanisms known to humanity’), 222 (‘two routes out of revolutionary situation for ruling class: overthrow/reform’), 227 (‘England’s successful reforms benefitted from resources afforded by extensive empire’), 236-37 (‘possible to shut down wealth pump & rebalance w/o resorting to revolution, but success stories relatively rare’), 240-41 (‘we have clearly entered a particularly turbulent period of world history’) Peter Turchin End Times: Elites, counter-elites, and the path of political disintegration New York: Penguin 2023;
Lovell 2025 (Ending electoral college & qualified+judicial+presidential immunity) Producer Patrick Lovell with Rose Ann Rabiola Miele “The Clean New Deal: A declaration to reboot the American dream” (2025);
Boychuk 2022x p. 3 (research program developed at request of Carbon Tracker North America, but twice defunded by the Rockefellers 2022 & 2024): “In our attempts to uncover the economics of oil and gas deals using modelling and empirical tests, we also set the stage for understanding future economics. The point of reliable modelling is forecasts. Modelling the historical cashflows of the industry continues into forecasting the schedule of future cash flows. By restoring the Rockefeller-obscured distinction between earned [profit] and unearned [rent] income, we identify when and where resource rent will be coming to surface. “Nature’s surplus”, resource rent is unearned and industry has no claim to it except as a normal (10%) profit on their investments. Alberta has given away hundreds of billions in unearned excess profits to industry in the form of uncaptured resource rent. Completing our modelling within the confines of 1.5°C carbon budget will show whether there still remains enough rent to fund cleanup, pay reparations to First Nations for the resource rent extracted from their reserves, and fund a just transition from carbon production. It may well prove possible to still save the world for free.” Regan Boychuk “They’ll Conjure Enough Collateral to Kill Us All: A dynamic theory of conservation to thwart the Rockefeller Bezzle, the Bush Doctrine & climate change: Bad loans rob future taxpayers by growing environmental debt, but a burdenless tax on resource rent could stop looting & still fully-fund oilfield cleanup, First Nations reparations & a just transition within 1.5°C carbon budget” (May 2022): research proposal (3pp) + backgrounder (7pp) + excerpted bibliography (375pp)
[10] Daschuk 2013 p. xvii (1780-1820) James Daschuk Clearing the Plains: Disease, politics of starvation, and the loss of Aboriginal life Regina: University of Regina 2013 [excerpt];
Starblanket 2018 (Genocide + Indigenous Nations + the Canadian state): “I am the sole member of my family still alive. My grandparents, maternal and paternal, as well as my late mother and her siblings, were all forced to spend their formative years in the schools, an experience from which none of them would ever recover.” Tamara Starblanket Suffer the Little Children: Genocide, Indigenous Nations and the Canadian state Atlanta: Clarity 2018 [excerpt];
GUOO Oddfellows history (6 January 1798): “The first constitutional record of the Order ... is the Bond of Union to establish 'Amicable Lodge' Sheffield [near Manchester]. ... a number of branches splintered off to form a new Order in 1810 – now better known as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (Manchester Unity) Friendly Society.” Grand United Order of Oddfellows (Manchester) “Oddfellows history: The history of our society” (no date);
Odd Fellowship 1897 pp. 425-26 (attempts to prohibit Odd Fellows fail in US & Canada 1826): “The anti-secret society agitation, which had commenced in the United States, in 1826, had reached Canada as well; and a bill had been introduced in the Provincial Parliament with a view to suppress all such organizations. The Odd Fellows endeavored to secure the exemption of their Order from the provisions of the bill; and Mr. Hartley was sent as the delegate, of both the Manchester Unity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, to petition the Governor and the Parliament in their behalf. The bill, however, passed, but was disallowed by the British Government.” Past Grand Sire Cl. T. Campbell “British North America” in Henry Leonard Stillson (eds.) The Official History of the Odd Fellowship: The three-link fraternity: The antiquities, creative period, and golden age of friendship, love, and truth revised edn. (1897; Boston: Fraternity 1898): 419-75;
CRS 2025 (US legislation banning foreign interference finally passed 1938) Congressional Research Service “Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA): An overview” In Focus (5 January 2025): 2pp;
[11] Odd Fellowship 1897 p. 421 (American Odd Fellows founder Thomas Wildey left London for US 1817) Past Grand Sire Cl. T. Campbell “British North America” in Henry Leonard Stillson (eds.) The Official History of the Odd Fellowship: The three-link fraternity: The antiquities, creative period, and golden age of friendship, love, and truth revised edn. (1897; Boston: Fraternity 1898): 419-75;
Howard 1873 p. 349 (Wildey arrived in Baltimore* 2 September 1817) George Washington Howard The Monument City: Its past history and present resources Baltimore: J.D. Ehlers 1873;
Heritage Newfoundland American presence in Newfoundland (January 1941): “Under its Leased Bases Agreement with Britain, the United States had obtained permission in 1941 to establish military bases in Newfoundland ... The first American troops arrived at St. John’s in January 1941. In the months following, Newfoundland and Labrador became one of the most highly militarized places in North America as the United States spent more than $100 million to build military bases in St. John’s, Argentia, and Stephenville.”;
Mattei 2022 p. 7 (international gold standard): “Part of what makes austerity so effective as a set of policies is that it packages itself in the language of honest, hardscrabble economics. ... These sensibilities were also reflected in 1821 with the institution of the gold standard, a policy whereby upstanding governments demonstrated their fiscal and monetary rigor by linking their currencies to their holdings of precious metals, both domestically and in colonies.” Clara E. Mattei The Capital Order: How economists invented austerity and paved the way to fascism Chicago: University of Chicago 2022
[12] Monroe Doctrine 1823 Message of President James Monroe at the commencement of the first session of the 18th Congress National Archives (2 December 1823): 36pp;
Roosevelt 1904 (Roosevelt I Corollary: foreign investment equivalent of invasion) US President Theodore Roosevelt Annual Message to Congress for 1904 National Archives (6 December 1904): 3pp;
Wilson 1915 (Roosevelt I Corollary “unanswerable”): “The argument of this paper seems to be unanswerable ... This will serve us as a memorandum when the time comes ... Just now, I take it for granted, it is only for the guidance and clarification of our own thought, and for informal discussion with our Latin American friends from time to time ... for the sake of a frank understanding.” President Wilson to the US Secretary of State (29 November 1915) in v2 of Allen Dulles (ed.) Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States: The Lansing Papers 1914-1920 (Washington: USGPO 1940): 470;
Roosevelt 1938a (Roosevelt II Corollary: Canada now part of USA): President Franklin Roosevelt in Canada, 18 August 1938: “Let me make, now, an unusual statement, I am sure you will not misunderstand. ... The almost unparalleled opportunity which the river affords has not gone unnoticed by some of my friends on our side of the boundary. A conception has been emerging in the United States which is not without a certain magnificence. This is no less than the conviction that if a private group could control the outlet of the Great Lakes basin, that group would have a monopoly on the development of a territory larger than many of the great empires of history. If you were to search the records with which my Government is familiar, you would discover that literally every development of electric power, save only Ontario Hydro, is allied to, if not controlled by, a single American group, with, of course, the usual surrounding penumbra of allies, affiliates, subsidiaries and satellites. In earlier stages of development of natural resources on this continent, this was normal and usual. In recent decades, however, we have come to realize the implications to the public—to the individual men and women, to businessmen, big and little, and even to Government itself, resulting from the ownership by any group of the right to dispose of wealth which was granted to us collectively by nature herself. The development of natural resources, and the proper handling of their fruits is a major problem of Government. Naturally, no solution would be acceptable to either country which does not leave its Government entirely master of its own house. To put it bluntly, a group of American interests is here gradually putting itself in a position where, unless caution is exercised, they may in time be able to determine the economic fate of a large area, both in Canada and the United States. Now it is axiomatic in Canadian-American relations that both of us scrupulously respect the right of each to determine its own affairs. For that reason, when I know that the operation of uncontrolled American economic forces is slowly producing a result on the Canadian side of the border, which I know very well must eventually give American groups a great influence over Canadian development, I consider it part of a good neighbor to discuss the question frankly. The least I can do is to call attention to the situation as I see it.” US President Franklin Roosevelt “Text of address given by Roosevelt at bridge opening” (Associated Press) Globe and Mail (19 August 1938): 3; New York Times (19 August 1938): 2;
Granatstein 2004 pp. 1-2 (‘worked well for militaries, troubled public & politicians’): “The bargain of 1938 has been in effect ever since. ... The arrangements generally worked well for the militaries; however, they troubled the Canadian public and politicians on left and right who feared that Canada was being dragged behind America’s chariot wheels and in danger of losing its sovereignty and independence.” Council for Canadian Security in the 21st Century Chair (2001-4) Jack L. Granatstein “Canada-US security issues” in Canada and the New American Empire (University of Victoria: Centre for Global Studies and CBC Newsworld November 2004): 5pp;
Canada 1940 (Ogdensburg Treaty codifying`38 bargain in 110 words) “Declaration by the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the United States of America Regarding the Establishing of a Permanent Joint Board of Defence” Canada Treaty Series 1940 #14 (18 August 1940): 1p;
Canada 1947 (Ogdensburg Treaty reaffirmed day before oil ‘discovered’ in AB) “Joint Statement by the Governments of Canada and of the United States of America Regarding Defence Co-operation Between the Two Countries” Canada Treaty Series 1947 #16 (12 February 1947) [only available online without including date signed separately at Washington & Ottawa];
On Newfoundland, see Hiller 2010 pp. v, iii (suspension of responsible gov): “there was no Newfoundlander on the body which was to decide the country’s future ... The royal commission’s report appeared on November 21, and the Legislature reconvened on November 27 to consider its recommendations, which resulted from extensive discussions with the British government. ... The debates of the last three sessions of the Newfoundland Legislature before the suspension of responsible government in 1934 were not published at that time, possibly as an economy measure.” James K. Hiller “Preface” + “Introduction” to The Debates of the Newfoundland Legislature 1933 (St. John’s: Newfoundland and Labrador Speaker of the House of Assembly 2010): iii + v-vi
[13] Mill 1859 p. 772 (‘treating barbarians as civilized is a grave error no statesman can fall into’): “To suppose that the same international customs, and the same rules of international morality, can obtain between one civilized nation and another, and between civilized nations and barbarians, is a grave error, and one which no statesman can fall into, however it may be with those who, from a safe and unresponsible position, criticise statesmen. ... The sacred duties which civilized nations owe to the independence and nationality of each other, are not binding towards those to whom nationality and independence are either a certain evil, or at best a questionable good. The Romans were not the most clean-handed of conquerors, yet would it have been better for Gaul and Spain, Numidia and Dacia, never to have formed part of the Roman Empire? To characterize any conduct whatever towards a barbarous people as a violation of the law of nations, only shows that he who so speaks has never considered the subject. A violation of great principles of morality it may easily be; but barbarians have no rights as a nation, except a right to such treatment as may, at the earliest possible period, fit them for becoming one.” John Stuart Mill “A few words on non-intervention” Fraser’s Magazine for Town & Country v60#360 (December 1859): 766-76
[14] Mill 1859 pp. 766-69 (‘The more blameless & laudable Britain’s policy, the more certain its being misrepresented & railed at by worthies’): “If the aggressions of barbarians force it to a successful war, and its victorious arms put it in a position to command liberty of trade, whatever it demands for itself it demands for all mankind. The cost of the war is its own; the fruits it shares in fraternal equality with the whole human race. ... Let us not flatter ourselves that it is merely the dishonest pretence of enemies, or of those who have their own purposes to serve by exciting odium against us, a class including all the Protectionist writers, and the mouthpieces of all the despots and of the Papacy. The more blameless and laudable our policy might be, the more certainly we might count on its being misrepresented and railed at by these worthies. Unfortunately the belief is not confined to those whom they can influence, but is held with all the tenacity of a prejudice, by innumerable persons free from interested bias. ... We do not even receive credit from them for following our own interest with a straightforward recognition of honesty as the best policy. They believe that we have always other objects than those we avow; and the most far-fetched and implausible suggestion of a selfish purpose appears to them better entitled to credence than anything so utterly incredible as our disinterestedness. Thus, to give one instance among many, when we taxed ourselves twenty millions (a prodigious sum in their estimation) to get rid of negro slavery, and, for the same object, periled, as everybody thought, destroyed as many thought, the very existence of our West Indian colonies, it was, and still is, believed, that our fine professions were but to delude the world, and that by this self-sacrificing behaviour we were endeavouring to gain some hidden object, which could neither be conceived nor described, in the way of pulling down other nations. ... Nations, like individuals, ought to suspect some fault in themselves when they find they are generally worse thought of than they think they deserve; and they may well know that they are somehow in fault when almost everybody but themselves thinks them crafty and hypocritical. ... We are now in one of those critical moments, which do not occur once in a generation, when the whole turn of European events, and the course of European history for a long time to come, may depend on the conduct and on the estimation of England. At such a moment, it is difficult to say whether by their sins of speech or of action our statesmen are most effectually playing into the hands of our enemies, and giving most colour of justice to injurious misconception of our character and policy as a people. ... There is much to be said for the doctrine that a nation should be willing to assist its neighbours in throwing off oppression and gaining free institutions. Much also may be said by those who maintain that one nation is incompetent to judge and act for another, and that each should be left to help itself, and seek advantage or submit to disadvantage as it can and will. But of all attitudes which a nation can take up on the subject of intervention, the meanest and worst is to profess that it interferes only when it can serve its own objects by it. Every other nation is entitled to say, 'It seems, then, that non-interference is not a matter of principle with you. When you abstain from interference, it is not because you think it wrong. You have no objection to interfere, only it must not be for the sake of those you interfere with; they must not suppose that you have any regard for their good. The good of others is not one of the things you care for; but you are willing to meddle, if by meddling you can gain anything for yourselves.' Such is the obvious interpretation of the language used. ... We are the only people among whom, by no class whatever of society, is the interest or glory of the nation considered to be any sufficient excuse for an unjust act; the only one which regards with jealousy and suspicion, and a proneness to hostile criticism, precisely those acts of its Government which in other countries are sure to be hailed with applause, those by which territory has been acquired, or political influence extended. Being in reality better than other nations, in at least the negative part of international morality, let us cease, by the language we use, to give ourselves out as worse.” John Stuart Mill “A few words on non-intervention” Fraser’s Magazine for Town & Country v60#360 (December 1859): 766-76;
Seward 1861 (“Some Thoughts For The President’s Consideration” 1 April 1861): “My system is built upon this idea as a ruling one, namely that we must Change the question before the public from one upon Slavery, or about Slavery for a question upon Union or Disunion. In other words ... Patriotism or Union ... For Foreign Nations I would demand explanations from Spain and France, categorically, at once. I would seek explanations from Great Britain and Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico and Central America, to rouse a vigorous continental spirit of independence on this continent against European intervention. And if satisfactory explanations are not received from Spain and France, would convene Congress and declare war against them” US Secretary of State William Henry Seward “Some thoughts for the President’s consideration” (1 April 1861) in v4 of Roy P. Basler, Marion Delores Pratt and Lloyd A. Dunlap (eds.) The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick: Rutgers University 1953): 317-18 {italics in original};
Lincoln 1861 (“I wish & suppose I am entitled to have the advice of all the cabinet”): “in the inaugural, I ... had your distinct approval at that time; and ... the order I immediately gave ... comprises the exact domestic policy you now urge , with the exception, that it does not propose to abandon Fort Sumpter. ... I wish and suppose I am entitled to have the advice of all the cabinet.” US President Abraham Lincoln to Secretary of State William H. Seward (1 April 1861) in v4 of Roy P. Basler, Marion Delores Pratt and Lloyd A. Dunlap (eds.) The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick: Rutgers University 1953): 316-17;
Sowle 1967 pp. 234-35 (NYT in tow): “a letter recently unearthed in the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield adds a new dimension to the episode. This letter suggests that Seward, his old friend Thurlow Weed of the Albany Evening Journal, and Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times, planned to publish the memorandum together with Lincoln’s reply, which they anticipated would endorse the Secretary’s proposals.” Patrick Sowle “A reappraisal of Seward’s memorandum of April 1, 1861, to Lincoln” Journal of Southern History v33#2 (May 1967): 234-39;
Shi 1978 David E. Shi “Seward’s attempt to annex British Columbia, 1865-1869” Pacific Historical Review v47#2 (May 1978): 217-38
[15] Jameson 1982 (Glenn overtook British officials to reach Calgary area): “While returning from Fort Benton (Mont.) in the fall of 1874 with his wagon of goods [John Glenn] overtook the first detachments of North-West Mounted Police to reach the northwest, and sold them such luxuries as flour and syrup at a "pretty stiff price." In July 1875 he settled permanently on Fish Creek at its junction with the Bow River (Alta), and later that year, when the NWMP ... arrived to establish Fort Calgary, he was on hand to build stone fireplaces in the barracks and to sell them hay. In 1876 Glenn and a man named Sam Livingston started farming, the first to do so in the area.” Sheilagh S. Jameson “John Glenn (Glen, Glyn)” in v11 of Dictionary of Canadian Biography: 1881-1890 (Toronto: University of Toronto 1982): 354-55;
Pappé 2006b p. 326 (Petah Tikva 1878) Ilan Pappé “Chronology of key dates” in The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006; London: Oneworld 2011): 326-31;
Friedman 2004 p. 74n11 (Restoration of the Jews to Palestine): “in 1882, [British Embassy (Vienna) Chaplain Reverend William] Hechler had published a leaflet, "The Restoration of the Jews to Palestine According to the Prophets."” Isaiah Friedman “Theodor Herzl: Political activity and achievements” Israel Studies v9#3 (Fall 2003): 46-79;
Breen 1993 p. 650 (1882): “G.M. Dawson, Director of the Geological Survey, and Dr. Robert Bell investigated the oil sands along the Athabasca River and suggested a development strategy.” David H. Breen Alberta’s Petroleum Industry and the Conservation Board Edmonton: University of Alberta and the Energy Resources Conservation Board 1993
[16] Senate Select 1888 p. 315 (Q#82 1882): ‘List Of Questions Sent To ... Elicit Info Regarding Resources Of Mackenzie Basin’: “Give all information regarding the Indians of the district ... the epidemic diseases to which they are subject, and all other information which bears upon their food and bodily welfare” Senate Select Committee (appointed to enquire into the resources of the Great Mackenzie Basin) Chairman John Shultz Third Report Minutes of Proceedings of the Senate of Canada 2nd session/6th Parliament (2 May 1888): 301-15;
Curtis 2004 pp. 2-3 (Unpeople): “The principal victims of British policies are Unpeople – those whose lives are deemed worthless expendable in the pursuit of power and commercial gain. They are the modern equivalent of the 'savages' of colonial days, who could be mown down by British guns in virtual secrecy, or else in circumstances where the perpetrators were hailed as the upholders of civilisation. … Through its own intervention, and its support of key allies such as the United States and various repressive regimes, Britain has been, and continues to be, a systematic and serious abuser of human rights. I have calculated that Britain bears significant responsibility for around 10 million deaths since 1945 … including Nigerians, Indonesians, Arabians, Ugandans, Chileans, Vietnamese and many others. Often, the policies responsible are unknown to the public and remain unresearched by journalists and academics. Of the basic principles that guided the decisions taken in these files, there are three which seem particularly apposite when considering current events. The first is that British ministers’ lying to the public is systematic and normal. … A second ... is that policy makers are usually frank about their goals in the secret record. … The third ... is that humanitarian concerns do not figure at all in the rationale behind British foreign policy.” Mark Curtis Unpeople: Britain’s secret human rights abuses London: Vintage 2004
[17] Foran 1994: “Murdoch came to Calgary from Saint John in the spring of 1883, when the settlement was a cluster of assorted tent residences on both banks of the Elbow River. The pending arrival of the railroad, in August 1883, and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company’s expected designation of a town-site there had created a mood of restless anticipation.” Max Foran “George Murdoch” in v13 of Canadian Dictionary of Biography: 1901-1910 (Toronto: University of Toronto 1994);
Wikipedia Calgary Herald (founded 13 August 1883; 1st edn. August 31st);
Breen 1993 p. 650 (December 1883): “Natural gas discovered by Canadian Pacific Railway while drilling for water at Langevin station on the mainline south-east of Calgary.” David H. Breen Alberta’s Petroleum Industry and the Conservation Board Edmonton: University of Alberta and the Energy Resources Conservation Board 1993;
Swan 1884 Committee of Citizens of Calgary chairman Thomas Swan Public meeting minutes (Calgary: 7 January 1884): 1p;
Calgary Archives Municipal government emerges (8 January 1884): “citizens reconvened and agreed to nominate a committee of seven to be elected by ballot on January 14, 1884. Twenty men were nominated at this meeting and their names were included on the broadsheets posted around Calgary that announced the election. ... Calgary’s first civic election, to appoint a representative Civic Committee, was held ... in Wright & Latmer’s Hall. Of the 24 candidates who put their name forward, the top seven candidates were elected.”;
Free Masons 1984 (6 January 1884): “When Bow River Lodge No. 1 held a preliminary meeting ... George Murdoch was elected secretary of the meeting.” M.W. Bm. W.J. Collett (ed.) “George Murdoch” Alberta Free Masons Grand Lodge Bulletin v49#8 (April 1984): 1;
Reilly 1884 Convener of the Committee of Citizens of Calgary James Reilly “Take notice! Civic committee!” handbill (January 1884): 1p
[18] Gow 2009 (Milk River in 1884 ->🡪 Atlantic #3 in 1948 ->🡪 Lodgepole in 1982): “on 8 January, 1884 ... they hit gas again, but this time with disastrous results. The gas, pouring out from what is today known as the Milk River Formation, crept along the ground to the wood frame shack housing the coal fired steam engine which provided the percussive power for the bit, and exploded. One of the crew, forced to jump from the derrick, had his leg fractured, while another on the ground received burns to his face and arms.” Sandy Gow “It started with a bang!” Petroleum History Society Archives v20#1 (January 2009): 7;
CH 13/2/97 (Atlantic #3 Mar-Sep 1948) Jim Farrell “Potential for disasters: Safety rules toughened after 1948 well blowout” Calgary Herald (13 February 1997): L9;
EJ 23/12/14 (Lodgepole 23 December 1982) Chris Zdeb “Lodgepole sour gas well blowout finally capped: The worst sour gas blowout in Alberta history was capped on this day after 68 days. Texas-based Boots and Coots capping team tamed the Amoco Canada Petroleum wildcat well, 130 kilometres southwest of Edmonton, after a 12-tonne blowout preventer was placed over the burning well, shutting off gas that had been escaping since Oct. 17” Edmonton Journal (23 December 2014): A2;
Free Masons 1984 (Bow River Lodge #1 est’d 28 January 1884) M.W. Bm. W.J. Collett (ed.) “George Murdoch” Alberta Free Masons Grand Lodge Bulletin v49#8 (April 1984): 1
[19] Pinsker 1882 [in German]: “Shut your eyes and hide your head like an ostrich – there is to be no lasting peace unless in the fleeting intervals of relaxation you apply a remedy more thoroughgoing than those palliatives to which our hapless people have been turning for 2000 years.” Leon Pinsker (trans.) D.S. Blondheim “Preface” to Auto-Emancipation: An appeal to his people by a Russian Jew (17 October 1882) in Federation of American Zionists Essential Texts of Zionism (1916) via Jewish Virtual Library;
Calgary Archives Incorporation of Calgary (7 November 1884);
Zionist Archives 1989 p. 159 (14 February 1896: Der Judenstaat {State of the Jews}) Zionist Archives & Library “Chronology” in 1989 Dover edn. of Theodor Herzl (trans.) Sylvie d’Avidgor The Jewish State (1896; New York: American Zionist Emergency Council 1946): 159-60;
Bein 1940 p. 41: “The “Jewish State” was published in an edition of three thousand. It was read by small circles in various European capitals. It was sent to leading personalities in the press and political circles. It was soon translated into several languages. ... But the general German press, especially the Jewish-controlled press, took a negative attitude.” Alex Bein (trans.) Maurice Samuel Theodor Herzl (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America 1940) abridged as “Theodor Herzl: A biography” in 1989 Dover edn. of Theodor Herzl (trans.) Sylvie d’Avidgor The Jewish State (1896; New York: American Zionist Emergency Council 1946): 21-66
[20] Free Masons 1984: “George Murdoch was elected the first Mayor of Calgary. As the first Mayor of that little town of 200 George Murdoch presided over the first magistrate’s court, he installed the first School Trustees, started the first Fire Brigade.” M.W. Bm. W.J. Collett (ed.) “George Murdoch” Alberta Free Masons Grand Lodge Bulletin v49#8 (April 1984): 1;
Foran 1994: “Murdoch ... was ... a pioneer member of several masonic lodges ... and was active in the literary and history societies ... Murdoch is allowed a historical place denied to many of his contemporaries.” Max Foran “George Murdoch” in v13 of Canadian Dictionary of Biography: 1901-1910 (Toronto: University of Toronto 1994);
Odd Fellows History in Canada (Grand Lodge of British North America est’d 19 January 1847): “the new Grand Sire of the Grand Lodge of British North America called into session the first meeting of the recently chartered ... Order in Ontario ... During the first year after receiving authority to operate as a quasi-independent jurisdiction, there was an apparent prosperity and growth. The total number of lodges had reached twenty-two with a membership of 2280.”;
Odd Fellowship 1897 p. 488 (Berlin Lodge chartered 1872) Special Deputy Grand Sire Herman Block “The Order in the German empire” in Henry Leonard Stillson (ed.) The Official History of the Odd Fellowship: The three-link fraternity: The antiquities, creative period, and golden age of friendship, love, and truth revised edn. (1897; Boston: Fraternity 1898): 487-98;
Odd Fellowship 1897 p. 470 (Alberta Lodge #1 est’d 26 December 1884): “Alberta. — In this district the pioneer Odd Fellow was Brother George Murdoch, who had been a prominent member of the Order in the Maritime Provinces, and who succeeded not only in getting a lodge started in Calgarry [sic], the principal town in Alberta, but has taken a very active part in spreading our principles throughout the northwestern part of the Dominion. On the 26th of December, 1884, he instituted Alberta Lodge, No. 1, at Calgarry.” Past Grand Sire Cl. T. Campbell “British North America” in Henry Leonard Stillson (ed.) The Official History of the Odd Fellowship: The three-link fraternity: The antiquities, creative period, and golden age of friendship, love, and truth revised edn. (1897; Boston: Fraternity 1898): 419-75;
Quigley 1981 pp. 7-9 (Cecil Rhodes’ Round Table conspiracy added to Odd Fellow conspiracy after 1877): “George B. Parkin (later Sir George, 1846-1922) was a Canadian who spent only one year in England before 1889. But during that year (1873-1874) he was a member of Milner’s circle at Balliol and became known as a fanatical supporter of imperial federation. As a result of this, he became a charter member of the Canadian branch of the Imperial Federation League in 1885 and was sent, four years later, to New Zealand and Australia by the League to try to build up imperial sentiment. On his return, he toured around England, giving speeches to the same purpose. This brought him into close contact with the Cecil Bloc, especially George E. Buckle of The Times, G. W. Prothero, J. R. Seeley, Lord Rosebery, Sir Thomas (later Lord) Brassey, and Milner. For Buckle, and in support of the Canadian Pacific Railway, he made a survey of the resources and problems of Canada in 1892. This was published by Macmillan under the title The Great Dominion the following year. On a subsidy from Brassey and Rosebery he wrote and published his best-known book, Imperial Federation, in 1892. This kind of work as a propagandist for the Cecil Bloc did not provide a very adequate living, so on 24 April 1893 Milner offered to form a group of imperialists who would finance this work of Parkin’s on a more stable basis. Accordingly, Parkin, Milner, and Brassey, on 1 June 1893, signed a contract by which Parkin was to be paid £450 a year for three years. During this period he was to propagandize as he saw fit for imperial solidarity. As a result of this agreement, Parkin began a steady correspondence with Milner, which continued for the rest of his life.
When the Imperial Federation League dissolved in 1894, Parkin became one of a group of propagandists known as the “Seeley lecturers” after Professor J. R. Seeley of Cambridge University, a famous imperialist. Parkin still found his income insufficient, however, although it was being supplemented from various sources, chiefly The Times. In 1894 he went to the Colonial Conference at Ottawa as special correspondent of The Times. The following year, when he was offered the position of Principal of Upper Canada College, Toronto, he consulted with Buckle and Moberly Bell, the editors of The Times, hoping to get a full-time position on The Times. There was none vacant, so he accepted the academic post in Toronto, combining with it the position of Canadian correspondent of The Times. This relationship with The Times continued even after he became organizing secretary of the Rhodes Trust in 1902. In 1908, for example, he was The Times’s correspondent at the Quebec tercentenary celebration. Later, in behalf of The Times and with the permission of Marconi, he sent the first press dispatch ever transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean by radio. In 1902, Parkin became the first secretary of the Rhodes Trust, and he assisted Milner in the next twenty years in setting up the methods by which the Rhodes Scholars would be chosen. To this day, more than a quarter-century after his death, his influence is still potent in the Milner Group in Canada. His son-in-law, Vincent Massey, and his namesake, George Parkin de T. Glazebrook, are the leaders of the Milner Group in the Dominion.” Carroll Quigley The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden New York: Books in Focus 1981;
Neilson 2011 pp. 1430-31 (Round Table bankers Brand & Keynes): “Robert Henry Brand (1878–1963), 1st Baron Brand of Eydon, is an elusive historical figure. Despite a career as a banker and a public servant that spanned nearly sixty years, only glimpses of him can be seen in the historical literature. Brand, the fourth son of the second Viscount Hampden of Glynde, was a prominent figure in several fields. After taking a first in modern history at New College, Oxford, in 1901, Brand was elected a fellow of All Souls. Imbued with the idea of imperial service, Brand went to South Africa in 1902, acting in a variety of functions to the intercolonial council of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony. Serving under Lord Milner, the High Commissioner of South Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony, Brand was one of the so-called kindergartners, the young Oxford men who worked with Milner to create a stable British-controlled state in South Africa after the Boer War. Upon returning to England, Brand joined Lazard Brothers in 1910, and within a year became a managing director. He remained with the bank until 1960. In addition to his banking career, Brand’s public life was extensive. As a result of his time in South Africa, he was one of the founding members of the Round Table organisation, a body that grew out of the kindergarten. The Round Table became a prominent pressure group in British politics, advocating imperial union and closer Anglo-American relations. During the First World War, Brand went to Canada in 1915, where he helped to establish the Imperial Munitions Board (IMB), the Canadian branch of the British Ministry of Munitions. Returning to London, he was appointed liaison and local Representative of the IMB (RIMB). In 1917, Brand combined this post with that of deputy chairman of the British war mission in the USA. After the war, he served as one of the principal economic advisers, along with John Maynard Keynes, to the British Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference and to post-war governments. During the interwar period, Brand served on a number of advisory committees, including the Macmillan committee on Finance and Industry, dealing with financial affairs. In the Second World War, Brand served in a number of official capacities in Washington from 1941 to 1946, including being head of the British food mission and taking a prominent role in financial affairs. The latter led to his appointment—once again along with Keynes—as one of the British delegates to the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944, making him one of the founders of such modern financial institutions as the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.” Keith Neilson “R.H. Brand, the empire and munitions from Canada” English Historical Review v126#523 (December 2011): 1430-55
[21] Hall & Smith 2005 David J. Hall and Donald B. Smith “Sir James Alexander Lougheed” in v15 of Dictionary of Canadian Biography: 1921-1930 (Toronto: University of Toronto 2005);
Sowle 1967 p. 234 (Seward’s 1861 memo kept secret): “"Some Thoughts" rested quietly in Lincoln’s personal papers until 1888 when his former secretaries, John Hay and John G. Nicolay, published the memorandum in the Century Magazine” Patrick Sowle “A reappraisal of Seward’s memorandum of April 1, 1861, to Lincoln” Journal of Southern History v33#2 (May 1967): 234-39;
Hay & Nicolay 1888 (published month before bitumen proven in AB) John Hay and John G. Nicolay “Abraham Lincoln: A history: Premier or president” Century Magazine v35#2 (February 1888): 599-616;
Senate Select 1888 p. 306 (‘biggest oilfield in America, if not world’): “The evidence submitted to your Committee points to the existence in the Athabasca and Mackenzie Valleys of the most extensive petroleum field in America, if not in the world.” Senate Select Committee (appointed to enquire into the resources of the Great Mackenzie Basin) Chairman John Shultz Third Report Minutes of Proceedings of the Senate of Canada 2nd session/6th Parliament (2 May 1888): 301-15;
Hall 2011 (Canadian Senator 1889-1925): “Of Protestant Irish descent, Lougheed was ... from December 10, 1889, until his death, a member of the Senate of Canada. ... Lougheed was leader of the Conservative Party in the Canadian Senate from 1906 until his death, and he was government leader from 1911 to 1921. He served in the federal government under Sir Robert Borden as minister without portfolio (1911-18), minister of soldiers’ civil reestablishment (1918-20), and (under Arthur Meighen) as minister of the interior, superintendent general of Indian affairs, and minister of mines (1920-21).” University of Alberta history professor (1969-2004) David J. Hall “Lougheed, James (1854-1925)” in David J. Wishart (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (Lincoln: University of Nebraska 2004) [excerpt]
[22] Lansing 1915 (‘more subtly attained’): “[Extending Monroe Doctrine] is not perhaps attempted openly at first but the result is the same though more subtly attained.” US Secretary of State Robert Lansing to President Woodrow Wilson “Present nature and extent of the Monroe Doctrine” (24 November 1915): 3pp in v2 of Allen Dulles (ed.) Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States: The Lansing Papers 1914-1920 (Washington: USGPO 1940): 468-70
[23] PBS Closing the American Wilderness: “In 1893 a young historian addressed the American Historical Association, which was meeting at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Frederick Jackson Turner presented his thesis, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." He began by quoting from the Census of 1890:
"Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line." Turner concluded his thesis, "The frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history." As if to confirm Turner, the Columbian Exposition displayed a small log cabin as an artifact. Turner argued that the frontier had made the United States unique. Due to hardship, residents were forced to become resourceful and self-reliant. They developed strength and "rugged individualism," which in turn fostered the development of democracy. Turner paid no attention to women or the plight of Native Americans.”
Public Broadcasting Corporation “Ansel Adams: The closing of the American wilderness” (no date);
White 1898 p. 15 (Philippines + Puerto Rico + Cuba + Hawaii): “Within the measure of a single year, there have come into the possession and under the sway of the United States of America, four splendid colonies. Two have been captured by force of American arms on land and sea; one has been aided to her own experiment in freedom with an assurance of American assistance; one has come to us of her own free will, to join the western republic and obtain greater measure of prosperity, progress and security.” Trumbull White Our New Possessions: Four books in one: A graphic account, descriptive and historical, of the tropic islands of the sea which have fallen under our sway, their cities, peoples and commerce, natural resources and the opportunities they offer to Americans Philadelphia: World Bible House 1898;
Hidy & Hidy 1955 p. 214 (1888 confidence): Standard Oil executive “Paul Babcock in his opposition to the preparation of statistical data for use in the legislative investigations in 1888 ... "I think this anti-Trust fever is just a craze," he wrote to Rockefeller, "which we should meet in a very dignified way & parry every question with answers which while perfectly truthful are evasive of bottom facts."” {italics in original} Ralph W. Hidy and Muriel E. Hidy Pioneering in Big Business: 1882-1911 v1 of Business History Foundation History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) New York: Harper & Brothers 1955;
Senate Select 1888 p. 306: “The evidence submitted to your Committee points to the existence in the Athabasca and Mackenzie Valleys of the most extensive petroleum field in America, if not in the world. The uses of petroleum and consequently the demand for it by all nations are increasing at such a rapid ratio, that it is probable this great petroleum field will assume an enormous value in the near future and will rank among the chief assets comprised in the Crown domain of the Dominion. For this reason your Committee would suggest that a tract of about 40,000 square miles be, for the present, reserved from sale and that as soon as possible its value may be more accurately ascertained by exploration and practical tests” Senate Select Committee (appointed to enquire into the resources of the Great Mackenzie Basin) Chairman John Shultz Third Report Minutes of Proceedings of the Senate of Canada 2nd session/6th Parliament (2 May 1888): 301-15;
Taylor 2019 pp. 12-13, 51-52 (secret 1898 sale of Imperial oil to Rockefellers): “The Liberals in Canada systematically dismantled the protectionist measures that had shielded Imperial [Oil] from the Americans. By the end of 1898 Imperial’s owners capitulated and the Standard Trust acquired control of a majority of the shares. ... Imperial shareholders would receive a dividend of $93,000. This was a remarkably generous takeover (for shareholders), which prevented many lawsuits from outsiders and criticism from the Canadian press. As usual, Standard had achieved its objective secretly.” Graham D. Taylor Imperial Standard: Imperial Oil, Exxon and the Canadian oil industry from 1880 Calgary: University of Calgary 2019
[24] Kaufman 2003 p. 31 (19th century work unaccommodating to activism) “In the common law of the period, the employment relationship was governed by a doctrine of "master and servant," a phrase that accurately captures the spirit and practice of labor management at most companies of the period.” Bruce E. Kaufman “Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc.: Its history and significance” ch3 in Bruce E. Kaufman, Richard A. Beaumont and Roy B. Helfgott (eds.) Industrial Relations to Human Resources and Beyond: The evolving process of employee relations management (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe 2003): 31-112
[25] Britannica Free Silver Movement (14 July 1890 Sherman Silver Purchase Act): “The ... Free Silver Movement ... was precipitated by an act of Congress in 1873 that omitted the silver dollar from the list of authorized coins (the “Crime of `73”). Supporters of free silver included owners of silver mines in the West, farmers who believed that an expanded currency would increase the price of their crops, and debtors who hoped it would enable them to pay their debts more easily. For true believers, silver became the symbol of economic justice for the mass of the American people. The Free Silver Movement gained added political strength at the outset because of the sharp economic depression of the mid-1870s. ... Sherman Silver Purchase Act ... increased the government’s monthly silver purchases by 50 percent.”;
Van Alstyne 1960 pp. 122-23 (Canadian confederation pissed off USA): “When Canada ... acquired Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company, she took a step comparable in importance to the American acquisition of Louisiana in 1803 from Napoleon ... Sundry expansionist elements in the United States looked sourly on and tried, by various methods, to trip up Canadian federation. ... the Maine legislature ... "resolved" that Canadian federation was a "violation of the Monroe doctrine."” R.W. Van Alstyne The Rising American Empire: A provocative analysis of the origins and emergence of the United States as a national state New York: Oxford University 1960
Britannica Alaska Purchase: “Stoeckl and Seward completed the draft of a treaty ceding Russian North America to the United States, and the treaty was signed early the following day. The price—$7.2 million—amounted to about two cents per acre.”
Library of Congress Alaska Purchase Treaty: “The Treaty with Russia was negotiated and signed by Secretary of State William Seward and Russian Minister to the United States Edouard de Stoeckl. Critics of the deal to purchase Alaska called it "Seward’s Folly" or "Seward’s Icebox." Opposition to the purchase of Alaska subsided with the Klondike Gold Strike in 1896.”
[26] Gagnon 2022: “After a tough economic recession from 1873 to 1896, Canada sought immigrant settlers. With the help of Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior from 1896 to 1905, immigrants began to be directed to the Canadian Prairies. ... As a result, the population in the West exploded; Winnipeg grew from a city of 20,000 in 1886, to 150,000 in 1911. Saskatchewan’s population grew by 1124.77% between 1891 and 1911. ... Some of the most ethnically and culturally desirable immigrants to Canada, between 1867 and 1914, were the British, Belgian, American, Polish, Dutch, German, Finnish, and Scandinavian agriculturalists.” Former Collections Researcher Erica Gagnon “Settling the west: Immigration to the prairies from 1867 to 1914” Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 (28 January 2022);
Bicha 1965 pp. 438-39 (majority of Americans didn’t stay): “the English settler who depicted home-steading on the prairies as a "gamble in which the entrant bets ten dollars with the Government against 160 acres of land that he can stay on it ... for three years without starving to death" might have added that American settlers lost the wager in a majority of cases. It is impossible to determine whether the 400,000 settlers who returned to the United States relocated near their old homes.” Karel Denis Bicha “The plains farmer and the prairie province frontier, 1897-1914” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society v109#6 (10 December 1965): 398-440;
Galton 1869 Sir Francis Galton Hereditary Genius: An inquiry into its laws and consequences London: Macmillan 1869;
Galton 1883 pp. 3-4: “we are justified in roundly asserting that the natural characteristics of every human race admit of large improvement in many directions easy to specify. I do not, however, offer a list of these, but ... I shall also describe new methods of appraising and defining them. ... and I shall show that [mankind’s] ... unused powers ... in the furtherance of the great scheme of evolution ... are more considerable than might have been thought.” Sir Francis Galton Inquiries Into Human Faculty and Its Development New York: Macmillan 1883;
Galton 1904 (launching eugenics as a movement in the US) Sir Francis Galton “Eugenics: Its definition, scope, and aims” American Journal of Sociology v10#1 (July 1904): 1-25;
MacKinnon 2016 (Dr. Reid 1890): “"The idea [of eugenics] was brewing in the community of Fabian socialists, and also in a lot of the progressive movements in the [United States]," ... professor of history and the philosophy of science at Ashoka University who has studied the eugenics movement within Quebec ... [Sebastian] Normandin said ... "The only place where you saw that going on [in Canada] on any scale was at McGill." Dr. Alexander Peter Reid is regarded as the first person to have brought forward the ideas of eugenics within a Canadian context. Reid, an English scholar, received his early education in London, yet moved to McGill ... Reid introduced the concept of eugenics in 1890 in a [Jan`91] talk before the Nova Scotia Institute of Natural Science.” Hailey MacKinnon “The history of eugenics in Quebec and at McGill” McGill Tribune (16 February 2016);
Reid 1891 (title only) Nova Scotia Hospital for the Insane Superintendent Dr. Alexander P. Reid “Poverty superseded, or a new political economy” (19 January 1891) in v8 of Proceedings and Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science: 1890-94 (Halifax: MacNab 1895): x
[27] Stead 1902 p. 52 (Rhodes hagiography): “For with all his faults the man was great, almost immeasurably great, when contrasted with the pigmies who pecked and twittered in his shade. ... The one specific object defined in the Will as that to which his wealth is to be applied proclaims with the simple eloquence of a deed that Mr. Rhodes was colour-blind between the British Empire and the American Republic. His fatherland, like that of the poet Arndt, is coterminous with the use of the tongue of his native land. In his Will he aimed at making Oxford University the educational centre of the English-speaking race. He did this of set purpose, and in providing the funds necessary for the achievement of this great idea he specifically prescribed that every American State and Territory shall share with the British Colonies in his patriotic benefaction.” William T. Stead (ed.) The Last Will and Testament of Cecil John Rhodes with Elucidatory Notes to Which Are Added Some Chapters Describing the Political and Religious Ideas of the Testator London: “Review of Reviews” 1902;
Rhodes 1877b (1st clause of Rhodes’ 1st will): “To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonisation by British subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible and promote the best interests of humanity.” Cecil Rhodes ‘Cecil Rhodes’ [1st] will’ (19 September 1877);
GUOO Oddfellows history (Odd Fellow funding coincided w/ Round Table’s most active years securing imperial transfer of Canada & its oil): “between 1912 and 1948 the Order administered State Benefits” Grand United Order of Oddfellows (Manchester) “Oddfellows history: The history of our society” (no date);
Shoup & Minter 1977 pp. 12-13 (Rhodes’ Round Table): “Rhodes was an extremely wealthy imperialist whose will to power is illustrated by a statement he once made to a friend: "The world is nearly all parcelled out, and what there is left of it is being divided up, conquered, and colonized. To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would like to annex the planets if I could; I often think of that." Rhodes declared that his life ambition was "the furtherance of the British Empire, the bringing of the whole civilized world under its rule, the recovery of the United States of America, the making of the Anglo-Saxon race into one Empire." To achieve this grandiose end in 1891 Rhodes proposed the founding of a world-wide organization for the preservation and extension of the British Empire. The original purpose of the Round Table was thus to establish an "organic union" for the entire British Empire with one imperial government, and to try to associate other nations with the empire. ... These bodies, called the Round Table Groups, were established by Lord Milner ... in 1908-1911.” Laurence H. Shoup and William Minter Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States foreign policy (1977; New York: Authors Choice 2004);
Milner 1908 p. 8 (Lord Milner launches Round Table: “credit determines the power & influence of nations just as it does the fate of any business”): “every year and every day, not only on the rare occasions when nations actually fight, the power of fighting exercises its silent, decisive influence on the history of the world. It is like the cash reserve of some great solvent bank. How often is it necessary actually to disburse those millions, the existence of which, in the background, nevertheless affects the bank and everybody who deals with it all the time? It is credit which determines the power and influence of nations just as it does the fate of any business. Credit in business rests ultimately on the possession or command of cash, though the owners may never actually have to produce it” Viscount Alfred Milner “Imperial unity” (Vancouver Canadian Club: 8 October 1908) in Speeches Delivered in Canada in the Autumn of 1908 by Viscount Milner (Toronto: William Tyrell & Co. 1909): 1-12
[28] CBC 30/9/21 (88% TB in youth internment camp near Calgary, 1892-1921): “a medical survey done in 1920 found that of the 33 students "all but four were infected with tuberculosis."” Meghan Grant “'A war on Aboriginal children': Alberta’s 25 residential schools” CBC News (30 September 2021);
Hay, Blackstock & Kirlew 2020 p. E224 quotes 1907 Ottawa newspaper headline: “Schools Aid White Plague: Startling Death Rolls Revealed Among Indians: Absolute Inattention To The Bare Necessities Of Health” Travis Hay, Cindy Blackstock and Michael Kirlew “Dr. Peter Bryce (1853-1932): Whistleblower on residential schools” Canadian Medical Association Journal v192#9 (2 March 2020): E223-24;
Dr. Peter Bryce quoted from 1907 in Faust & Heffernan 2021 (‘almost as if deliberately created’) McGill International TB Centre PhD student Lena Faust and University of Alberta Tuberculosis Program Evaluation and Research Unit Manager Courtney Heffernan “Residential-school deaths were avoidable” Globe and Mail (12 July 2021): A11;
Bryce 1907 p. 18 (only 'school' w/ complete records revealed 69% ex-pupils dead) Chief Medical Officer Peter H. Bryce Report on the Indian Schools of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories Department of Indian Affairs (Ottawa: Government Printing Office 1907): 20pp;
CTV News 25/1/23 (mechanism of genocide = unpasteurized milk): “Records show students drank milk from on-site cattle several times a day. The same documents suggest there was no pasteurization equipment and the cows were not regularly tested for tuberculosis, [Acimowin Opaspiw Society Executive director Leah] Redcrow said ... "These children died in the hundreds from drinking unpasteurized, raw cow’s milk."” Sean Amato “It’s possible that kids got TB, died from milk served at Alta. residential school: experts” CTV News (25 January 2023);
Horton 2023 (cultural hegemony): “If the ruling power can persuade people to share its social, cultural, and moral values, the motivation for radical political change will wither. The culture wars suggest that it is not the economy, stupid. ... It was this cultural hegemony, according to [Antonio] Gramsci [1891-1937], that explained the resistance to progressive political change in the aftermath of World War 1. And it is the modern struggle for cultural hegemony that explains today’s bitter disputes over race, sex, and gender. For those who wish to advance a more hopeful, compassionate, and liberal vision of the future, we must recognise that the culture wars are not peripheral matters. They are the ground populists have chosen to fight to protect their power and interests. Gramsci, using the military metaphors of his time, called this struggle a "war of position". It is a war we must not be afraid to engage in.” Richard Horton “We must engage in a war of position” Lancet v401#10387 (6 May 2023): 1483
[29] Britannica Free Silver Movement: “In the years immediately after 1890, a combination of pressures sharply reduced the amount of gold in the US Treasury, precipitating a panic in the spring of 1893. Conservatives charged that the Sherman Act was the cause of the panic, and in the summer of 1893 Congress repealed that act. Farmers in the South and West condemned this action, blamed the greed of eastern bankers for the depressed state of the economy, and resumed their demand for the unlimited coinage of silver. This had been an important objective of the Populist Party in the election of 1892, and in 1896 the Democrats, despite strong opposition from President Grover Cleveland, made unlimited coinage of silver the principal plank in their platform.”;
Whitaker 1974 p. 47 (income taxes): “It was Rockefeller’s chief attorney Joseph Choate who ... persuaded the Supreme Court that income taxes were unconstitutional.” Ben Whitaker The Foundations: An anatomy of philanthropy and society London: Eyre Methuen 1974;
Ronald 2021 pp. 109-10 (Anglo-American integration): “Cliveden, the Astors’ impressive mansion and estate in Berkshire near Taplow, which stands proudly overlooking the Thames. Originally built in 1666 as a hunting lodge ... Cliveden was twice destroyed by fire. With each incarnation, it rose from the ashes more resplendent than before. It had been the scene of many a political and social moment throughout its near three-hundred-year history, and a favorite haunt of kings and queens since the 2nd Duke of Buckingham’s times. When Queen Victoria, a frequent guest in her day, heard that William Waldorf Astor had bought Cliveden in 1893, she was not amused to see the estate pass into foreign hands.” Susan Ronald The Ambassador: Joseph P. Kennedy at the Court of St. James’s 1938-1940 New York: St. Martin’s 2021 [excerpt];
Ali 2022 p. 22 (Winston Churchill’s mother ‘did the rounds to help his career’): “His American heiress mother, Jennie Jerome, was only marginally better as a parent. She was fond of Winston in absentia. As he grew up, she was not averse to sleeping with the highest figures in the realm to help his career and re-fill her own purse, emptied after an economic collapse in the United States wrecked her family’s fortune. She did the rounds of the SWI squares (even, according to some reports, sleeping with the king), a process that had begun while her husband was dying of syphilis and continued apace after his death.” Tariq Ali Winston Churchill: His times, his crimes (2022; New York: Verso 2023)
[30] Franklin 1751 (Roosevelt’s enlightenment predecessor): “the Prince that acquires new Territory, if he finds it vacant, or removes the Natives to give his own People Room ... may be properly called Fathers of their Nation, as they are the Cause of the Generation of Multitudes” Benjamin Franklin “Observations concerning the increase of mankind” (1751) in v4 (1 July 1750 – 30 June 1753) of Leonard W. Labaree (ed.) The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (New Haven: Yale University 1961): 225-34;
Jefferson 1786 (‘We should not press too soon’): “Our confederacy must be viewed as the nest from which all America, North and South is to be peopled. We should take care too not to think it for the interest of that great continent to press too soon on the Spaniards[/Russians/French/British]. Those countries cannot be in better hands. My fear is that they are too feeble to hold them till our population can be sufficiently advanced to gain it from them [piece] by [piece].” 2nd US Minister to France Thomas Jefferson Letter to Archibald Stuart (25 January 1786) in v9 (November 1785 – 22 June 1786) of Julian P. Boyd (ed.) The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Princeton: Princeton University 1954): 217-19;
Roosevelt 1886 (Nazi-scale racism of Roosevelt I): “I suppose I should be ashamed to say that I take the Western view of the Indian. I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth. The most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian. Turn three hundred low families of New York into New Jersey, support them for fifty years in vicious idleness, and you will have some idea of what the Indians are. Reckless, revengeful, fiendishly cruel, they rob and murder, not the cowboys, who can take care of themselves, but the defenseless, lone settlers on the plains.” Theodore Roosevelt Speech (January 1886) quoted in Herman Hagedorn Roosevelt in the Bad Lands (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1921):, 355;
Roosevelt 1894 pp. 43-46 (‘mankind’s debt to the fierce settler’): “As a matter of fact, the lands we have won from the Indians have been won as much by treaty as by war; but it was almost always war, or else the menace and possibility of war, that secured the treaty. ... Whether the whites won the land by treaty, by armed conquest, or, as was actually the case, by a mixture of both, mattered comparatively little so long as the land was won. ... It is primeval warfare, and it is waged as war was waged in the ages of bronze and of iron. All the merciful humanity that even war has gained during the last two thousand years is lost. It is a warfare where no pity is shown to non-combatants, where the weak are harried without ruth, and the vanquished maltreated with merciless ferocity. A sad and evil feature of such warfare is that the whites, the representatives of civilization, speedily sink almost to the level of their barbarous foes, in point of hideous brutality. The armies are neither led by trained officers nor made up of regular troops—they are composed of armed settlers, fierce and wayward men, whose ungovernable passions are unrestrained by discipline, who have many grievous wrongs to redress, and who look on their enemies with a mixture of contempt and loathing, of dread and intense hatred. When the clash comes between these men and their sombre foes, too often there follow deeds of enormous, of incredible, of indescribable horror. It is impossible to dwell without a shudder on the monstrous woe and misery of such a contest.” Theodore Roosevelt The Founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790 v3 of The Winning of the West (Presidential edn.) New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons & Knickerbocker 1894;
Westlake 1894 pp. 137, 143 (early international law agreed w/ Franklin, Jefferson & Roosevelt I): “in the early times of international law, when the appropriation of a newly discovered region was referred to the principles which were held to govern the so-called natural modes of acquisition, the occupation by uncivilised tribes of a tract, of which according to our habits a small part ought to have sufficed for them, was not felt to interpose a serious obstacle to the right of the first civilised occupant. The region was scarcely distinguished from a res nullius. ... international law has to treat such natives as uncivilised. It regulates, for the mutual benefit of civilised states, the claims which they make to sovereignty over the region, and leaves the treatment of the natives to the conscience of the state to which the sovereignty is awarded, rather than sanction their interest being made an excuse the more for war between civilised claimants, devastating the region and the cause of suffering to the natives themselves.” Cambridge University Whewell professor of international law and former vice-president of the Institute of International Law John Westlake Chapters on the Principles of International Law Cambridge: Cambridge University 1894;
Roosevelt 6/1/18 (“entirely proper to start a Zionist state around Jerusalem”) quoted in Jerusalem Post 6/1/16 citing Oren 2007 p. 359: “shortly after [1917’s FIRST] Balfour Declaration ... Roosevelt said that "It seems to me that it is entirely proper to start a Zionist state around Jerusalem," for peace would only happen if Jews were given Palestine.” Former US President Theodore Roosevelt (6 January 1918) quoted in Benjamin Glatt “Teddy Roosevelt and the Jews: TR believed that it is "entirely proper to start a Zionist state around Jerusalem."” Jerusalem Post (6 January 2016) citing former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael B. Oren Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the present (New York: Norton 2007): 359
[31] BRUSA 1943 p. 30 (premier Bible Bill left office sick in April`43 & died 23 May 1943): “Although codebreakers in Britain and the United States had cautiously cooperated with each other in the two years leading up to [Britain-United States of America agreement, BRUSA], full cooperation was not possible until the negotiations leading to the BRUSA agreement had been concluded successfully.” John Cary Sims “The BRUSA [Britain-United States of America] Agreement of May 17, 1943” Cryptologia v21#1 (January 1997): 30-38;
Bamford 1982 pp. 309, 314 (BRUSA “had beginnings in violent summer`40”): “The [eventual 1947] UKUSA Agreement, whose existence has never been officially acknowledged by any country even today, had its beginnings in the violent summer of 1940. ... The significance of the [BRUSA] pact was monumental. ... Even today, they form the fundamental basis for all SIGINT activities of both the NSA and GCHQ” James Bamford “Partners” ch8 of The Puzzle Palace: A report on America’s most secret agency (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1982): 309-37;
LoC Dreyfus Affair (Dreyfus convicted 15 October 1894) Library of Congress “Dreyfus affair: Topics in chronicling America” Research Guide (no date);
Zionist Archives 1989 p. 159 (Oct 21st - Nov 8th): Theodore Herzl “Writes Das Neue Ghetto [The New Ghetto]. This is an attempt to express himself on the Jewish question.” Zionist Archives & Library “Chronology” in 1989 Dover edn. of Theodor Herzl (trans.) Sylvie d’Avidgor The Jewish State (1896; New York: American Zionist Emergency Council 1946): 159-60;
Bryan 1896 p. 227 (Cross of Gold speech): “a few Democrats, most of them members of Congress, issued an address to the Democrats of the nation asserting that the money question was the paramount issue of the hour; asserting also the right of a majority of the Democratic Party to control the position of the party on this paramount issue; concluding with the request that all believers in free coinage of silver in the Democratic Party should organize and take charge of and control the policy of the Democratic Party. Three months later, at Memphis, an organization was perfected, and the silver Democrats went forth openly and boldly and courageously proclaiming their belief and declaring that if successful they would crystallize in a platform the declaration which they had made; and then began the conflict with a zeal approaching the zeal which inspired the crusaders who followed Peter the Hermit.” Former Nebraska Congressman William Jennings Bryan “On resolutions” in Edward B. Dickinson (ed.) Official Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention Held in Chicago, Illinois, July 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, 1896 (Logansport: Wilson, Humphries 1896): 226–35
[32] Zionist Archives 1989 p. 159 (2 June 1895): Theodore Herzl “Interviews Baron de Hirsh ... which he later designates the beginning of his Zionist work ... begins his Diaries.” Zionist Archives & Library “Chronology” in 1989 Dover edn. of Theodor Herzl (trans.) Sylvie d’Avidgor The Jewish State (1896; New York: American Zionist Emergency Council 1946): 159-60;
Friedman 2004 p. 48 (Herzl lures British rivals towards Palestine): “Herzl was primarily a man of action who wished to translate his ideas into was primarily reality. His basic premise, that Zionism constituted an effective antidote to anti-Semitism, led him to this conviction that the countries most plagued by problem were his potential allies. As early as 9 June 1895, he jotted down in his diary "First I shall negotiate with the Tsar regarding permission for the Russian Jews to leave the country ... Then I shall negotiate with the German Kaiser, then with Austria, then with France regarding Algerian Jews, then as need dictates."” Isaiah Friedman “Theodor Herzl: Political activity and achievements” Israel Studies v9#3 (Fall 2003): 46-79
[33] Yergin 1991 p. 782 (Ford 1896) Daniel Yergin The Prize: The epic quest for oil, money, and power New York: Simon and Schuster 1991;
Zionist Archives 1989 p. 159 (Der Judenstaat {State of the Jews} 14 February 1896) Zionist Archives & Library “Chronology” in 1989 Dover edn. of Theodor Herzl (trans.) Sylvie d’Avidgor The Jewish State (1896; New York: American Zionist Emergency Council 1946): 159-60;
Bein 1940 p. 41 (State of the Jews’ reception): “The “Jewish State” was published in an edition of three thousand. It was read by small circles in various European capitals. It was sent to leading personalities in the press and political circles. It was soon translated into several languages. ... But the general German press, especially the Jewish-controlled press, took a negative attitude.” Alex Bei (trans.) Maurice Samuel Theodor Herzl (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America 1940) abridged as “Theodor Herzl: A biography” in 1989 Dover edn. of Theodor Herzl (trans.) Sylvie d’Avidgor The Jewish State (1896; New York: American Zionist Emergency Council 1946): 21-66;
Bryan 1896 (Cross of Gold speech 9 July 1896) Former Nebraska Congressman William Jennings Bryan “On resolutions” in Edward B. Dickinson (ed.) Official Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention Held in Chicago, Illinois, July 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, 1896 (Logansport: Wilson, Humphries 1896): 226–35;
George Mason Cross of Gold (“most famous speech in American political history”): “The issue was whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1. (This inflationary measure would have increased the amount of money in circulation and aided cash-poor and debt-burdened farmers.) After speeches on the subject by several US Senators, Bryan rose to speak. The thirty-six-year-old former Congressman from Nebraska aspired to be the Democratic nominee for president, and he had been skillfully, but quietly, building support for himself among the delegates. His dramatic speaking style and rhetoric roused the crowd to a frenzy. The response, wrote one reporter, "came like one great burst of artillery." Men and women screamed and waved their hats and canes. "Some," wrote another reporter, "like demented things, divested themselves of their coats and flung them high in the air. "” George Mason University “Bryan’s "Cross of gold" speech: Mesmerizing the masses” History Matters: The US survey course on the web (no date);
Herzl 20/7/96 in Patai 1960 bk3, v1, pp. 426-29 (Herzl addressed Rothschilds 10 days later): “I began: "A colony is a little state, a state is a big colony. You want to build a small state, I, a big colony." And once again, as so many times previously, I unfolded the entire plan. He listened at times with surprise; at a few points I read admiration in his eyes.” Raphael Patai (ed.) The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl Harry Kohn (trans.) New York: Herzl Press & Thomas Yoseloff 1960: v1;
Herzl 11/1/2+20/1/2 in Patai 1960 bk9, v3, pp. 1193-95 (almost boasting about harvesting anti-Semitic seeds sown by Pinsker & Brits): “[Joseph] Cowen informs that he is again making efforts to get a meeting with Cecil Rhodes for me. The robber raider Dr. [Leander Starr] Jameson is acting as the intermediary on the Rhodes side. However, on account of my bread-givers, who might become angry, I cannot now risk a trip that promises nothing certain. Therefore I wired that I could come only if Rhodes were seriously interested in the matter. In order to initiate this, I am sending the following memorandum to London, to be translated by [Israel] Zangwill and transmitted by Cowen ... This letter to Rhodes remains in the ink bottle for the time being ...
"Mr. Cecil Rhodes:
For some months mutual friends have been trying on my behalf to arrange a meeting between us. At the moment, however, I am so inordinately busy that it would hardly be possible for me to come to London, unless I knew in advance that you took a serious interest in the matter. This, to be sure, would be a sufficiently strong reason to travel, for I need you. In fact, all things considered, you are the only man who can help me now. Of course, I am not concealing from myself the fact that you are not likely to do so. The probability is perhaps one in a million, if this can be expressed in figures at all. But it is a big—some say, too big—thing. To me it does not seem too big for Cecil Rhodes. This sounds like flattery; however, it does not reside in the words, but in the offer. If you participate, then you are the man. If you don’t, then I have simply made a mistake. You are being invited to help make history. That cannot frighten you, nor will you laugh at it. It is not in your accustomed line; it doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor, not Englishmen, but Jews. But had this been on your path, you would have done it yourself by now. How, then, do I happen to turn to you, since this is an out-of-the way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial, and because it presupposes understanding of a development which will take twenty or thirty years. There are visionaries who look past greater spaces of time, but they lack a practical sense. Then again there are practical people, like the trust magnates in America, but they lack political imagination. But you, Mr. Rhodes, are a visionary politician or a practical visionary. You have already demonstrated this. And what I want you to do is not to give me or lend me a few guineas, but to put the stamp of your authority on the Zionist plan and to make the following declaration to a few people who swear by you:
I, Rhodes, have examined this plan and found it correct and practicable. It is a plan full of culture, excellent for the group of people for whom it is directly designed, not detrimental to the general progress of mankind, and quite good for England, for Greater Britain. If you and your associates supply the requested financial aid for this, you will, in addition to these satisfactions, have the satisfaction of making a good profit. For what is being asked for is money.
What is the plan? To settle Palestine with the homecoming Jewish people. When I started it 6 years ago, I was brutally derided. I disdained the scoffers and went ahead. In these 6 years the Jews in all parts of the world have been shaken up. At five Congresses there has been effected an organization with thousands of associations all over the world. The Zionists obey a mot d’ordre [command] from Manchuria to Argentina from Canada to the Cape and New Zealand. The greatest concentration of our adherents is in Eastern Europe. Of the five million Jews in Russia, surely four million swear by our program. We have party organs in all civilized languages. Every single day there are mass meetings of our people in the most diverse places. Yet our demands are so formulated that no government has proceeded against them as yet, not even the Russian government. This cursory aperçu [survey] of our political situation may suffice. And this movement, which has had such an unprecedented development in 6 years, vainly cries out for money. Why? Because the big Jewish financiers are against us. They are afraid, they have no imagination, they lend money only on dead pledges [collateral/rent]. "”
Raphael Patai (ed.) The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl Harry Kohn (trans.) New York: Thomas Yoseloff for Theodor Herzl Foundation 1960: v3
[34] Banker’s 1901 (‘business subverting politicians & rendering government subservient’) quoted in Turchin 2023 pp. 122-23 Peter Turchin End Times: Elites, counter-elites, and the path of political disintegration New York: Penguin 2023
[35] Breen 1981 p. 283 (prospecting under way on Athabasca River March 1905): “"I am commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to state that it has been brought to their notice that there has been an important discovery of Petroleum Oil in the North Western Province of Canada." Soon to reach the hands of Canada’s governor general, Lord Grey, this confidential [March 1905] communique ... emphasized the importance of securing oil supplies for the British navy in British territory and requested that the Admiralty '... be furnished with any information that maybe available as to the oil industry in the North Western Provinces, and especially in regard to the latest developments.' The Admiralty’s request for 'authoritative' information led to the first official assessment of oil prospects in southern Alberta. The consequent report prepared for the governor general by the Department of the Interior in the late spring of 1905 noted that prospecting was under way on the Athabasca River, about 200 miles north of Edmonton, and near the international boundary, about 60 miles southwest of Ford Macleod.” David H. Breen “Anglo-American rivalry and the evolution of Canadian petroleum policy” Canadian Historical Review v62#3 (September 1981): 283-303;
Chase 1902 (discovery what became system dynamics) Admiral J.V. Chase “Sea fights: A mathematical investigation of the effect of superiority of force in combats upon the sea” US Naval War College (1902) + Fiske 1905 (2nd discovery) Rear Admiral Bradley Allen Fiske “American naval policy” US Naval Institute (April 1905) discussed in Fiske 1916 pp. 283-89 US Naval Institute President Bradley Allen Fiske The Navy as a Fighting Machine New York: C. Scribner’s 1916;
System dynamics was not publicly referred to as such until after declassification in 1972. First pursued publicly at MIT’s new business school as a critique of neoclassical economic modelling [1956] and reluctantly revealed as industrial dynamics [1961] and urban dynamics [1969], before being generalized as world dynamics [1971]. Impressive as he was [Lane & Sterman 2011], it is unlikely Jay Forrester was actually the source of so many innovations in computing, economics, and engineering—but rather that he was the public face of the gradual declassification of system dynamics. David C. Lane and John D. Sterman “Jay Wright Forrester” ch20 in Arjang A. Assad and Saul I. Gass (eds.) Profiles in Operations Research: Pioneers and innovators (New York: Springer 2011): 363-86;
Forrester 1968 pp. 605-6, 608-10, 612-14 (System Dynamics’ originator 4 years before declassification): “Principles of behavior in nonlinear systems are only now beginning to be recognised as we generalize from the behavior we see in individual models of systems. These principles that relate structure to behavior are beginning to be taught at MIT ... [system dynamics] does not apply to problems that lack systemic interrelationship. It does not apply to areas where the past does not influence the future. It does not apply to situations where changes through time are not of interest. ... [system dynamics] is a clarification and codification of many ideas running through cybernetics, servomechanisms theory, psychology, and economics. ... Because [system dynamics] provides a framework that permits structuring the more nebulous areas, it can most effective in clarifying the least understood aspects of our social systems. ... Great promise has been shown by unpublished [system] dynamics studies in the psychology of group behavior, dynamics of conflict, epidemics, and internal medicine. ... [System dynamics] stresses the feedback-loop structure of a system. The feedback loop is seen as the fundamental system building block. ... A successful [system] dynamics model formulation cannot be expected of a person who lacks substantial insights into the nature and psychology of managerial practice. It seems a truism that one must understand much about the system which he is modelling. ... Validity of Models Controversy about the validity of [system dynamics] models seems to arise from confusion about the nature of proof and about the avenues available for establishing confidence in a model. Two points must be recognized as a basis for discussing validity. First, a model cannot be expected to have absolute validity. ... A second essential point in clarifying a discussion of validity is to realize the impossibility of positive proof. ... There is no absolute proof but only a degree hope and confidence that a particular measure is pertinent in linking together the model, the real system, and the purpose. ... Furthermore there is always the possibility that a model meets the measure but for wrong reasons which will invalidate the model when parameters or decisions are changed and the model is used to predict future modes of behavior rather than correspond to past modes.” Jay W. Forrester “Industrial dynamics: A response to Ansoff and Slevin” Management Science v14#9 (May 1968): 601-18;
Schmelzer 2017 p. 32 (SD’s 1972 declassification): “contrary to standard international relations accounts, the OECD’s work in the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly in the field of science policies, followed a strong departmental and epistemic dynamic. Debates were not launched and shaped mainly by national governments and delegates, but by international bureaucrats, especially within a certain department, and by close contact with outside experts. ... it was at the centre of discussions about the foundation of a 'Center for the Study of the Common Problems of Advanced Societies', originally envisaged under OECD auspices. This US initiative, launched in 1966 by the Ford Foundation, the Johnson administration, and the national security advisor McGeorge Bundy, resulted in the foundation of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in 1972.” Mattias Schmelzer “'Born in the corridors of the OECD': The forgotten origins of the Club of Rome, transnational networks, and the 1970s in global history” Journal of Global History v12#1 (March 2017): 26-48;
Anderson 1972 P.W. Anderson “More is different: Broken symmetry and the nature of the hierarchical structure of science” Science v177#4047 (4 August 1972): 393-96;
Forrester 1979 Jay W. Forrester “System dynamics: Future opportunities” D-3108-1 (30 July 1979) in Jay Wright Forrester Papers (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): ‘System dynamics: National project: 1960s-1980s’: 3-27;
Pool 1992 (“a new eye on the world”) Robert Pool “The third branch of science debuts: Computer simulation has opened a new eye on the world, giving scientists in fields from biology to high-energy physics a way to perform experiments that would be otherwise impossible” Science v256#5053 (3 April 1992): 44-47;
ERCB 2013 p. 158 (AB & SK est’d 5 September 1905) Gordon Jaremko Steward: 75 years of Alberta energy regulation Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board 2013: 192pp;
Breen 1981 David H. Breen “Anglo-American rivalry and the evolution of Canadian petroleum policy” Canadian Historical Review v62#3 (September 1981): 283-303
[36] Foster 2004 p. 90 (95 per cent Cdn parks in AB) Franklin L. Foster “John Edward Brownlee, 1925-34” in Bradford J. Rennie (ed.) Alberta Premiers of the Twentieth Century (Regina: University of Regina 2004): 77-106;
Kerr 1991 pp. 112-13 (‘sweetheart deals in London’ 1906): “No minerals except coal and valuable stone were reserved by the CPR for those lands sold prior to 1905. Between 1905 and 1912, the Railway Company reserved petroleum, a decision that would lead to litigation forty years later. From 1912, all mines and minerals were kept back by the CPR.” Imperial Oil Alberta geologist Samuel Aubrey Kerr Leduc Altona: [self-published] 1991;
Ediger & Bowlus 2019 p. 193 (Berlin-Baghdad Railroad 1888-1907): “Hemmed in by the British at sea, the German Emperor saw the strategic advantages of railroad connections that would stretch from Berlin into central and eastern Europe and on into Anatolia and the Middle East, not least because Asia Minor offered excellent soil and abundant resources for colonisation. This strategic vision led Germany to pursue the construction of the Berlin-Baghdad Railroad (Bagdadbahn) from 1888 to 1907. Germany gained its first Ottoman railroad concession in October 1888, after which it founded the Anatolian Railway Company (Anadolu Demiryolu Kumpanyası, ARC) to operate the railway line from Haydarpaşa to Izmit and committed to build a new line from Izmit to Ankara that would continue on to Baghdad. ... The director of the ARC was in fact British, Sir Vincent Caillard, to attract British investors. The French, meanwhile, scrapped their railroad project that year. Wilhelm II consummated his relationship with his counterpart, Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II, by visiting Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, aboard the imperial yacht Hohenzollern, in October 1889. He was the first European monarch ever to visit the Sublime Porte (Bâb-ı Âlî) and received an ostentatious welcome. The concession for the Berlin-Baghdad Railroad gave Germany its best chance of developing the rich oilfields of Mesopotamia, its only prospect for oil supplies independent of Britain. ... Scholars have previously glossed over, ignored, or negated the connection between the Berlin-Baghdad Railroad and Mesopotamian oil. Numerous monographs cover the diplomatic, commercial, financial, and cultural implications of the railroad, but only mention oil as a line item of commercial interests attached to the project. Articles related to the railroad also are numerous and wide-ranging, but none hones in on oil.” Volkan Ş. Ediger and John V. Bowlus “Greasing the wheels: The Berlin-Baghdad railway and Ottoman oil, 1888–1907” Middle East Studies v56#2 (October 2019): 193-206;
Gérin-Lajoie 1950 (BNA Act first amended in 1907 to add Alberta, & again in 1915, 1916, 1930, 1940, 1943, 1946, 1949 + with the Statute of Westminster in 1931) Quebec Minister of Education Paul Gérin-Lajoie “How past amendments were secured” ch3 of Constitutional Amendment in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto 1950): 65-122 [excerpt];
CP 27/8/21 (1907 gas hookup) Local Journalism Initiative reporter Calvi Leon “The blast that rocked downtown Wheatley – 85 years ago” Canadian Press (27 August 2021)
[37] Yergin 1991 pp. 188-89 (‘timing left major question’ 28 June 1914): “In a diplomatic note on June 28, 1914, the Grand Vizier promised that the Mesopotamian concession would be formally granted to the now-reconstituted Turkish Petroleum Company. Unfortunately, that was the very day that the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, triggering the First World War. The timing would leave a major question unanswered: Had the concession actually been granted, or had only a nonbinding promise of a concession been made?” Daniel Yergin The Prize: The epic quest for oil, money, and power New York: Simon and Schuster 1991;
Dedijer 1964 p. 569 (“the perfect political murder”—Sir Grey): “One of the most controversial issues of modern history arises from this question: What were [assassin Gavrilo] Princip’s motives and who were his instigators, if any, and his accomplices? Sir Edward Grey described Princip’s crime as a perfect political murder, in the sense that it would be impossible for the truth ever to be established.” Vladimir Dedijer “Sarajevo fifty years after” Foreign Affairs v42#4 (July 1964): 569-84;
Wilson 1907 (“Education & Democracy”) quoted in Diamond 1943 pp. 675-77 President of all-white Princeton University (1902-10) and the United States (1913-21) Woodrow Wilson “Education and democracy” introduction to Hopson Owen Murfee (ed.) Education and Democracy Marion Military Institute (training manual 1907) quoted in William E. Diamond The Economic Thought of Woodrow Wilson John Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science v61#4 (1943): 536-746;
Taylor 2019 pp. 12-13, 51-52 (Rockefeller’s secret purchase of Imperial Oil 1898): “The Liberals in Canada systematically dismantled the protectionist measures that had shielded Imperial from the Americans. By the end of 1898 Imperial’s owners capitulated and the Standard Trust acquired control of a majority of the shares. ... Imperial shareholders would receive a dividend of $93,000. This was a remarkably generous takeover (for shareholders), which prevented many lawsuits from outsiders and criticism from the Canadian press. As usual, Standard had achieved its objective secretly.” Graham D. Taylor Imperial Standard: Imperial Oil, Exxon and the Canadian oil industry from 1880 Calgary: University of Calgary 2019
[38] Indiana 1907 (criminals + idiots + imbeciles + rapists): “Whereas, Heredity plays a most important part in the transmission of crime, idiocy and imbecility; Therefore ... it shall be lawful for the surgeons to perform such operation for the prevention of procreation” State of Indiana “An act to prevent procreation of confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles and rapists” (9 March 1907) ch215 of Laws of the State of Indiana Passed at the Sixty-Fifth Regular Session of the General Assembly Begun on the Tenth Day of January, A.D. 1907 (Indianapolis: William B. Burford 1907): 377-378;
Indiana Law Journal 1963 p. 276 (eugenics was impetus to develop sexual sterilization techniques by ~1907): “Although heredity factors in mental illness and mental deficiencies were considered significant prior to the turn of the century, the impetus for the movement at that particular time can probably be best explained by the fact that practical and satisfactory methods of sterilization had only recently been developed. Doctor Harry C. Sharpe of the Indiana State Reformatory is credited with developing a method for sterilizing males known as vasectomy during the 1890s, while a standard method of sterilizing females, known as salpingectomy, was developed in Europe at about the same time.” “Eugenic sterilization in Indiana” Indiana Law Journal v38#2 (Winter 1963): 275-89;
Bryce 1907 p. 18 (only 'school' w/ complete records revealed 69% expupils dead) Chief Medical Officer Peter H. Bryce Report on the Indian Schools of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories Department of Indian Affairs (Ottawa: Government Printing Office 1907): 20pp;
Hay, Blackstock & Kirlew 2020 p. E224 (Ottawa newspaper headline November 1907): “Schools Aid White Plague: Startling Death Rolls Revealed Among Indians: Absolute Inattention To The Bare Necessities Of Health” cited in Travis Hay, Cindy Blackstock and Michael Kirlew “Dr. Peter Bryce (1853-1932): Whistleblower on residential schools” Canadian Medical Association Journal v192#9 (2 March 2020): E223-24;
Faust & Heffernan 2021 (Dr. Peter Bryce 1907): “as if the prime conditions for the outbreak of epidemics had been deliberately created” quoted in McGill International TB Centre PhD student Lena Faust and University of Alberta Tuberculosis Program Evaluation and Research Unit Manager Courtney Heffernan “Residential-school deaths were avoidable” Globe and Mail (12 July 2021): A11;
Katz 2021 pp. 192, 378n44, 192 (ceasing 5 billion Mexican barrels 19-21 April 1914): Rather than Tampico, “Wilson’s cabinet had determined that Veracruz was a better strategic point for an invasion ... It was also home to Texaco and Standard’s main foreign rival—the British Pearson’s Mexican Eagle. ... [President Woodrow Wilson] asked Congress for approval to use armed force against Mexico ...[but]... while Congress was still debating the proposed resolution, the invasion began.” Jonathan M. Katz Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the making and breaking of America’s empire New York: St. Martin’s 2021
[39] ERCB 2013 p. 158 (oil discovered in Turner Valley 14 May 1914): “Dingman No. 1 well ignites a drilling boom when naphtha, a gasoline-like fluid mid-way between natural gas and oil, is discovered 815 metres beneath Turner Valley. At Turner Valley, producers burn off gas as a waste by-product, lighting up the skies and igniting popular campaigns for resource conservation. The towering flares can even be seen in Calgary, 50 kilometres away. The Viking gas field is discovered near Wainwright [on what remains a British military base today], southeast of Edmonton.” Gordon Jaremko Steward: 75 years of Alberta energy regulation Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board 2013: 192pp;
Ball 1940 p. 371 (WWI ended 1st AB oil boom): “Oil was discovered in 1914, and the near-by city of Calgary proceeded to stage one of the wildest booms in oil history. Oil companies were formed by the score. Lawyers, doctors, clerks, and chambermaids neglected their businesses to gamble in oil stocks. ... Then came the Great War ... and ... The first Calgary oil boom was over.” Maxwell Waite Ball This Fascinating Oil Business New York: Bobbs-Merrill 1940;
Breen 1981 pp. 288-89 (credit unavailable): “The enthusiasm and rampant speculation that attended the ... oil discovery by the Calgary Petroleum Products Company at Turner Valley southwest of Calgary soon abated as the approaching war in Europe diverted attention and rendered development capital very difficult to acquire. By the autumn of 1914 lease rentals due the federal government from many of the new exploration companies were in default. Even for longer established companies, including the Calgary Petroleum Products Co, the major endeavour through 1915 and 1916 was simply to obtain the capital required to maintain land holdings until the better days that most expected would come at war’s end.” David H. Breen “Anglo-American rivalry and the evolution of Canadian petroleum policy” Canadian Historical Review v62#3 (September 1981): 283-303;
Boyko 2010 p. 99 (AB corp’s & Cdn PMs easier to acquire than credit for some reason): “At that time, the Imperial Oil Company was reaping astronomical profits from a series of wells in Montana, and it was not long before the company learned of [Member of Parliament for Calgary West R.B.] Bennett’s success. Its representatives found their way to the [law] offices of [Senator Sir James] Lougheed Bennett where after intense negotiations they created a subsidiary called Royalite Oil Company. [The future prime minister] Bennett was its president and majority shareholder. He was also given on the board of Imperial Oil. ... Money ... and oil profits from three companies criss-crossed before ending up in Bennett’s bulging pockets.” John Boyko Bennett: The rebel who challenged and changed a nation Toronto: Key Porter 2010;
McGovern & Guttridge 1972 p. 294 (American telegrams 1 June 1914): WLMK “received a rather mysterious telegram from … the head of the Rockefeller Foundation, inviting him to New York for a discussion of a major project under Foundation auspices. That same day [longtime President of Harvard University] Professor Eliot wired King his opinion that what the Foundation contemplated offered an "immense" opportunity. "You might greatly serve all white race industries and show the way to industrial accord"” George S. McGovern and Leonard F. Guttridge The Great Coalfield War Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1972;
Slaughter & Silva 1980 p. 72 (WLMK formally hired by Rockefellers October 1914): “During the summer of 1914, King was in close contact with Rockefeller, offering expert, confidential advice on how to resolve the conflict in Colorado without granting union recognition, a fact not widely known to the public at the time. In August of 1914, the Rockefeller Foundation voted to appoint King formally, effective October” Sheila Slaughter and Edward T. Silva “Looking backwards: How foundations formulated ideology in the Progressive period” in Robert F. Arnove (ed.) Philanthropy and Cultural Imperialism: The foundations at home and abroad (Boston: G.K. Hall 1980): 55-86;
Hallahan 2003 p. 411 (King illustrates antecedents of modern public relations 1915): “King illustrates that the antecedents of modern ideas of public relations actually can be traced back much earlier in history than sometimes thought. … The Colorado coal strike occurred during a period in which a major shift was occurring in the industrial, cultural and political order. Progressivism had reached its height; the ideals of reform, cooperation and participation were prevalent in human affairs generally. Public relations historians would do well to recognize how the roots of contemporary public relations practice can be traced to Progressivism. King cannot be credited for having originated all of these ideas, but he is important because of his efforts to codify them in a coherent model. Moreover, he was successful in persuading America’s most prominent business leader to actually implement them. This is King’s public relations legacy.” Kirk Hallahan “W.L. Mackenzie King: Rockefeller’s 'other' public relations counselor in Colorado” Public Relations Review v29#4 (November 2003) 401-14
[40] Yergin 1991 pp. 188-89 (Britain thwarted Germany in Iraq 28 June 1914 & then captured remainder of Iraq’s oil after armistice) 10 November 1918: “Foreign Secretary Balfour worried that explicitly pronouncing Mesopotamia a war aim would seem too old-fashionably imperialistic. Instead, in August [13th] 1918, he told the Prime Ministers of the Dominions that Britain must be the "guiding spirit" in Mesopotamia, as it would provide the one natural resource the British empire lacked. "I do not care under what system we keep the oil," he said, "but I am quite clear it is all-important for us that this oil should be available." To help make sure this would happen, British forces, already elsewhere in Mesopotamia, captured Mosul after the armistice was signed with Turkey.” Daniel Yergin The Prize: The epic quest for oil, money, and power New York: Simon and Schuster 1991;
Mackinder 1919 p. 193 (British strategist describing start of WWI during Versailles talks): “the time was past when France would have attacked Germany to recover Alsace and Lorraine. The War, let us never forget, began as a German effort to subdue the Slavs who were in revolt against Berlin. We all know that the murder of the Austrian (German) Archduke in Slav Bosnia was the pretext, and that the Austrian--(German) ultimatum to Slav Serbia was the method of forcing the War. But it cannot be too often relegated that these events were the result of a fundamental antagonism between the Germans, who wished to be Masters in East Europe, and the Slavs, who refused to submit to them. Had Germany elected to stand on the defensive on her short frontier towards France, and had she thrown her main strength against Russia, it is not improbable that the world would be nominally at peace today, but overshadowed by a German East Europe in command of all the Heartland.” MP Halford John Mackinder Democratic Ideals and Reality: A study in the politics of reconstruction London: Constable 1919
[41] Keshen 1996 p. 65 (War Measures Act 22 August 1914): “made retroactive until 4 August, this statute ... provided for "censorship and control and suppression of publications, writings, maps, plans, photographs, communication and means of communication. ... contrary to traditional Common Law practice, once charged, the onus of proof lay with the accused to demonstrate innocence. "” Jeffrey A. Keshen Propaganda and Censorship During Canada’s Great War Edmonton: University of Alberta 1996 [PhD supervisor: J.L. Granatstein];
Immerwahr 2019 p. 7 (US censorship/admonishment: “word colony must not be used” 1914): “At the turn of the twentieth century, when many were acquired (Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, American Samoa, Hawai'i, Wake), their status was clear. They were, as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson unabashedly called them, colonies. Yet that spirit of forthright imperialism didn’t last. Within a decade or two, after passions had cooled, the c-word became taboo. “The word colony must not be used to express the relationship which exists between our government and its dependent peoples,” an official admonished in 1914.” Daniel Immerwahr How to Hide an Empire: A history of the greater United States (2019; New York: Picador 2020);
Dickin, Bailey & James-Abra 2020 (like public/private censorship around today’s pandemic(s), public censorship killed millions w/ infection during & aft WWI): “The name Spanish flu emerged as a result of media censorship by the military in Allied countries during the First World War. These countries suppressed public reports of the viral infection and the death of soldiers. However, in Spain, which was neutral during the war, the media was able to widely report the high incidence of death from the illness. The virus became associated with Spain as a result.” Janice Dickin, Patricia G. Bailey and Erin James-Abra “1918 Spanish Flu in Canada” Canadian Encyclopedia (19 March 2020)
[42] Churchill 1914 (“vast & splendid possessions, mainly acquired by violence, largely maintained by force”) Liberal MP and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill Declassified comment to cabinet colleagues (January 1914) quoted in John Darwin The Empire Project: The rise and fall of the British world-system, 1830-1970 (2009; Cambridge: Cambridge University 2010): 268;
Rothwell 1970 p. 273 (Britain captured Basra & Mosul after armistice October 1918): “An expeditionary force of the Indian Army landed in Turkish territory at the head of the Persian Gulf almost immediately upon the declaration of war by Britain against Turkey ... [on 5 November 1914] it marched into Basra, the chief southern town of southern Mesopotamia, on the 23rd. ... The principal city, Baghdad, was not captured until after nearly two and a half years of fighting, and the chief northern city, Mosul, not indeed until after the armistice had been signed with Turkey.” V.H. Rothwell “Mesopotamia in British war aims, 1914-1918” Historical Journal v13#2 (June 1970): 273-94
[43] Lansing 1915 pp. 468, 470 (owning public debt enables control of gov ‘as if acquired through occupation/conquest/cession’): “European power whose subjects own the public debt of an American state and have invested there large amounts of capital, would be able to control the government of the state as completely as if it had acquired sovereign rights over the territory through occupation, conquest or cession. ... In its advocacy of the Monroe Doctrine the United States considers its own interests. The integrity of other American nations is an incident, not an end. .... While this may seem based on selfishness alone, the author of the Doctrine had no higher or more generous motive in its declaration.” US Secretary of State Robert Lansing to President Woodrow Wilson “Present nature and extent of the Monroe Doctrine” (24 November 1915): 3pp in v2 of Allen Dulles (ed.) Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States: The Lansing Papers 1914-1920 (Washington: USGPO 1940): 468-70
Preparata 2005 p. 39 (‘British Empire depends upon Palestine as buffer state’ 26 November 1915): “recruits of ... Milner’s ... Round Table – intimated that "the whole future of the British Empire as a Sea Empire" depended upon Palestine becoming a buffer state inhabited "by an intensely patriotic race." Indeed, Palestine was 'the key missing link' that joined together the limbs of the British empire in a continuum stretching from the Atlantic to the middle of the Pacific.” Guido Giacomo Preparata Conjuring Hitler: How Britain and America made the Third Reich London: Pluto 2005 quoting Manchester Guardian military correspondent Herbert Sidebotham from Fromkin 1989 pp. 270-71, 279, 276-77, 280-81:
“Lloyd George, though of a Welsh family, was born in Manchester, Britain’s second largest city, and the home of the Radical Liberal tradition which he was to uphold throughout much of his political life. Manchester was also, next to London, the home of Britain’s largest Jewish community; and Members of Parliament from the area, such as Balfour and Churchill, were aware of the special concerns of their Jewish constituents. C.P. Scott, editor of the great Liberal newspaper the Manchester [later London] Guardian, was converted to Zionism in 1914 by Chaim Weizmann, a Russian Jewish chemist who had settled in Manchester. Scott, who was considered to be Lloyd George’s closest political confidant, took up the cause with all the force of his idealistic nature. The military correspondent of the Guardian, Herbert Sidebotham saw a complementary, aspect of the matter: a military advantage to Britain. In the issue of 26 November 1915, he wrote that "the whole future of the British Empire as a Sea Empire" depended upon Palestine becoming a buffer state inhabited "by an intensely patriotic race." The Manchester Guardian’s conversion was brought about in the context of the First World War, but Lloyd George had come to Zionism—or rather it had come to him—more than a decade before. In 1903 he had been retained as the British attorney for the Zionist movement and for its founder. Dr Theodore Herzl, in connection with an issue that caused an agonizing split in Zionist ranks: whether a Jewish state necessarily had to be located in Palestine. As one who represented Herzl at the moment of decision, he was in a position to understand the movement’s dilemmas. ...
As soon as Lloyd George became Prime Minister, Leo Amery initiated a move that placed Palestine within the context of the future of the British Empire. At the end of 1916 Amery proposed creating an Imperial War Cabinet, and sent a note on the subject to Lord Milner, who arranged for Lloyd George to put the idea in motion. ... The assistant secretaries of the War Cabinet, Leo Amery and Mark Sykes, worried that in the postwar world the Ottoman Empire might fall completely into the clutches of Germany. Were that to happen, the road to India would be in enemy hands—a threat that the British Empire could avert only by ejecting the Turks and Germans, and taking into British hands the southern perimeter of the Ottoman domains. The Cabinet, from the beginning, had thought of annexing Mesopotamia. As for Arabia, arrangements had been made with the local rulers who had asserted their independence: they were subsidized and could be relied upon to remain pro-British. That left Palestine as the only point of vulnerability. As the bridge between Africa and Asia, it blocked the land road from Egypt to India and, by its proximity, it threatened the Suez Canal and hence the sea road as well. ... Amery was convinced, as were Lord Milner’s other friends, that the structure of the British Empire had to be changed fundamentally; and by the end of 1916, as the political situation in London became fluid, and party and other divisions were breaking down, much seemed possible that would not have seemed so before. ... Amery and his friends in the Milner circle, who had worked in concert with Cecil Rhodes and Joseph Chamberlain, were among the first conscious and systematic proponents of empire, while their associates Rudyard Kipling and [future Canadian Governor General] John Buchan [the first Lord Tweedsmuir, Baron of Elfsfield in the County of Oxford] were among its deliberate glorifiers.” David Fromkin A Peace To End All Peace: The fall of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the Middle East New York: Owl 1989;
Cook 2024a (“the West’s system of values”): “What kind of system of values can allow for five months the crushing of children under rubble, the detonation of fragile bodies, the wasting away of babies, while still claiming to be humanitarian, tolerant, peace-seeking? And not just allow all this, but actively assist in it. Supply the bombs that blow those children to pieces or bring houses down on them, and sever ties to the only aid agency that can hope to keep them alive. The answer, it seems, is the West’s system of values. The mask has not just slipped, it has been ripped off. What lies beneath is ugly indeed.” Jonathan Cook “How the western media helped build the case for genocide in Gaza: From obscuring the West’s role in starving Gaza to sensationalised accounts of mass rape by Hamas, journalists are playing the role of propagandists, not reporters” Declassified UK (20 March 2024)
[44] Wilson 1915 (‘only for informal discussion for frank understanding with our friends’): “The argument of this paper seems to be unanswerable ... This will serve us as a memorandum when the time comes ... Just now, I take it for granted, it is only for the guidance and clarification of our own thought, and for informal discussion with our Latin American friends from time to time ... for the sake of a frank understanding.” President Wilson to the US Secretary of State (29 November 1915) in v2 of Allen Dulles (ed.) Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States: The Lansing Papers 1914-1920 (Washington: USGPO 1940): 470;
Langbart 2011 (Allen Dulles, editor): “When Lansing resigned as Secretary of State on February 13, 1920, he removed a large volume of documents from his office, much of it official in nature. ... in 1929 ... nephew Allen Dulles ... wrote the Department and stated ... he had reviewed the files and collected the pertinent papers in one filing cabinet that his aunt was now ready to turn over to the Department.” National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Textual Archives Services Division David Langbart “Special FRUS volumes: Origins of "the Lansing papers"” Department of State Office of the Historian (30 November 2011);
Balfour Declaration #1 1917 British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to leader of the Anglo-Jewish community 2nd Baron Rothschild (of Tring) Lionel Walter Rothschild (drafted 22 August 1917; sent 2 November 1917): 1p;
Balfour Declaration #2 1926 Inter-Imperial Relations Committee Chair Lord Arthur James Balfour Imperial Conference 1926: Report, proceedings and memoranda E (IR/26) Series [SECRET] (22 November 1926): 12pp
[45] Valkoun 2020 (The Imperial Veto 1926) Jaroslav Valkoun “William Lyon Mackenzie King and the question of the institutional status of governors-general at the Imperial Conference, 1926” West Bohemian Historical Review v2020#2 (2020): 189-99;
Pilger 2020 (Anglo-American coup in Australia 1975): “There is historical amnesia among Australia’s polite society about the catastrophic events of 1975. An Anglo-American coup overthrew a democratically elected ally in a demeaning scandal in which sections of the Australian elite colluded. This is largely unmentionable.” John Pilger “The forgotten coup against 'the most loyal ally'” Independent Australia (5 June 2020);
Hocking 2020 (‘lingering colonial entanglements mean circumstances allowing coup remain unchanged today’): “the Palace letters have shattered claims of royal neutrality and non-involvement, revealing the intensely political nature of the correspondence – none more so than on the existence and use of reserve powers ... lingering colonial entanglements of the imperial aftermath mean the circumstances allowing the 1975 coup remain unchanged today” Jenny Hocking “'For the sake of the monarchy'” ch12 of The Palace Papers: The Queen, the governor-general, and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam (Melbourne: Scribe 2020): 221-31
[46] Brennan 2008 pp. 25, 30-31, 53, 30 (26 year-old acting PREMIER Ernest Manning August-November 1935 – Ernie turned 27 after bankrupting Alberta in Ottawa that September): “Even after the election victory, Aberhart still did not want to be in politics. ... Aberhart’s followers strongly urged him to accept the keys to the premier’s suite, especially after Lieutenant-Governor William Legh Walsh summoned him to Edmonton and invited him to form a government. ... The opposition parties did not run candidates in [Aberhart’s] by-election ... while Aberhart’s [November 3rd] election was pending ... Manning ... became acting premier and provincial secretary ... a kind of catchall ministry with responsibility for such matters as ... the handling of government protocol for royal visits. ... Aberhart also named Manning minister of trade and industry.” Brian Brennan The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning story Calgary: Fifth House 2008;
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture Interstate Oil Compact Commission (27 August 1935);
Maclean’s 1/1/36 pp. 14-15 (Social Credit elected on anniversary of 1st Balfour Declaration 22 August 1935): “a well-known business man who has covered every part of the province, who knows its people, who is broad-minded and an honest thinker. I said to him: “What made a Social Credit Government possible?” He knocked me flat. He said: “The late [US Secretary of State 1913-15] William Jennings Bryan.” Then he went on to explain. In effect, he said this: Away back, at the time Bryan was expounding his free silver policy, there were moving out to the Northwest States of the Union groups of people who might almost be termed agricultural gypsies. They were impatient with conventional farming and conventional economics. They hailed Bryan as a reformer, and the farther West they got, the more receptive to change they became. Then came the opening up of Alberta. Attracted by cheap land and what was considered to be easy farming, they crossed the border in droves. They settled. Unlike the pioneers from Ontario and from the Maritimes, they had had little or no contact with the traditions of constitutional and conservative government as the East knew it. Their progeny grew up in the same spirit—fertile soil for experiment, for new ideas, for change.” H. Napier Moore “What of Social Credit? Impartial notes on the progress of Alberta’s new prophet” Maclean’s v49#1 (1 January 1936): 14-15, 35-36;
Finkel 2006 pp. 493-94 (1st Cdn election radio played important role): “The election in 1935, which brought Social Credit to power, was the first election in Canada in which radio played an important role. ... Aberhart’s election in Alberta ... placed all Canadian politicians on alert to the importance of radio in getting across a political message to constituents.” Alvin Finkel “1935: The Social Credit revolution” in Michael Payne, Donald Wetherell and Catherine Cavanaugh (eds.) Alberta Formed, Alberta Transformed (Edmonton: University of Alberta 2006) v2: 491-512;
Savage-Hughes & Taras 1992 p. 200 (‘ferocity of opposition evident in extensive coverage, often 4pp/day): “The Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal were also instrumental in the demise of the UFA government. ... The ferocity of their opposition became evident in the extensive coverage, often four pages a day, given to a sexual misconduct suit brought against Premier John Brownlee by one of his female assistants. A divorce case involving the Minister of Public Works ... was also turned into a cause celebre by the newspapers. The [fake] controversies that resulted from this sensational reporting did irreparable damage to the UFA government, which was subsequently defeated.” Denise Savage-Hughes and University of Calgary Canadian studies program director David Taras “The mass media and modern Alberta politics” in Allan Tupper and Roger Gibbons (eds.) Government and Politics in Alberta (Edmonton: University of Alberta 1992): 197-217;
Schultz 1960 p. 1 ($500/month promised—elsewhere, Bible Bill promised as much as $1500/month): “In the "hungry thirties" voters across Canada toppled incumbent governments in province after province in an angry bid to stem the depression. The Farmers’ government of Alberta had no reason to prove the exception. ... The beneficiary of this prairie protest was the Social Credit party led by William Aberhart. To depression-ridden Albertans, harassed by drought and debt, Aberhart’s promise of "$25 a month" [~$500/month in today’s $’s] was an inducement that no other party could match and ... Aberhart was ushered into office pledged to fulfil his campaign promise of a monthly dividend within eighteen months. The new Premier had provided both the leadership and the organization for the new party. He formed the Social Credit League, popularized Social Credit theories, hand-picked the candidates, and swept into office holding fifty-six of the sixty-three seats in the legislature.” Harold J. Schultz “The Social Credit back-benchers’ revolt, 1937” Canadian Historical Review v41#1 (March 1960): 1-18;
NYT 1/9/35 (‘almost personal rule of radio evangelist emerged as strongman of the province’): “William Aberhart, whose Social Credit party swept the Alberta elections ... has emerged as the strong man of the Province. ... for the United Farmer government which had ruled Alberta since 1921, has been substituted the almost personal rule of a man who is a school teacher by profession and a radio evangelist by vocation.” John MacCormack “Social credit prophet will rule a province: William Aberhart of Alberta carries all before him by evangelical appeals and great promises” New York Times (1 September 1935): E12;
Schultz 1964 p. 192 “[Bible Bill Aberhart (circa 1920s):] "our search for the truth is over. We have completed a careful investigation, and sought to honestly weigh the evidence. Our only possible conclusion is that our beloved Authorized Version is the perfect and infallible Word of God." This ... fundamentalist ... cast of mind was shortly to operate in politics and it was only natural for Aberhart with his authoritarian manner and fundamentalist faith to wrap his political programme in his piety and press on rough-shod over the protests of his opponents. Their barbs were brushed off as the criticisms of the ungodly as he would fall back on biblical precedents to justify his course of action, saying Christ was criticized in like manner in his day. It was this didactic dogmatism and appeal to religious sanctions that drove Aberhart’s critics frantic for they could not reply in kind.” Harold J. Schultz “Portrait of a premier: William Aberhart” Canadian Historical Review v45#3 (September 1964): 185–211;
LFP 15/1/36 (Odd explosion 15 January 1936): “Provincial Constable Frank Kelley, of Tilbury, is investigating. He scouted the suggestion that the building had been wrecked by a bomb.” “Blame blast on leaking gas: Damage of $50,000 caused in Wheatley explosion: Women knocked down: Odd Fellows Block is completely demolished” London Free Press (15 January 1936);
CP 27/8/21 Local Journalism Initiative reporter Calvi Leon “The blast that rocked downtown Wheatley – 85 years ago” Canadian Press (27 August 2021)
[47] Gale Review 4/10/17 (King Edward euthanized 20 January 1936): “The notes made by the King’s physician, Lord Dawson of Penn ... disclose that as the King’s condition deteriorated throughout the day Dawson consulted Queen Mary and the King’s son, Edward, who instructed him not to prolong the King’s life unnecessarily. Clearly Dawson took the instruction 'not to prolong' the King’s life as one authorising him to shorten it. It was ostensibly an instance of the practice of euthanasia” Craig Pett “The death of George V as reported first in The Times” Gale Review (4 October 2017);
Preparata 2005 p. xii (“Peak of British appeasement”: 1936) Guido Giacomo Preparata Conjuring Hitler: How Britain and America made the Third Reich London: Pluto 2005;
Wikipedia Abandoned coronation of Edward VIII: “King George V died and his [Nazi-sympathizing] eldest son, Edward VIII, succeeded him as king.”;
Yergin 1991 p. 783: (Hitler, Rhineland & synthetic fuels 1936) Daniel Yergin The Prize: The epic quest for oil, money, and power New York: Simon and Schuster 1991
[48] Brennan 2008 pp. 31-32, 82 (April Fool’s Day 1936): “Aberhart ... stood up in the legislature and announced that the province would be unable to redeem $3.2 million worth of maturing provincial bonds, which meant that Alberta would become the first province in Canada’s history to default on a bond maturity. ... Borrowing money became a near impossibility after Alberta defaulted on its maturing bond payments in 1936—something the province would continue to do over the next eight years until it was able to refinance its entire debt at lower rates of interest. "It forced us into a pay-as-you-go position, although that was the position that we endorsed anyway," [Ernest] Manning recalled. "We weren’t distressed by being forced into that position." ... it seemed to Manning that Canada’s federal and provincial governments should adopt the same "pay-as-you-go" policy that Social Credit used in Alberta. ... If governments kept their spending under control, they should be able to weather any economic storms that the future might bring.” Brian Brennan The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning story Calgary: Fifth House 2008;
CP 21/7/36 (fort disarmed July 1936) Canadian Press “Starts restoration” Globe and Mail (22 July 1936): 2;
Mackenzie King 1938a (fort->🡪museum 1 August 1938): “Fort Henry opened as a museum and historic site ... A crowd of more than 5,000 people gathered to see Prime Minster William Lyon Mackenzie King review the first Fort Henry Guard, followed by a keynote address. Mackenzie King was deeply moved by the visit, and he later wrote, "The visit to Fort Henry itself was of exceptional interest. Indeed I shall recall it always as one of the greatest and most significant events of my life".” Canadian prime minister William L. Mackenzie King “Official opening of Fort Henry” CBC Radio (1 August 1938);
Gitelman 1988 p. 115 (Rockefeller & WLMK BFF’s who exchanged coded messages): “Telegraphic messages were exchanged in a private code. The telephone also was employed, leaving no record other than the one King chose to indicate in his diary. These tactics suggest either that King and Rockefeller were seeking to hide something or that they were reluctant to create a pool of information that might be used to embarrass them. Actually, both things were true.” Howard M. Gitelman Legacy of the Ludlow Massacre: A chapter in American industrial relations Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia 1988;
Collier & Horowitz 1976 pp. 127-28n, 119, 129n (Rockefeller quisling WLMK): “He was always available to Rockefeller [after 1914], yet he declined offers to become a permanent employee. … In 1919, King returned to his homeland and picked up the pieces of what had seemed a ruined political career. He was elected leader of the Liberal party, and in 1921 became Prime Minister of Canada, a position he would hold for all but five of the years until his retirement in 1948. As a token of his affection for King, Junior sent him a gift of $100,000 [$1.3 million in 2022$] when he left the government and had the Rockefeller Foundation provide another [$1.3M] to help King prepare his private papers and diaries for publication.” Peter Collier and David Horowitz The Rockefellers: An American dynasty (1976; New York: Signet 1977)
[49] FDR Day-by-Day 31/7/36 (President Roosevelt visited Quebec to meet Governor-General Lord Tweedsmuir 31 July 1936) Pare Lorenz Center Franklin D. Roosevelt Day-by-Day (31 July 1936) FDR Presidential Library;
Nelson 1988 p. 55 (Canada only Commonwealth Olympic team to give Fuhrer Nazi salute): “Hitler’s rise to power, fuelled by anti-Semitism, anti-Bolshevism, and (after 1933) anti-trade unionism, had wide appeal to a variety of sectors in North American society. ... attempts to mobilize a Canadian boycott of the Berlin Olympic Games were met with criticism, derision, and racial slurs from several mainstream Canadian newspapers. For its part, Canada’s hundred-member Olympic team, while march past Hitler’s box in the opening ceremonies, gave the Fuhrer the extended-arm Nazi salute—the only Commonwealth team to do so—claiming that it was a gesture of friendship.” Joyce Nelson The Colonized Eye: Rethinking the Grierson legend Montreal: Between the Lines 1988
[50] Brennan 2008 pp. 44-45 (creating public S&L in AB: special legislative session 3-6 October 1936; royal assent 1 September 1936): “Lieutenant-Governor William Legh Walsh gave the [Saving & Loan] bill ... introduced by Manning in his position as social-credit commissioner ... his royal assent when the special legislature was prorogued” Brian Brennan The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning story Calgary: Fifth House 2008;
Comfort 1980 p. 58 (Abasand opens 1 September 1936): “Ball, McClave, and Sage held a small ceremony, inviting a few upper government crusts from Edmonton, and officially declared [Abasand Oils plant] open” Darlene J. Comfort The Abasand Fiasco: The rise and fall of a brave pioneer oil sands extraction plant Peter J. Duffy (ed.) Edmonton: Friesen 1980
[51] Granatstein 1974 p. 4 (1st meeting of both countries’ military brass 26 January 1938): “arranged in secret and with the direct authorization of President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mackenzie King”. Council for Canadian Security in the 21st Century Chair (2001-4) Jack L. Granatstein “Getting on with the Americans: Changing Canadian perceptions of the United States, 1939-1945” Canadian Review of American Studies v5#1 (March 1974): 3-17;
Gibson & Rossie 1993 (Carnegie-funded elite integration 1935-41) Frederick W. Gibson and Johnathan G. Rossie “Introduction” + “Comprehensive list of conference members” in The Road to Ogdensburg: The Queen’s/St. Lawrence conferences on Canadian-American affairs, 1935-1941 (East Lansing: Michigan State University 1993): 1-9, 401-15;
Perkowitz 2024 (Gus Callendar 1938) Sidney Perkowitz “The part-time climate scientist: A humble steam engineer put humans in the driver’s seat” Nautilus (16 April 2024);
Callendar 1938 p. 224 (read 16 February 1938): “Few of those familiar with the natural heat exchanges of the atmosphere, which go into the making of our climates and weather, would be prepared to admit that the activities of man could have any influence upon phenomena of so vast a scale. In the following paper I hope to show that such influence is not only possible, but is actually occurring at the present time. ... Of recent years much new knowledge has been accumulated which has a direct bearing upon this problem, and it is now possible to make a reasonable estimate of the effect of carbon dioxide on temperatures, and also of the rate at which the gas accumulates in the atmosphere.” Guy S. Callendar “The artificial production of carbon dioxide and its influence on temperature” Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society v64#275 (April 1938): 223-40;
National Resources Committee 1939 pp. ii-iii, iv (system dynamics employed but publicly attacked/abandoned during WWII): “This report … was undertaken as a result of … the need for a broader understanding of the national economy as a functioning whole. … This emphasis on organization requires that the national community be treated as a single functioning whole and in such a way that every phase of human activity is covered insofar as it involves the use of resources. Only by bringing all the different aspects of the national economy into a single frame of reference can a basis be laid for developing effective policies in respect to particular aspects. … The most serious omission … is an analysis of the debt and ownership structure and the structural aspects of interest rates. ... prepared by a staff under the direction of Dr. Gardner Means, who takes primary responsibility for the material presented and its detailed organization … requested by the Advisory Committee as background to an understanding of the basic national problem of unemployed resources. … We wish to emphasize the central importance of insuring reasonably full use of resources.” National Resources Committee The Structure of the American Economy US Department of the Interior (June 1939): 395pp;
Rockefeller 1941 pp. 200-209 (preliminary NRC critique) David Rockefeller “Critique of three empirical studies of unused resources” ch8 in Unused Resources and Economic Waste (PhD thesis: University of Chicago 1941): 172-210;
Pinchot 1940 (‘conservation for permanent peace’) Former Pennsylvania governor Gifford Pinchot “Conservation as a foundation of permanent peace” Nature v146#3693 (10 August 1940): 183-85;
Lovejoy & Homan 1967 (how conservation was thwarted) Wallace F. Lovejoy and Paul T. Homan “A historical digression: The road to the Interstate Compact” ch2 in Economic Aspects of Oil Conservation Regulation (Baltimore: John Hopkins University for Resources for the Future 1967): 33-47;
Summers 1938 p. 13 (conservation replaced w/ market-demand prorationing): “most modern conservation legislation … has been framed solely upon a waste prevention theory.” Walter L. Summers “The modern theory and practical application of statutes for the conservation of oil and gas” in American Bar Association (Mineral Law Section) Legal History of Conservation of Oil and Gas: A symposium (December 1938) Baltimore: Lord Baltimore* 1939: 1-15;
*Wikipedia 2nd Baron Baltimore (Baltimore & Newfoundland): “Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (8 August 1605 – 30 November 1675) was an English politician and lawyer who was the first proprietor of Maryland. ... Lord Baltimore’s family also had title to Ferryland and the Province of Avalon in Newfoundland. George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore administered the colony between 1629 and 1632, when he left for the Colony of Virginia ... In 1637, however, Sir David Kirke acquired a charter giving [Kirke] the title to the entire island of Newfoundland, superseding the charter granted to [Cecil’s] father George [the 1st Lord Baltimore].”;
Heritage Newfoundland American presence in Newfoundland (US occupation January 1941): “Under its Leased Bases Agreement with Britain, the United States had obtained permission in 1941 to establish military bases in Newfoundland ... The first American troops arrived at St. John’s in January 1941. In the months following, Newfoundland and Labrador became one of the most highly militarized places in North America as the United States spent more than $100 million to build military bases in St. John’s, Argentia, and Stephenville.”
[52] GoA 1937a (Sexual Sterilization Act March 1937): “Section 6 restates and amplifies the immunity of surgeons and other persons from civil actions or proceedings for any thing done by them in good faith and in purported pursuance of the Act.” Legislative Counsel R. Andrew Smith Bill 45: Bill To Amend The Sexual Sterilization Act note (March 1937): 1p;
GoA 1937b pp. 3-4 (Doctor immunity Sec. 6&7) Government of Alberta An Act To Amend The Sexual Sterilization Act (assented 14 April 1937): 4pp;
Dack 2011 p. 102 (Canadian eugenics debate): “a number of pamphlets and books were published in Canada during the mid-1930s, mostly by religious organizations in Ontario and Quebec, which were widely circulated in Alberta and spoke out against the province’s sterilization law. ... These works condemned Alberta’s eugenics policies on moral, scientific, and economic grounds.” W. Mikkel Dack “The Alberta eugenics movement and the 1937 amendment to the Sexual Sterilization Act” Past Imperfect: University of Alberta History and Classics Student Journal v17 (2011): 90-113;
Bryce 1907+1918+1922 (Indigenous youth internment camps) Chief Medical Officer Peter H. Bryce Report on the Indian Schools of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories Department of Indian Affairs (Ottawa: Government Printing Office 1907): 20pp; “The conservation of the man power of the Indian population of Canada” (winter 1918) memorandum to federal minister of health Newton W. Rowell quoted on pp. 8-13 of The Story of a National Crime: An appeal for justice for the Indians of Canada Ottawa: James Hope & Sons 1922;
Fisher 1983 p. 208 (Rockefellers funded eugenics 1912-14) University of British Columbia Professor Emeritus (History & sociology of higher education in Canada) Donald Fisher “The role of philanthropic foundations in the reproduction and production of hegemony: Rockefeller foundations and the social sciences” Sociology v17#2 (May 1983): 206-33;
Adami 1912 (Canadian Medical Association in Edmonton, AB) McGill University Strathcona Professor of Pathology John George Adami “A study in eugenics: "Unto the third and fourth generation"” Lancet v180#4653 (2 November 1912): 1199-1204;
CP 18/7/21 (AB ‘residential’ school TB rates “astronomical” 1930s-1940s) “According to the Canadian Public Health Association, TB death rates in First Nations communities in the 1930s and `40s were 700 per 100,000, some of the highest ever recorded in a human population. But in residential schools, they were astronomical – 8,000 per 100,000 children.” Jeremy Appel “Researchers say that TB at residential schools was no accident” Canadian Press (18 July 2021);
Cairney 1996 Richard Cairney “"Democracy was never intended for degenerates": Alberta’s flirtation with eugenics comes back to haunt it” Canadian Medical Association Journal v155#6 (15 September 1996): 789-92;
Strange & Stephen 2010 Carolyn Strange and Jennifer A. Stephen “Eugenics in Canada: A checkered history, 1850s-1990s” ch31 in Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics (Oxford: Oxford University 2010): 523-38 [20pp online]
[53] Turchin 2023 pp. 254, 258, 261 (Mathematics of War), 253 (post-WWII computers drove progress in understanding nonlinear dynamic systems) Peter Turchin End Times: Elites, counter-elites, and the path of political disintegration New York: Penguin 2023;
Churchill 1943 (British PM at Harvard during Bengali genocide 1943): “The price of greatness is responsibility. ... The people of the United States cannot escape world responsibility ... this process will be intensified with every forward step the United States makes in wealth as in power. ... This gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship. I like to think of British and Americans moving about freely over each other’s wide estates with hardly a sense of being foreigners to one another. But I do not see why we should not try to spread our common language even more widely throughout the globe ... Let us go forward in malice to none and with good-will to all. Such plans offer far better prizes than taking away other people’s provinces or land, or grinding them down in exploitation. The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. ... whatever form your system of world security may take, however, the nations are grouped and ranged, whatever derogations are made from national sovereignty for the sake of the larger synthesis, nothing will work soundly or for long without the united effort of the British and American people. ... I therefore preach continually the doctrine of the fraternal association of our peoples, not for any purpose of gaining invidious material advantages for either of them, not for territorial aggrandizement or the vain pomp of earthly domination, but for the sake of service to mankind and for the honor that comes to those who faithfully serve great causes.” Prime Minister Winston Churchill “Alliance with US after war: Common tongue a basis for common citizenship” (Harvard University: 6 September 1943) in Vital Speeches of the Day v9#23 (15 September 1943): 713-15
[54] Ali 2022 p. 22 (Churchill’s American mother ‘did the rounds’): “His American heiress mother, Jennie Jerome, was only marginally better as a parent. She was fond of Winston in absentia. As he grew up, she was not averse to sleeping with the highest figures in the realm to help his career and re-fill her own purse, emptied after an economic collapse in the United States wrecked her family’s fortune. She did the rounds of the SWI squares (even, according to some reports, sleeping with the king), a process that had begun while her husband was dying of syphilis and continued apace after his death.” Tariq Ali Winston Churchill: His times, his crimes (2022; New York: Verso 2023);
Mallik 2023 pp. 3205, 3215 (Winston Churchill: “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits”): “Churchill’s words seem shocking today, but they reflected orthodox British imperial attitudes toward Indians in the mid-twentieth century. Tragically, this dehumanization carried significant policy implications that affected the lives of millions, notably during the great Bengal famine of 1943. ... It is worth emphasizing that while most biographies of Churchill mention the bombing of Germany, none of them includes the 1943 Bengal famine. The absence of this disaster in popular biographies of Churchill symbolizes it as a non-significant event.” Senjuti Mallik “Colonial biopolitics and the Great Bengal Famine of 1943” GeoJournal: Spatially integrated social sciences and humanities v88 (6 December 2023): 3205-21
[55] Churchill 1945 (“like rich men dwelling at peace”) cited in Chomsky 1994 pp. 4-5 who comments (‘rich men don’t lack ambition’) quoting Smith 1776 (“the vile maxim of the masters of mankind”): “To rule is the right and duty of the rich men dwelling in deserved peace. It is only necessary to add two footnotes. First, the rich men are far from lacking ambition; there are always new ways to enrich oneself and dominate others, and the economic system virtually requires that they be pursued, or the laggard falls out of the game. Second, the fantasy that nations are the actors in the international arena is the standard doctrinal camouflage for the fact that within rich nations, as within the hungry ones, there are radical differences in privilege and power. Removing the remaining veil of delusion from Churchill’s prescription, we derive the guidelines of world order: the rich men of the rich societies are to rule the world, competing among themselves for a greater share of wealth and power and mercilessly suppressing those who stand in their way, assisted by the rich men of the hungry nations who do their bidding. The others serve, and suffer. These are truisms. As described over two hundred years ago by Adam Smith, the often mis-represented hero of contemporary Western self-congratulation, the rich men follow "the vile maxim of the masters of mankind": "All for ourselves, and nothing for other people." {Smith 1776 bk3, ch4, v1, p. 437} They naturally use state power to achieve their ends; in his day, the "merchants and manufacturers" were "the principal architects" of policy, which they designed to assure that their interests would be "most peculiarly attended to," however "grievous" the impact on others, including the general population in their own societies.{Smith 1776 bk1, ch11, v1, pp. 276-78} If we do not adopt Smith’s method of "class analysis,"{Smith 1776 bk1, ch11, v1, p. 276} our vision will be blurred and distorted. Any discussion of world affairs that treats nations as actors is at best misleading, at worst pure mystification, unless it recognizes the crucial Smithian footnotes. As in any complex system, there are further nuances and secondary effects, but in reality, these are the basic themes of world order. There is no little merit in the description of world order, old and new, as "codified international piracy."” Noam Chomsky World Orders: Old and new New York: Columbia University 1994 quoting Adam Smith An Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations [1776] 5th edn. (ed.) Edwin Canaan (1789; Chicago: University of Chicago 1976)
[56] Breen 1993 p. 229 (Dr. Edward Boomer 27 October 1945): “died of a heart attack just four days after the agreement was announced. ... With Boomer’s death, the Alberta government lost a chairman who had begun to make the Conservation Board an effective presence province wide, not just in Turner Valley.” David H. Breen Alberta’s Petroleum Industry and the Conservation Board Edmonton: University of Alberta and the Energy Resources Conservation Board 1993;
Alberta Culture & Tourism Jumping Pound: “Despite the apparent size of the Jumping Pound reservoir, Shell found it necessary to put its development on hold”;
Kerr 1991 p. 21 (Rockefellers in Redwater): “Frank Roberts, fearless Carter Oil Co. [Standard Oil subsidiary] Party Chief and his unruly crew had started to run long reconnaissance seismic lines (spot shooting) from Breton northeast to Redwater.” Imperial Oil’s Alberta geologist Samuel Aubrey Kerr Leduc Altona: [self-published] 1991;
Kerr 1994 pp. 10, 9 (April-May 1946): Imperial Oil requested “200,000 acres east, west, and south of Edmonton (Reservation #350) ... [Standard Oil of New Jersey’s] Ted Link, a strong proponent of deep stratigraphic tests ... sent questionnaires ... to 32 Alberta geological staff to elicit their opinions.” Imperial Oil’s Alberta geologist Samuel Aubrey Kerr Redwater Calgary: [self-published] 1994;
Kerr 1991 p. 115 (“more enlightened Imperial moved in”): “Shell paid $30,000 for an option up at the end of 1946 to purchase in fee (mineral titles, not leases) 300,000 acres ... It was later reported that Shell had run a seismic line across Redwater where some of these minerals were situated ... Later that year, Shell decided that they could not fulfill their promises, nor could they turn their option to another company. ... When Shell dropped out, a more enlightened Imperial moved in” Imperial Oil’s Alberta geologist Samuel Aubrey Kerr Leduc Altona: [self-published] 1991;
Hancock & Gammel 1950 p. 2253 (30 August 1948): “Discovery of the Redwater oil field ... marked the second major Devonian reef field found in Alberta. The discovery well was located on the basis of detailed seismic work and came into production 39 months after discovery of the Leduc field. During May, 1950, 447 wells produced a market prorated average of 20,475 barrels per day of 34°-35° API oil. Proved productive area is approximately 30,000 acres with calculated recoverable reserves in the order of 560 million barrels.” W.P. Hancock and H.G. Gammel (Imperial Oil Ltd.) “Redwater Oil Field, Alberta” American Association of Petroleum Geologists AAPG Bulletin v34#11 (November 1950): 2253
[57] Keenan 1948a pp. 524-25 (“Our real task in the coming period”): “We have about 50 percent of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population. ... In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. ... We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction. ... We should cease to talk about vague and … unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.” 1st Director of Policy Planning George Keenan “US foreign policy: Review of current trends” [TOP SECRET] US State Department Policy Planning Study #23 (24 February 1948) in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948: The United Nations (Washington: USGPO 1976) v1pt2: 510-29
[58] Breen 1993 pp. 145-47 (Conservation Act sections 44 & 46 negotiated behind closed doors by E. Manning on St. Edmunds Day) David H. Breen Alberta’s Petroleum Industry and the Conservation Board Edmonton: University of Alberta and the Energy Resources Conservation Board 1993;
GoA 1938 pp. 13-14 (s.44 = industry above law + s.46 = citizens fund cleanup) Government of Alberta An Act for the Conservation of the Oil and Gas Resources of the Province of Alberta 2nd session of 8th Legislature (agreed 20 November 1938; assented 22 November 1938): 18pp;
Brennan 2008 p. 111 (Manning developed `38 oil policy w/ Rockefellers) Brian Brennan The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning story Calgary: Fifth House 2008;
Breen 2006 p. 556 (brother of Imperial Oil engineer ‘reveals’ no royalties paid from Leduc field 2 March 1948): Co-operative Commonwealth Federation [proto-New Democratic Party] MLA A.J.E. Liesemer: “when God placed beneath our feet these great pools of wealth for the enjoyment of us all, he did not put up a sign 'Reserved for the Imperial Oil.'” David H. Breen “1947: The making of modern Alberta” in Michael Payne, Donald Wetherell and Catherine Cavanaugh (eds.) Alberta Formed, Alberta Transformed (Edmonton: University of Alberta 2006) v2: 538-64;
CH 3/3/48 (no-confidence vote 3 March 1948): “Mr. Liesemer characterized the government system of granting leases for oil rights as a “dinner plate” system rather than a “checkerboard” system ... and showed a map of the Woodbend oil area which showed the Imperial Oil Company holdings as a solid section in the centre around the Discovery well. On the outer edges of this the government holdings ran. This policy, he alleged, gave Imperial Oil the “gravy” as far as the oil holdings in the province were concerned.” Andrew Snaddon “Liesemer flays gov't system of oil leases: 'No confidence' vote lost 44-4: 'Mud slinging' charged” Calgary Herald (3 March 1948): 9;
Timoney 2021 pp. 124, 119, 123 (Atlantic #3 8 March 1948): “Frank McMahon, who acquired the lease under questionable circumstances, and whose company was responsible for the disaster, became a millionaire as a result of the blowout … Craters bubbled with oil and gas for six months until the blowout caught fire in September 1948. … In the United States, Atlantic No. 3 would be a Superfund Site. In Alberta, it’s a historic site. … Interestingly, the site of the “2005 After” photograph in the regulator history … is not of the wellsite; it’s a photo of an area about 620m northwest of the well site. … Imperial Oil … decided to construct a pipeline through the local cemetery to carry the oil from the blowout. When word got out, a priest accompanied by local farmers armed with shovels, picks, axes, and pitchforks confronted Imperial Oil … Imperial relented and routed the pipeline to avoid the cemetery.” Kevin P. Timoney Hidden Scourge: Exposing the truth about fossil fuel industry spills Montréal: McGill University 2021;
Breen 1993 p. 280 (Atlantic #3 🡪 royalty cap): “In March, after discussions with the industry, the government accepted to the request to set a royalty ceiling that it was bound not to exceed [16.7%].” David H. Breen Alberta’s Petroleum Industry and the Conservation Board Edmonton: University of Alberta and the Energy Resources Conservation Board 1993;
As if aided by a higher power, Ernest Manning’s 1948 royalty cap remains true through to this day. Note the drop when Rockefellers 1st started stealing Leduc oil: CAPP 2020 Tables 4.3b + 4.19b (Cumulative royalties value of cumulative production: 1947-2018): Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers “Statistical handbook for Canada’s upstream petroleum industry” Technical Report #2019-9999 (February 2020): 204pp;
Manning 1992 pp. 45, 54, 42 (Preston Manning + System Dynamics + bitumen): “[University of Alberta sociology graduate student Erick Schmidt’s] doctoral thesis ... drew upon modern “systems analysis” [classified until 1972] ... Erick and I not only became friends, but his insights ... were a major influence on my own approach ... As I was finishing my last year [1964] at the University of Alberta, I developed an interest in systems analysis as a planning and management tool, just at the time that this [system dynamics] perspective was beginning to be applied in the United States defense and aerospace industries. [In 1967] Erick Schmidt ... was executive assistant to [Ernest Manning’s Social Credit] cabinet ... By 1967, my father had made up his mind ... he wanted to do some policy work that might provide some new directions and fresh materials for his successors. The Alberta government’s White Paper on Human Resources Development ... was essentially put together by Erick Schmidt, who was the executive assistant to the cabinet, myself, and a number of outside researchers and resource people” Preston Manning The New Canada Toronto: Macmillan Canada 1992;
Brennan 2008 p. 167 (Manning Consulting Ltd 16 December 1968): “[Ernest] Manning and [his 2nd son] Preston set up a management consulting firm ... later renamed Manning Consulting Limited—to act as what Preston called "the link between the demand for specialized knowledge and the supply." ... he and Preston opted not to market their services to the government or its agencies. Nor would they approach the big oil companies, because the energy industry had close ties with the provincial government.” Brian Brennan The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning story Calgary: Fifth House 2008;
CBC 22/11/23 (Ernest’s quisling heir funds Preston’s Covid ‘research’ today): “Last year, before Premier Danielle Smith appointed him to study the pandemic response, [Preston] Manning dabbled in creative writing on the topic. And covered much of the same ground, albeit in fiction. Before Manning's real Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel of 2023, there was his imagined COVID Commission of 2023. To read both is to behold the fantasy evolve into reality. Although the [quisling Danielle] Smith [United Conservative Party of Alberta] government gave him a panel and a $2-million budget for research and support ... many [federal] conclusions essentially remained the same.” Producer Jason Markusoff “Preston Manning's fiction made real in his Alberta pandemic report[s]: Reform Party founder wrote imaginary post-COVID review, then repeated ideas for actual government panel” CBC News (22 November 2023)
[59] Wilford 2008 pp. 25-26 (PPM 269): “supplied intellectual basis for covert aspects of US Cold War foreign policy, setting agenda for all its front operations in first years of Cold War” California State University (Long Beach) History Professor Hugh Wilford The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America Cambridge: Harvard University 2008;
Keenan 1948b pp. 669, 671 (5 May 1948): “Covert operations are traditional in many European chancelleries but are relatively unfamiliar to this Government. ... The creation, success, and survival of the British Empire has been due in part to the British understanding and application of the principles of political warfare ... It would seem that the time is now fully ripe for the creation of a covert political warfare operations directorate with ... complete authority over covert political warfare operations conducted by this Government. It should have the authority to initiate new operations and to bring under its control or abolish existing covert political warfare activities.” 1st Director of Policy Planning George Keenan “The inauguration of organized political warfare” US State Department Policy Planning Memorandum #269 (5 May 1948) in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-50: Emergence of the intelligence establishment (Washington: USGPO 1996): 668-72
[60] Morris & Kedar 2023 (“the gloves came off” April 1948): “On the night of 31 March, David Ben-Gurion, the leader of the Yishuv and its de facto defence minister, in political charge of the Haganah, summoned an emergency meeting of his military aides. ... In April 1948 the gloves came off. ... Operation Nahshon, launched in effect on 3 April ... marked the Yishuv’s turn to the offensive and was the first in a six-week-long series of country-wide operations in which the Palestinian Arab militias were crushed ... This article describes Israel’s bacteriological warfare campaign during the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948.” Benny Morris and Benjamin Z. Kedar “'Cast thy bread': Israeli biological warfare during the 1948 War” Middle Eastern Studies v59#5 (2023): 752-76 [excerpt];
Carus 2001 (Israeli bioterrorism w/ US aid) W. Seth Carus ‘"Zionist" terrorists, 1947-1948’ Case #1947-01 in National Defense University “Bioterrorism and Biocrimes: The illicit use of biological agents since 1900” Center for Counterproliferation Research Working Paper (1998; February 2001): 87-88;
Khalidi 1961 p. 8 (Plan D): “'Plan Dalet' or 'Plan D' was the name given by the Zionist High Command to the general plan for military operations within the framework of which the Zionists launched successive offensives in April and early May 1948 in various parts of Palestine. These offensives, which entailed the destruction of the Palestinian Arab community and the expulsion and pauperization of the bulk of the Palestine Arabs, were calculated to achieve the military fait accompli upon which the state of Israel was to be based.” Walid Khalidi “Plan Dalet: Master plan for the conquest of Palestine” Journal of Palestine Studies v18#1 (Autumn 1988): 4-33 [reprint of 1961 article in defunct Middle East Forum];
UNGA #194 para. 11 (11 December 1948): “Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date” United Nations “Palestine: Progress report of the United Nations mediator” General Assembly Resolution #194 (III) (11 December 1948): 5pp;
UN 1948 art. 13(2) (11 December 1948): “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (11 December 1948): 8pp;
Kanaana 2000 Sharif Kanaana Still On Vacation! The eviction of the Palestinians in 1948 Jerusalem: SHAML Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Centre 2000
[61] Nitze 1950 (NSC 68) 2nd Director of Policy Planning Paul Henry Nitze “United States objectives and programs for national security” US State Department National Security Council Report #68 (14 April 1950) in v1 of Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950: National security affairs; foreign economic policy (Washington: USGPO 1977): 234-92;
Heuser 1991 p. 17 (drafted Feb-Mar): “The paper was drafted in February and March and it paved the way for the most comprehensive re-armament programme the United States had ever undertaken in time of peace. ... NSC 68 thus ushered in the post-World War II peak of US defense spending as a percentage of GNP.” Beatrice Heuser “NSC 68 and the Soviet threat: A new perspective on Western threat perception and policy making” Review of International Studies v17#1 (January 1991): 17-40;
Louis 1997 p. 209 (1958 Iraqi revolution a historical watershed): “The Middle East Crisis of 1958 was profoundly different from that of 1956. It had different origins and it was different in its nature, but it held the potential to become as severe. The Iraqi revolution of July 1958 was a watershed in the history of the Middle East and the region’s relations with the West. It represented the overthrow of the old social and landed order and the virtual end of the British Empire in the Middle East, even though the British presence continued in Aden and the Gulf. In another sense the crisis marked the rise to the ascendancy of the United States as a Middle Eastern power in place of Britain.” Academy Fellow William Roger Louis “Harold Macmillan and the Middle East Crisis of 1958” Proceedings of the British Academy v94 (1997): 207-28;
Shlaim 1999 p. 177 (Israel & Iraq 1958): “There are several studies of the 1958 crisis and its consequences from the point of view of the Arab states involved. In addition, there are various accounts of American and British policies during this crisis. The purpose of the present essay is to examine the 1958 crisis from the Israeli perspective and, more specifically, from the perspective of Israel’s relations with the Great Powers.” Avi Shlaim “Israel, the great powers, and the Middle East crisis of 1958” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History v27#2 (1999): 177-92
[62] Elliott 1958 pp. 431-32, 444-45, 458 (‘evidently absurd that tribal chieftains should claim absolute power over resources’): “This book ... shows how deep in history are the roots of the problem of colonialism ... It becomes obvious how difficult it is to disentangle the West from the remnants of its own imperial past without conceding the loss of bases which are essential ... or without having to face the loss of strategic areas and of secure access to the world’s basic resources, in particular its oil reserves, on which the continued economic health of Western civilization may well depend ...
Colonialism and property rights in basic world resources
Colonialism has left in its wake a moral issue which increasingly demands juridical review freed from the mere "legalism" of traditional international law and its clichés. It concerns the doctrine of property rights. The Iranian nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil company set a pattern, which, if followed in the Near East, could cast this area into chaos or deliver its assets to Russia as receiver in bankruptcy. If tribal chieftains ... should claim absolute power over resources on which the whole of western Europe depends for its industrial life-blood, it is evidently absurd to apply a concept of absolute as that of sovereign right without juridical or moral limits. ... the best way to help ... convince the governments of these territories ... is ... To enlist the intellectuals of this area ... We need to stimulate bold new thinking ... and to show that indigenous leaders can, with better training ... convince the colonial peoples that the resources of the countries they inhabit are a trust to the world” Harvard professor, Rhodes scholar and US presidential advisor William Y. Elliott “Colonialism: Freedom and responsibility” ch14 of University of Pennsylvania Foreign Policy Research Institute The Idea of Colonialism (eds.) Robert Strausz-Hupé and Harry Hazard (New York: Praeger 1958): 430-58
[63] ERCB 2013 p. 163: “The ERCB approves construction of the Great Canadian Oil Sands (GCOS, now Suncor Energy Inc.), the first Fort McMurray bitumen mining and upgrading complex. Over vigorous resistance by conventional producers, whose wells remain restricted to pumping below capacity by pro-rationing, a new provincial policy grants the oil sands a 5 per cent share of the market for Alberta crude.” Gordon Jaremko Steward: 75 years of Alberta energy regulation Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board 2013: 192pp;
Maclean’s 25/10/93 p. 16 (Keith Manning b. 1940): “Preston was the second of two sons born to Ernest and his wife, Muriel. The older boy, Keith, born in 1940, suffered a lack of oxygen at birth, which destroyed part of his brain. Until his death in 1986, Keith suffered from epileptic seizures and arrested mental development. Unable to send him to school, the Mannings tutored him at home and enrolled him in a number of special-care programs, including a residential school in New York state. Those efforts sometimes put a considerable financial strain on the family.” Brian Bergman “The crusader: Preston Manning gets set to take on Ottawa” Maclean’s v106#43 (25 October 1993): 14-17;
Brennan 2008 pp. 38-40 (Keith returned to Alberta at age 23): “Advances in drug and educational therapy eventually made it possible for Keith ... at age 23 ... to return to Alberta. He lived for about ten years at Red Deer’s Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives ... It is not known if Keith ... was sterilized [in Alberta or New York]. When an Edmonton Journal reporter put the question to Muriel in 1996, she referred him to her husband, who did not phone back. It is known, however, that both Muriel and Ernest believed sterilization was appropriate for mentally challenged individuals. ... Ernest always said he always felt that Alberta’s medical specialists should have the power to order sterilization ... for severely challenged individuals who were incapable of making decisions themselves. ... his mother frequently spoke at meetings of the [eugenics-advocating] Social Credit women’s groups” Brian Brennan The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning story Calgary: Fifth House 2008;
Manning 2011 p. 6 (US oil exec eased Manning family’s financial strain): Preston Manning: “Pew apparently did give a contribution ... ten-thousand dollars a year to [Ernest Manning’s] radio broadcast in Calgary” Preston Manning and Peter McKenzie-Brown Interview transcript Petroleum History Society Oil Sands Oral History Project (21 October 2011): 20pp [no longer online]
[64] Sampson 1975 pp. 13-14: “The oil companies, led by Exxon and Shell … through nationalizations in Mexico or Iran, revolution in Iraq, wars in the Middle East, they had successfully maintained the steady flow of oil, increasing never too fast to make the market collapse, never too slow to make consumers go short. If anyone was expert in the subject of controlling supplies, it was not OPEC, but they.” Anthony Sampson The Seven Sisters: The greatest oil companies and the world they shaped New York: Viking 1975
[65] Lane & Sterman 2011 (pioneer & innovator Jay Forrester) David C. Lane and John D. Sterman “Jay Wright Forrester” ch20 in Arjang A. Assad and Saul I. Gass (eds.) Profiles in Operations Research: Pioneers and innovators (New York: Springer 2011): 363-86;
Forrester 1956 (complex economic systems 1956) Jay W. Forrester “Dynamic models of economic systems and industrial organizations” MIT System Dynamics Group D-Memo #0 (5 November 1956): 27pp reprinted in System Dynamics Review v19#4 (Winter 2003): 331-45;
Forrester 1970a pp. 1-2, 4, 6-7, 9 (‘Unless we adopt more rational design we’ll be committed to same consequences’): “On a national scale, inflation, economic stagnation, and an increasingly visible gap between rich and poor all suggest that we do not understand the interrelationships between fiscal and monetary policy, price stability, unemployment, economic growth, and equal opportunities for all citizens. ... we suggest that natural forces are at work that produce systems ill-suited to our objectives. ... All of our social systems, from the community to the world-system, belong to a category which we here call "complex systems". Complex systems in many ways behave the opposite from simple systems. ... it is only in the last few hundred years that our social systems have developed a complexity which is understood by no one. ... But a new science and methodology for dealing with complex systems is emerging. A theory of complex systems is being developed. The perceptive strength of the person can now combine with the computational strength of electronic computers to generate new insights into the behavior of our social systems. We are entering a new frontier in human endeavor—the frontier of understanding the dynamic behavior of our social systems. ... A ... by-product of growing complexity in our social systems is the increasing likelihood that the consequence of new laws, policies, and programs will produce results quite different from those anticipated. ... [Another] by-product of the changes in our social systems is to increase the emphasis on short-run considerations. But in the long run this is counterproductive. In general a policy change in our social system will produce a change in the short run which is opposite from the direction of change produced in the long run. ... The short run is visible and persuasive. Several decades of catering to the short run produces a burden of long-tern depressants which can no longer be counteracted by short-term manipulation. ... The ultimate result of a series of short-term responses is faltering performance of a social system. Unless the nature of the process is perceived and unless unlikely and counterintuitive actions are taken, a nonreversible sequence results which produces growing stress, conflict, and futility. Traditionally, this process of system degradation has been terminated by revolution, collapse, war, or capture by an outside force. Unless we adopt more rational design procedures we will continue to be committed to the same violent consequences of our ineptness in social system design.” Jay W. Forrester “Social systems analysis” ("Not for Publication") for the Science Council of Canada (1 June 1970) in Jay Wright Forrester Papers (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): 86pp;
Jevons 1871 pp. 93-94 (Neoclassical Economics: “a problem of dynamics”): “We must carefully distinguish, at the same time, between the Statics and Dynamics of this subject. The real condition of industry is one of perpetual motion and change. Commodities are being continually manufactured and exchanged and consumed. If we wished to have a complete solution to the problem in all its natural complexity, we should have to treat it as a problem of motion – a problem of dynamics. But it would surely be absurd to attempt the more difficult question when the more easy one is yet so imperfectly within our power. It is only as a purely statical problem that I can venture to treat the action of exchange.” William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy London: Macmillan 1871;
Tolstoy 1869 bk14, ch2 (Novelist foretold answer Jevons sought in 1871 & Forrester produced in 1956): “Momentum (quantity of motion) is the product of mass and velocity. In military affairs the strength of an army is the product of its mass and some unknown x. Military science, seeing in history innumerable instances of the fact that the size of any army does not coincide with its strength and that small detachments defeat larger ones, obscurely admits the existence of this unknown factor and tries to discover it—now in a geometric formation, now in the equipment employed, now, and most usually, in the genius of the commanders. But the assignment of these various meanings to the factor does not yield results which accord with the historic facts. Yet it is only necessary to abandon the false view (adopted to gratify the “heroes”) of the efficacy of the directions issued in wartime by commanders, in order to find this unknown quantity. That unknown quantity is the spirit of the army, that is to say, the greater or lesser readiness to fight and face danger felt by all the men composing an army, quite independently of whether they are, or are not, fighting under the command of a genius, in two or three-line formation, with cudgels or with rifles that repeat thirty times a minute. Men who want to fight will always put themselves in the most advantageous conditions for fighting. The spirit of an army is the factor which multiplied by the mass gives the resulting force. To define and express the significance of this unknown factor—the spirit of an army—is a problem for science. This problem is only solvable if we cease arbitrarily to substitute for the unknown x itself the conditions under which that force becomes apparent—such as the commands of the general, the equipment employed, and so on—mistaking these for the real significance of the factor, and if we recognize this unknown quantity in its entirety as being the greater or lesser desire to fight and to face danger. Only then, expressing known historic facts by equations and comparing the relative significance of this factor, can we hope to define the unknown. Ten men, battalions, or divisions, fighting fifteen men, battalions, or divisions, conquer—that is, kill or take captive—all the others, while themselves losing four, so that on the one side four and on the other fifteen were lost. Consequently the four were equal to the fifteen, and therefore 4x = 15y. Consequently x/y = 15/4. This equation does not give us the value of the unknown factor but gives us a ratio between two unknowns. And by bringing variously selected historic units (battles, campaigns, periods of war) into such equations, a series of numbers could be obtained in which certain laws should exist and might be discovered.” Leo Tolstoy (trans.) Louise and Aylmer Maude War and Peace (1865-69) Project Gutenberg
Keen 2022 p. 138 (SD solves neoclassical methodological problems but was kept secret): “system dynamics was in fact the solution that Jevons, one of the founding fathers of Neoclassical economics, longed for eighty years earlier: a method by which manifestly inadequate reliance upon equilibrium modelling could be replaced by dynamics "in all its natural complexity" ... The crucial methodological error by economists must be reversed. System dynamics can and should be the methodological core of a new economics, which will have to be built by students of economics over the objections – and behind the backs – of their Neoclassical instructors.” Steve Keen The New Economics: A manifesto Medford: Polity 2022
[66] Elliott 1958 pp. 431-32, 444-45, 458 (1958 Elliott memo on resource ownership): “This book ... shows how deep in history are the roots of the problem of colonialism ... It becomes obvious how difficult it is to disentangle the West from the remnants of its own imperial past without conceding the loss of bases which are essential ... or without having to face the loss of strategic areas and of secure access to the world’s basic resources, in particular its oil reserves, on which the continued economic health of Western civilization may well depend ... Colonialism and property rights in basic world resources Colonialism has left in its wake a moral issue which increasingly demands juridical review freed from the mere "legalism" of traditional international law and its clichés. It concerns the doctrine of property rights. The Iranian nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil company set a pattern, which, if followed in the Near East, could cast this area into chaos or deliver its assets to Russia as receiver in bankruptcy. If tribal chieftains ... should claim absolute over resources on which the whole of western Europe depends for its industrial life-blood, it is evidently absurd to apply a concept of absolute as that of sovereign right without juridical or moral limits. ... the best way to help ... convince the governments of these territories ... is ... To enlist the intellectuals of this area ... We need to stimulate bold new thinking ... and to show that indigenous leaders can, with better training ... convince the colonial peoples that the resources of the countries they inhabit are a trust to the world” Harvard professor, Rhodes scholar and US presidential advisor William Y. Elliott “Colonialism: Freedom and responsibility” ch14 in University of Pennsylvania Foreign Policy Research Institute The Idea of Colonialism (eds.) Robert Strausz-Hupé and Harry Hazard (New York: Praeger 1958): 430-58
[67] OECD & Rockefeller 1968 p. 238 (1968 Rockefeller Memorandum on planning): “The Nature of Complex Systems To understand the dangers and frustrations of planning and on the other hand the possibilities, one must know something about the nature of complex systems. "Complex systems" as used here refers to high-order, multiple-loop, nonlinear, feedback structures. All social systems belong to this class. The management structure of a corporation has all the characteristics of a complex system. Likewise, an urban area, a national government, the processes of economic development, and international trade all are complex systems. Complex systems have many unexpected and little understood characteristics.” Erich Jantsch (ed.) Working Symposium on Long-Range Forecasting and Planning Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development with the Rockefeller Foundation (Bellagio, Italy: 27 October-2 November 1968): 496pp;
OECD 1971 p. 20 (OECD Environment Committee 1970): “The OECD Environment Committee was set up in 1970 to take over the work of a more technical character the former Committee for Research Co-operation and to expand the economic and policy side of OECD work in this field. ... The immediate OECD programme on the environment is focused on natural resources and pollution control ... Natural Resources and Pollution Control issues are being studied by ad hoc groups on Air Pollution from Fuel Combustion by Stationary Sources, in co-operation with the OECD Energy and Oil Committees” Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development “OECD and the environment” OECD Observer #53 (October 1971): 19-26;
Nader 2025 (1969 Rosenthal Memorandum on journalism): “Lewis Powell was a corporate attorney in Richmond. He represented utilities and other companies. And he was asked by the US Chamber Commerce for advice on what to do with the rousing activity on campuses, the students, the anti-war, the civil rights, women’s rights movement, criticism of big banks and other corporations, the eruption of resistance to pollution and at that time the early Earth Day mobilization. ... But the pivotal change was not [the 1971 Powell Memorandum on education]. The pivotal change was Abe Rosenthal[’s 1969 Memorandum], the new managing editor of the New York Times. And he was what we would call now a neoconservative. And he was a foreign reporter for the New York Times in Poland and elsewhere, and then they made him managing editor. And he did not like us. He was opening suburban additions to the New York Times. He wanted more ads. He thought we were bad for business. And he basically started to shut us down. The first thing he did was he told the Washington Bureau that if we come out with a critical report of a corporation and the corporation does not respond, they are not to report on our findings, on our revelations. Well, you know, that doesn’t take long for corporations to find that out. And so they didn’t respond. So the Washington bureau would send the article up to New York for publication and it wouldn’t get in. He then didn’t like Arab Americans, particularly. He was a staunch supporter of the Israeli government, who can do no wrong in those days. And there was not a little bigotry here involved as people told me at the time. And so he wanted basically to shut us down and the coverage began to decline in the Times. ... I started the Center for Auto Safety [1970], Public Citizen [1971], the Pension Rights Center [1976], the public interest research groups [1971] around the country and many other groups because again, I didn’t want to be a lone ranger. We had to have much more resources, many more people to counter the hordes of corporate lobbyists and their PACs” Ralph Nader “How the media walked us into autocracy” Chris Hedges Report (8 March 2025): 57 mins;
NYT 7/12/95 (NYT Vice President James Barrett Reston): “He often returned to certain themes, such as the role of the press. In his column of Oct. 30, 1968, when Spiro T. Agnew, soon to be elected Vice President, was denouncing news organizations, Mr. Reston wrote:
"The candidates and the press are fussing at each other again, and this is the way it should be. They have different jobs, and in many ways they are natural enemies, like cats and dogs. The first job of the candidate is to win, and he usually says what he thinks will help him win. The job of the reporter is to report what happens and decontaminate as much of the political poison as he can. The conflict is obvious."”
R.W. Apple Jr. “James Reston, a giant of journalism, dies at 86” New York Times (7 December 1995): 1, 51;
NYT 11/5/6 (NYT Managing Editor Abraham Michael Rosenthal): “Canadian-born ... led the paper’s global news operations through 17 years of record growth, modernization and major journalistic change ... After being named managing editor in 1969, Mr. Rosenthal was briefly outranked by James B. Reston, the executive editor. But Mr. Reston soon accepted a vice presidency, Mr. Rosenthal assumed command of news operations, and the executive editorship was dropped until 1977, when Mr. Rosenthal took the title. At the helm of a staff of highly regarded editors and writers that included many young stars he had recruited, Mr. Rosenthal directed coverage of the major news stories of the era — the war in Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate scandal and successive crises in the Middle East.” Robert D. McFadden “A.M. Rosenthal, editor of The Times, dies at 84” New York Times (11 May 2006)
[68] Forrester 1970a pp. 1, 5 (1970 Forrester Memorandum on social science): “The industrial corporation, which has been so effective in raising the standard of living in the Western democracies, is under attack; ... Our present Western civilization has followed an evolution which started with the authoritarian structure of the primitive tribe. ... Abuses of authoritarian organization led to violent, revolutionary changes that established democrat-capitalist systems which interrelated political and economic structure. ... The reactions to these abuses were not to alter the incentives to generate pressures in other directions but instead to add restrictive prohibitions against the abuses. The restrictions require enforcement. Enforcement meant expanding government. The result was a proliferation of restrictive regulations and a growing government bureaucracy to enforce and administer those restrictions. A silent and gradual political revolution converted the democratic-capitalist social system toward what we might now call a bureaucratic-socialist system. In this latter system the network of restrictions and regulation reduced individual incentive and opportunity to a point where the individual is no longer the mainspring of economic and social action. ... But as government begins to intervene to generate the goods and services which men need, numerous unexpected by-products are created.” Jay W. Forrester “Social systems analysis” (“Not for Publication”) for the Science Council of Canada (1 June 1970) in Jay Wright Forrester Papers (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): 86pp
[69] Nordhaus 1971 (1971 Nordhaus Memorandum on conservation) Yale University Sterling Professor of Economics William D. Nordhaus “World Dynamics: Measurement without data” CF-20510 (May 1971) cited in Forrester, Low & Mass 1974 p. 169n: “An earlier, unpublished, version of the [1973] paper, bearing the same title, was widely circulated hand-to-hand within the United States, Canada, and Europe.” Jay W. Forrester, Gilbert W. Low and Nathaniel J. Mass “The debate on World Dynamics: A response to Nordhaus” Policy Sciences v5#2 (June 1974): 169-90;
Nordhaus 1973 Yale University Sterling Professor of Economics William D. Nordhaus “World Dynamics: Measurement without data” Royal Economic Society (London) Economic Journal v83#332 (December 1973): 1156-83;
Friedman 1970 (1970 Friedman Memorandum on pollution): “businessmen believe that they are defending free enterprise when they … take[] seriously its responsibilities for … avoiding pollution … In fact they are ... preaching pure and unadulterated socialism. Businessmen who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades.” Milton Friedman “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits” New York Times Magazine (13 September 1970): 6pp;
Friedman 1953 pp. 14-15 (Friedman’s F-Twist): “Truly important and significant hypotheses will be found to have "assumptions" that are wildly inaccurate descriptive representations of reality, and, in general, the more significant the theory, the more unrealistic the assumptions (in this sense) ... To be important, therefore, a hypothesis must be descriptively false in its assumptions ... To put this point less paradoxically, the relevant question to ask about the "assumptions" of a theory is not whether they are descriptively "realistic", for they never are” Milton Friedman “The methodology of positive economics” (1953) in Essays in Positive Economics (Chicago: University of Chicago 1966): 3-16, 30-43;
Archibald, Simon & Samuelson 1963 p. 229 (Herbert Simon & Paul Samuelson on Friedman’s methodology): “what Professor Samuelson called the F-Twist, and what I like to think of as Friedman’s "principle of unreality"” G.C. Archibald, Herbert A. Simon and Paul A. Samuelson “Discussion” American Economic Review v53#2 (May 1963): 227-36 [papers & proceedings of 75th annual American Economic Association meeting]
[70] Powell 1971 (1971 Powell Memorandum on activism) Lewis F. Powell Jr. “Attack on American free enterprise system” Confidential Memorandum to US Chamber of Commerce education committee chairman Eugene B. Syndor Jr. (23 August 1971): 34pp;
Huntington 1975 pp. 59-62, 75-76, 84, 89-90 (1975 Huntington Memorandum on political parties): “The 1960s witnessed a dramatic renewal of the democratic spirit in America. ... The spirit of protest, the spirit of equality, the impulse to expose and correct inequities were abroad in the land. ... Previously passive or unorganized groups in the population now embarked on concerted efforts to establish their claims to opportunities, positions, rewards, and privileges, which they had not considered themselves entitled to before. ... People no longer felt the same compulsion to obey those whom they had previously considered superior to themselves in age, rank, status, expertise, character, or talents. Within most organizations, discipline eased and differences in status became blurred. … The questioning of authority pervaded society. ... The fire has subsided with respect to many of the heated issues of the 1960s, and, at the moment, they have been displaced on the public agenda by overwhelming preoccupation with economic issues, first inflation and then recession. ... The lesson of the 1960s was that American political parties were extraordinarily open and vulnerable organizations, in the sense that they could easily be penetrated, and even captured, by highly motivated and well-organized groups with a cause and a candidate. … As we have indicated, the signs of decay in the American party system have their parallels in the party systems of other industrialized democratic countries. ... The trends in party reform and organization in the 1960s were all designed to open the parties even further and to encourage fuller participation in party affairs. … but … the longer-term effect of the reforms could be very different from what was intended. In the democratic surge of the Progressive era at the turn of the century, the direct primary was widely adopted as a means of ensuring popular control of the party organization. In fact, however, the primary reinforced the power of the political bosses … In similar fashion, the Democratic party reforms of the 1970s … appeared likely to give the party leaders at the national convention new influence over the choice of the presidential nominee.” Samuel P. Huntington “The United States” ch3 in French sociologist Michel Crozier, Harvard University professor and Center for International Affairs director Samuel P. Huntington and Japanese sociologist Joji Watanuki The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the governability of democracies to the Trilateral Commission (New York: New York University 1975): 59-118;
NYT 23/7/16 (Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign thwarted by party bosses 2016): “Among the emails released on Friday were several embarrassing messages that suggest the committee’s chairwoman, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, and other officials favored Hillary Clinton over Mr. Sanders — a claim the senator made repeatedly during the primaries.” Michael D. Shear and Matthew Rosenberg “Emails suggest that Democratic officials scoffed at Sanders’s campaign” New York Times (23 July 2016): A10
[71] Posner & Stigler 1980 pp. 1-2 (1980 Posner & Stigler Memorandum on antitrust): “President Reagan has unique opportunity to prune luxuriant & pernicious federal overexpansion of antitrust law enforcement” University of Chicago Law School senior lecturer/federal appellate judge/20th century’s most-cited legal scholar Richard A. Posner and key leader of Chicago school of economics/'Nobel' laureate George J. Stigler “Throttling back on antitrust: A practical proposal for deregulation” (December 1980) in Ronald Reagan Library (series I, box 2): ‘Martin Anderson Files’: 4pp;
Keating 1987 (1987 Keating Memorandum threatening to kill a prominent banking regulator) quoted in Black 2012 p. 2: “Charles Keating famously issued a written order that Lincoln Savings’ "HIGHEST PRIORITY" should be to "GET BLACK … KILL HIM DEAD." (Keating was an "all caps" kind of guy.) Lincoln Savings hired private detectives twice to investigate me and Keating eventually brought a Bivens action against me seeking $400 million in damages. One of the charges against Speaker of the House James Wright, Jr., proposed by the independent counsel of the House ethics committee after the committee’s investigation, was the Speakers’ repeated efforts to get me fired. The Senate ethics investigation of the "Keating Five" revealed (when the Senate ethics committee granted immunity to one of Keating’s lieutenants) that, subsequent to the April 2 and 9, 1987 meetings of the five senators with us, the Speaker met with Keating and urged him to sue me (and former Chairman Gray) and to continue the effort to get me fired. I want to thank Senator Grassley for his long record of seeking to protect whistleblowers from these forms of retaliation.” University of Missouri-Kansas City Associate Professor of Economics and Law William K. Black prepared testimony before “Examining Lending Discrimination Practices and Foreclosure Abuses” Senate Committee on the Judiciary (7 March 2012): 53pp
[72] Nichol 1991 pp. 1-4 (1991 Nichol Memorandum on fraudulent transfer): “For the last three years a joint task force composed of representatives from industry … and the financial community have been reviewing the question of responsibility for [cleaning up] wells ... This paper reviews the history of this work. ... [the Alberta oil & gas regulator’s] philosophical approach … motivated by … the large companies selling properties (low producing wells) to stripper operators that may produce them to their economic limit … but who then may be unable or unwilling to abandon the wells properly. That could result in those wells becoming a public liability. … Clearly, if the people of Alberta were going to have to pay some significant amount toward solving this problem, they would look to the Board to develop stricter abandonment and suspension regulations to permit it. But as regulators, we are well aware that regulation is not always the most efficient way of getting things done.” John R. Nichol “Orphan wells: Who is responsible, for how long, and at what cost?” Canadian Association of Drilling Engineers/Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors Spring Drilling Conference (Calgary: 10-12 April 1991) Paper #91-30: 6pp (After denying any related records for years, memo now available from AER library for fee);
President Bill Clinton’s 1995 Strategic Command on nuclear posture quoted in Chomsky 2009: “Donald Rumsfeld’s 2002 Nuclear Posture Review evoked concern and condemnation, but not the far more aggressive stance of Clinton’s Strategic Command, which controls nuclear weapons. It advised in 1995 that nuclear weapons must be the core of military strategy because "Unlike chemical or biological weapons, the extreme destruction from a nuclear explosion is immediate, with few if any palliatives to reduce its effect," and even if not used, nuclear weapons "always cast a shadow over any crisis or conflict." We should therefore reject a "no first use policy," and make it clear that our use of nuclear weapons, even against non-nuclear states, may "either be response or preemptive." Furthermore planners should not "portray ourselves as too fully rational and cool-headed. ... That the US may become irrational and vindictive if its vital interests are attacked should be a part of the national persona we project." It is "beneficial" for our strategic posture if "some elements may appear to be potentially 'out of control'," a version of the "madman theory" attributed to Nixon. I know of nothing comparable in the public record, but it passed unnoticed.” Noam Chomsky “Hopes and prospects” Amnesty International lecture (Belfast 30 October 2009);
Booz Allen 1998 (1998 Booz Allen Memorandum on distractions): “The use of the Internet could have rebound effect and fuel a more voracious public demand for ever more material. May facilitate more FOIA requests by providing a shopping list of available materials. ... A strategy could then be devised by DoD ... to implement a coherent and complimentary plan to achieve the declassification goals. For example ... Diversion: List of interesting declassified material - i.e. Kennedy assassination data.” Booz Allen & Hamilton “Operations security impact on declassification management within the Department of Defense” (13 February 1998);
Chomsky 2007 (‘draws enormous time & energy away from urgent matters’): “There are many holes in the investigation of any historical event that will never be filled, but an independent investigation [of the JFK assassination] might help clear the air. As for the theories now put forth, they have two crucial properties, in my opinion: (1) they draw enormous amounts of time and energy away from serious activism on urgent matters (and may well be welcome to those in power for that reason, as the JFK assassination investigations have been, so internal government documents indicate). ... (2) what has been presented is not very credible.” Noam Chomsky “Conspiracy theories” Z Network (7 December 2007);
AP 19/4/25 (RFK assassination docs released April 2025) Joshua Funk and Haya Panjwani “1968 assassination are released, on Trump’s order” Associated Press (19 April 2025)
[73] On the decline of American politics and public debate in the half-century since the independence of Alberta and the end of the international gold standard, see:
RAND 2020 p. 40 (difference in 90th percentile’s share of economic output since 1975 total $47 trillion) Carter C. Price and Kathryn A. Edwards “Trends in income from 1975 to 2018” RAND Corporation Working Paper #WR-A516-1 (September 2020): 62pp
Scheffer, Leemput, Weinans & Bollen 2021 Marten Scheffer, Ingrid van de Leemput, Els Weinans and Johan Bollen “The rise and fall of rationality in language” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences v118#51 (16 December 2021): 8pp;
Fix 2025 Blair Fix “Partisan politics and the road to plutocracy” Economics From the Top Down (31 January 2025): 71pp;
Rand 2025 p. 4 (additional growth in inequality = $32T 2018-23): “Looking at the net effects of these trends, if we had the income distribution from 1975, the majority of workers (the bottom 90 percent by income) would have made an additional $3.9 trillion dollars in 2023. Cumulatively, the gap between what workers from 1975 to 2023 earned and what they would have earned with the counterfactual income distribution amounts to $79 trillion (in 2023 dollars). Compared to the $47 trillion from the 2020 study, the additional $32 trillion dollars comes from extending the time-period by five years, inflating from 2018 to 2023, and additional growth in inequality.” Carter C. Price “Measuring the income gap from 1975 to 2023: Extending previous work” RAND Corporation Working Paper #WR-A516-2 (17 February 2025): 11pp;
Aroyehun, Simchon, Carrella, Lasser, Lewandowsky & Garcia 2025 Segun T. Aroyehun, Almog Simchon, Fabio Carrella, Jana Lasser, Stephan Lewandowsky and David Garcia “Computational analysis of US congressional speeches reveals a shift from evidence to intuition” Nature Human Behaviour (10 April 2025): 15pp;
Forrester 1970a pp. 78-79: “Understanding the behavior of our social systems is the next great intellectual frontier. The last several decades have been devoted to the exploration and utilization of physical science. The next several decades will focus in a similar way on a science of social systems. ... The stages in training a social dynamist will be somewhat similar to those experienced by a medical doctor. There is theory to be learned, lecture material to be transmitted, cases to be studied, laboratory experience to be acquired, and an internship to be served. Then experience and practice are required to develop skills. ... Just as first aid can be learned quickly and usefully by the individual, so some knowledge of social dynamics can temper the attitudes and judgement of every individual. Just as physical science should be part of the background of the well-educated individual, so will social dynamics be a part of the perspective of the future well-educated man.” Jay W. Forrester “Social systems analysis” ("Not for Publication") for the Science Council of Canada (1 June 1970) in Jay Wright Forrester Papers (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): 86pp
[74] Smith 1776 bk3, ch4, v1, p. 437 (“the vile maxim of the masters of mankind”: “All for ourselves, and nothing for other people.”) Adam Smith An Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations 5th edn. (ed.) Edwin Canaan (1789; Chicago: University of Chicago 1976)
[75] Chomsky 2003 pp. 2-3 (‘fear of the US reached remarkable heights worldwide’): “The year 2003 opened with many indications that concerns about human survival are all too realistic. To mention just a few examples, in the early fall of 2002 it was learned that a possibly terminal nuclear war was barely avoided forty years earlier. Immediately after this startling discovery, the Bush administration blocked UN efforts to ban the militarization of space, a serious threat to survival. The administration also terminated international negotiations to prevent biological warfare and moved to ensure the inevitability of an attack on Iraq, despite popular opposition that was without historical precedent. Aid organizations with extensive experience in Iraq and studies by respected medical organizations warned that the planned invasion might precipitate a humanitarian catastrophe. The warnings were ignored by Washington and evoked little media interest. A high-level US task force concluded that attacks with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) within the United States are "likely," and would become more so in the event of war with Iraq. Numerous specialists and intelligence agencies issued similar warnings, adding that Washington's belligerence, not only with regard to Iraq, was increasing the long-term threat of international terrorism and proliferation of WMD. These warnings too were dismissed. In September 2002 the Bush administration announced its National Security Strategy, which declared the right to resort to force to eliminate any perceived challenge to US global hegemony, which is to be permanent. The new grand strategy aroused deep concern worldwide, even within the foreign policy elite at home. Also in September, a propaganda campaign was launched to depict Saddam Hussein as an imminent threat to the United States and to insinuate that he was responsible for the 9-11 atrocities and was planning others. The campaign, timed to the onset of the midterm congressional elections, was highly successful in shifting attitudes. It soon drove American public opinion off the global spectrum and helped the administration achieve electoral aims and establish Iraq as a proper test case for the newly announced doctrine of resort to force at will. President Bush and his associates also persisted in undermining international efforts to reduce threats to the environment that are recognized to be severe, with pretexts that barely concealed their devotion to narrow sectors of private power. ...
By early 2003, studies revealed that fear of the United States had reached remarkable heights throughout the world, along with distrust of the political leadership. Dismissal of elementary human rights and needs was matched by a display of contempt for democracy for which no parallel comes easily to mind, accompanied by professions of sincere dedication to human rights and democracy. The unfolding events should be deeply disturbing to those who have concerns about the world they are leaving to their grandchildren. Though Bush planners are at an extreme end of the traditional US policy spectrum, their programs and doctrines have many precursors, both in US history and among earlier aspirants to global power. More ominously, their decisions may not be irrational within the framework of prevailing ideology and the institutions that embody it. There is ample historical precedent for the willingness of leaders to threaten or resort to violence in the face of significant risk of catastrophe. But the stakes are far higher today. The choice between hegemony and survival has rarely, if ever, been so starkly posed.” Noam Chomsky Hegemony or Survival? America’s quest for global dominance New York: Metropolitan 2003;
ALDP 2021 (estimates job benefits from starting oilfield cleanup) Regan Boychuk, Mark Anielski, John Snow Jr. and Brad Stelfox “The Big Cleanup: How enforcing the Polluter Pay principle can unlock Alberta’s next great jobs boom” Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project (June 2021): 40pp [group defunded; although bad faith compradors continue using the group’s name today, none of ALDP’s work is available online any longer];
Boychuk 2022x p. 3 (research program developed at request of Carbon Tracker North America; twice defunded thx to the Rockefellers): “In our attempts to uncover the economics of oil and gas deals using modelling and empirical tests, we also set the stage for understanding future economics. The point of reliable modelling is forecasts. Modelling the historical cashflows of the industry continues into forecasting the schedule of future cash flows. By restoring the Rockefeller-obscured distinction between earned [profit] and unearned [rent] income, we identify when and where resource rent will be coming to surface. “Nature’s surplus”, resource rent is unearned and industry has no claim to it except as a normal (10%) profit on their investments. Alberta has given away hundreds of billions in unearned excess profits to industry in the form of uncaptured resource rent. Completing our modelling within the confines of 1.5°C carbon budget will show whether there still remains enough rent to fund cleanup, pay reparations to First Nations for the resource rent extracted from their reserves, and fund a just transition from carbon production. It may well prove possible to still save the world [minus rentiers & banksters] for free.” Regan Boychuk “They’ll Conjure Enough Collateral to Kill Us All: A dynamic theory of conservation to thwart the Rockefeller Bezzle, the Bush Doctrine & climate change: Bad loans rob future taxpayers by growing environmental debt, but a burdenless tax on resource rent could stop looting & still fully-fund oilfield cleanup, First Nations reparations & a just transition within 1.5°C carbon budget” (May 2022): research proposal (3pp) + backgrounder (7pp) + excerpted bibliography (375pp);
Fix 2023a (models o&g solvency w/ cleanup costs & future revenue @ $5-500/bbl) Blair Fix “How to make the oil industry go bust” Real-World Economics Review #103 (31 March 2023): 2-25;
Gasparini, Ives, Carr, Fry & Beinhocker 2024a+b (Researchers inadvertently prove banks lend to oil & gas w/o regard to cleanup, making o&g co’s entirely precarious unless completely above law): “a largely neglected question in this literature and among policymakers is whether existing financial regulations could be negatively contributing to the net-zero carbon transition ... Our empirical analysis allows us to observe that model-based estimates of risk are lower for high-carbon sectors compared with low-carbon ones. We then provide an assessment of the implications of this observation for some key financial metrics of banks if they had to divest from high-carbon assets. Specifically, we utilize the accounting relationships among some of these metrics to show that an active divestment from high-carbon assets could be costly for banks. We argue that this, in turn, could create perverse incentives impairing the shift of financial resources from high-carbon to low-carbon assets, possibly including much needed investments in renewable energy. ... this, in turn, could create perverse incentives impairing the shift of financial resources from high-carbon to low-carbon assets, possibly including much needed investments in renewable energy.
... We estimate that a shift in investments away from high-carbon to low-carbon assets would require a loan-weighted average increase of 35% of LLR for banks in the European Union (Fig. 2). The decision to divest from high-carbon assets could lead to more than doubling of provisions for some banks in our sample and could thus have material impacts on the bank’s stock market valuations. The increased PCR, LLR and the resulting LLP charges driven by a potential divestment strategy could weigh substantially on banks’ net profits. An increase in LLR not only impacts the liability side of the balance sheet, but also the income statement through decreased profits. We estimate that for some banks, the transition could cost as much as 5 years of profits over the divestment horizon and, on an outstanding loan weighted average basis, 15% of the previous 5 years of profits due to a large increase in LLR (Fig. 3). The total sum of banks’ lost profits due to the increase in provisions following a divestment from high-carbon assets could be of the order of €28 billion (considering the 59 largest banks in the European Union). This is only a rough estimate ... However, this figure is useful to assess the materiality of our findings.
... In these risk-based models, the creditworthiness of firms is often estimated through financial ratios measuring profitability (for example, Earnings Before Interest, Taxes (EBIT)/Revenue), solvency (for example, Debt/Asset, Interest/EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciations and Amortizations)) and liquidity (for example, short-term debt/ working capital). If these ratios have been historically favourable for high-carbon firms, as previous research has highlighted, risk models will probably produce favourable outcomes for this type of investment. This phenomenon might arguably limit investments in green assets if their past risk estimates have been relatively high. ... we use a simple analysis based on a dataset of 228 oil and gas, and 235 renewable energy firms worldwide and financial information between 2010 and 2021, retrieved from Bloomberg.” Matteo Gasparini, Matthew C. Ives, Ben Carr, Sophie Fry and Eric Beinhocker “Model-based financial regulations impair the transition to net-zero carbon emissions” Nature Climate Change (2 April 2024): 8pp + “Supplemental Notes #1-5”: 15pp
[76] Warsono 2017 pp. 69-70 (‘current accounting serves to produce financial info but cannot detect/prevent economic/financial crises’), 8-9 (‘intellectual foundations of accounting strongly associated w/ mathematics, but Patton’s 1917 theory was developed using sematic & practical languages, rather than highest language in theory development: syntactic’), 22-23 (‘accounting authorities explicitly state accounting equation does not have to balance’) Sony Warsono Accounting and Mathematics: Revisiting the theory of double-entry Bolton: Lambert Academic 2017;
FASB 2010 pp. 3, 13 (paras. OB12 + BC1.33) (Balance sheets needn’t balance 2010): “General purpose financial reports provide information about the financial position of a reporting entity, which is information about the entity’s economic resources and the claims against the reporting entity. ... The chapter uses the phrase economic resources of the reporting entity and the claims against the reporting entity (see paragraph OB12). The reason for the change is that, in many cases, claims against an entity are not claims on specific resources. In addition, many claims will be satisfied using resources that will result from future net cash inflows. Thus, while all claims are claims against the entity, not all are claims against the entity’s existing resources.” Financial Accounting Standards Board of the Financial Accounting Foundation “The objective of general purpose financial reporting” ch1 in Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting: Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts #8 (September 2010): 22pp;
Pacioli 1494 (earliest writer on double-entry bookkeeping) Luca Pacioli (trans.) John B. Geijsbeek “The rules of double-entry bookkeeping” in Summa de Arithmatica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita (Venice: Gutenberg 1494): treatise 11: sec. 9 in (trans.) John B. Geijsbeek Ancient Double-Entry Bookkeeping (Denver: [self-published] 1914): 33-81 reprinted by the International Institute of Certified Chartered Accountants 2010;
Gleeson-White 2011 Jane Gleeson-White Double Entry: How the merchants of Venice created modern finance (2011; New York: Norton 2013);
Schneider 2011 p. 7: “the worse the firm’s credit rating, the higher the discount rate and the lower the present value of the ARO [ asset retirement obligation].” Thomas Schneider “Accounting for environmental liabilities under International Financial Reporting Standards” University of Alberta School of Energy and the Environment Oil Sands Research and Information Network (OSRIN) Report TR-9 (February 2011): 16pp;
McCrea 2018 pp. 1-2 (cleanup rarely included in investment info): “ARO values reported in a majority of company Financial Statements are calculated by a standard estimate provided by the AER [Alberta Energy Regulator]/equivalent depending on the region/depth, etc. … As standard practice, Abandonment Retirement Obligations (AROs) are rarely included in debt, FFO [funds from operations] or valuation calculations. So long as an operator’s LLR rating was in compliance, these long-dated liabilities have remained immaterial to investors.” Jeremy McCrea “Intermediate oil and gas producers: Subtleties with industry ARO reporting ahead of Redwater hearing” Raymond James Industry Comment (2 February 2018): 8pp;
Rogers & Atkins 2015a Greg Rogers and Charlie Atkins “Accounting for oil and gas environmental liabilities in bankruptcy” Petroleum Accounting and Financial Management Journal v35#2 (Summer 2015): 26-79;
Rogers & Atkins 2015b p. 40n1 (S&P: oil industry bears the highest enviro debt load = 50% of reported debt): “Oil and gas AROs for decommissioning, plugging and abandonment are environmental debts that arise under environmental law. Credit ratings agencies such as Standard & Poor’s (S&P) treat provisions for AROs as additions to debt. S&P also adjusts reported ARO estimates to better reflect their true economic value and risk. …Oil and gas companies’ AROs are large relative to total debt. S&P has reported that the petroleum industry bears the highest environmental debt load, equivalent to 50% of reported debt. … In absolute terms, the authors estimate that the industry’s global environmental debt is several trillion dollars, an amount far greater than that officially reported in corporate financial statements.” Greg Rogers and Charlie Atkins “Environmental disclosure report card: oil and gas decommissioning liabilities 2003-2014” Petroleum Accounting and Financial Management Journal v35#3 (Fall 2015): 40-70;
Roychowdhury 2006 Sugata Roychowdhury “Earnings management through real activities manipulation” Journal of Accounting and Economics v42#3 (December 2006): 335-370
[77] Marion, Massicotte & Duhn 2014 pp. 352, 346, 343 (‘In the end, taxpayers may be responsible for the costs’): “Historically, the Canadian oil and gas industry has followed the caveat emptor principle by which vendors attempt to pass risks associated with oil and gas assets, including Environmental Costs, down the chain of title through conveyances, assignments, novations, industry agreements, and contractual indemnities. … this strategy will likely be effective in many cases… Tracking ownership can be complicated by lost records, poor record-keeping, changing operators and operator practices, insolvency of working interest participants or co-owners, and even the long-standing perpetuation of mistakes in the administration of the assets. These issues are heightened for aging infrastructure. For example, the historical tracking of the ownership of field gathering systems [pipelines] has been inconsistent at best and, in some cases, is non-existent. As such industry infrastructure ages and requires expenditure of Environmental Costs in the future, there will likely be significant litigation over who owns the infrastructure, which contracts govern, and who is responsible to pay for Environmental Costs. … In the end, the provinces and regions may be responsible for the costs of aging infrastructure where a company is insolvent.” Michael A. Marion, Michael G. Massicotte and Jessica L. Duhn “Canada’s aging oil and gas infrastructure: Who will pay? The public and private cost recovery frameworks” Alberta Law Review v52#2 (December 2014): 331-63;
Avery, Glossop & Olexiuk 2013 p. 383: “in Canada, purchase and sale agreements involving oil and gas assets and properties provide that environmental liabilities will be assumed by the purchaser and the purchaser will be required to indemnify the vendor for such environmental liabilities, regardless of whether the liability arose prior to or after the closing of the transaction. This absolute indemnity is entirely unique to Canada and understandably causes concern for foreign investors. … we often see foreign investors creating special purpose companies in Canada to manage the Canadian business. The special purpose company will often be guaranteed by its foreign, parent entity. As such, potential issues may arise in respect of default and dispute resolution and whether or not a party will have to (and be able to) enforce its rights in a foreign jurisdiction.” Angela Avery, Peter Glossop and Paula Olexiuk “Foreign investment in Canada’s oil and gas sector: New and emerging challenges” Alberta Law Review v51#2 (December 2013): 343-84;
LoP 1992 p. 2 (81% of Canadians considered pollution threatened human survival June 1989): “In the late 1980s, Canadians said that the environment was one of their main concerns. According to a [Centre de Recherches sur l’Opinion Publique] CROP survey published in June 1989, 85% of Canadians stated that they were prepared to pay more for environmentally friendly products. At the same time, people began to focus on the quality of life. In addition, according to the CROP survey, 88% of Canadians said they felt that public health was affected by pollution, 73% of respondents stated that pollution was a major cause of cancer, and 81% considered that pollution problems threatened the survival of the human race. ... The media contributed a great deal to the dawn of new values by regularly reporting on environmental disasters” Richard Domingue “The greening of the economy: Repercussions on financial services” Library of Parliament Research Branch Background Paper #BP-307E (September 1992): 10pp
[78] Taft 2017 p. 153 (Klein disbanded energy efficiency office) Kevin Taft Oil’s Deep State: How the petroleum industry undermines democracy and stops action on global warming—in Alberta, and in Ottawa Ottawa: James Lorimer 2017;
Wright 2017 p. 456 (US depletion credit extended to transferees): “Prior to October 12, 1990, a transferee of a proved oil or gas property was denied percentage depletion. The Revenue Act of 1990 repealed this prohibition on percentage depletion for transferees. Therefore, a person receiving a proved property can take percentage depletion if the other percentage depletion rules are met.” Charlotte J. Wright Fundamentals of Oil & Gas Accounting (6th edn.) Tulsa: PennWell 2017;
Well Licence Subcommittee 1992 p. 6 (17 January 1991): “certain principles were advanced” Well Licence Criteria Subcommittee “Specific criteria to be applied by the ERCB when a well license is issued or transferred” DRAFT (18 November 1992): 46pp (Available again from the AER library, which temporarily denied its collection included this report or anything related to Nichol 1991);
Nichol 1991 pp. 2-3 (J. Nichol announces Secret No-Lookback Deal April 1991): “as regulators, we are well aware that regulation is not always the most efficient way of getting things done” Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board drilling and production manager John R. Nichol “Orphan wells: Who is responsible, for how long, and at what cost?” Canadian Association of Drilling Engineers/Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors Spring Drilling Conference (Calgary: 10-12 April 1991) Paper #91-30: 6pp (finally available from AER library for fee);
EUB 2000e (LLR revised 18 December 2000): After President George Bush Jr installed, “numerous expressions of concern” about soon-to-be-cancelled cleanup program. Alberta Energy and Utilities Board “Clarification: Energy development licence transfer requirements and monthly corporate licensee liability—ID 2000-11 and Guide 69” General Bulletin #2000-28 (18 December 2000): 1pp (available from AER library for fee);
NYT 23/3/91 (‘where the US confronts much weaker enemies, our challenge will be to defeat them decisively and rapidly’–Pentagon & CIA officials): “Mr. Bush decided that he would rather gamble on a violent and potentially unpopular ground war than risk the alternative: an imperfect settlement hammered out by the Soviets and Iraqis that world opinion might accept as tolerable. … At each stage of the Persian Gulf crisis, President Bush has been willing to move further and faster than anyone expected. … Until he took on Mr. Hussein, Mr. Bush had a reputation as a leader who loped rather than swaggered, a politician who labored over decisions and preferred a split-the-difference, middle-of-the-road approach. … The Bush Administration may be annoyed that the Soviet Union has elbowed its way into the coda of the war. … the President "told Gorbachev, nicely, to bug off," a top Administration official said. ... When Mr. Bush, in his first months in office, he ordered a review of national security policy, Pentagon and CIA officials warned …
"In cases where the US confronts much weaker enemies, our challenge will be not simply to defeat them, but to defeat them decisively and rapidly … For small countries hostile to us, bleeding our forces in protracted or indecisive conflict or embarrassing us by inflicting damage on some conspicuous element of our forces may be victory enough, and could undercut political support for US efforts against them."”
Maureen Dowd “War in the Gulf: White House memo: Bush moves to control war’s endgame” New York Times (23 February 1991): 1, 5
[79] Meadows, Meadows & Randers 1992 Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows and Jørgen Randers Beyond the Limits to Growth: Confronting global collapse, envisioning a sustainable future White River Junction: Chelsea Green 1992;
Earth Summit 1992 Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio De Jannero: 3-14 June 1992) United Nations General Assembly A/CONF.151/26 (12 August 1992): 5pp;
Bush 1992 (‘growth is the friend of the environment’–US @ Earth Summit II): “Twenty years ago some spoke of the limits to growth, and today we realize that growth is the engine of change and the friend of the environment.” Associated Press “The Earth Summit: Tough talk from the president: Excerpts from speech by [George W.] Bush on 'action plan'” New York Times (13 June 1992): 5;
Taft 2017 pp. 151, 205, 220-21: “The Klein government sliced dramatically into the budgets, capacities, and the autonomies of the civil service, local governments, universities, school boards, health authorities, and regulators. It sold the government’s interests in the Alberta Energy Company (1993), the massive Husky upgrader (1994), and Syncrude (1995). This remaking of government and state was billed as "the Klein revolution" and operated under a series of slogans, including "get government out of the business of business." What went unstated was that business was getting into the governing of government. ... A diverse range of state and democratic institutions in Alberta have been captured to significant degrees by the oil industry. They had become instruments of the industry with a mantra of 'what’s good for oil is good for Alberta.' ... The biggest advances in addressing global warming will come from liberating our democratic institutions from their captors.” Kevin Taft Oil’s Deep State: How the petroleum industry undermines democracy and stops action on global warming—in Alberta, and in Ottawa Ottawa: James Lorimer 2017
[80] Ipsos Reid 2002a pp. 8, 13 (72 per cent of AB supported ratifying Kyoto; 71% willing to pay at least $500/month May 2002): “Do you personally strongly/ somewhat support or strongly/ somewhat oppose ratifying the Kyoto Protocol?”; “Would you be willing to pay [$0 {5%}, <$50/year {3%}, $50-100 {5%}, $100-500 {15%}, $500-1000 {25%}, $1000-2500 {27%}, >$2500 {19%}] to implement the Kyoto Protocol?” Ipsos Reid “Albertans and the Kyoto Protocol: Preliminary results of a quantitative survey” (May 2002): 18pp;
Globe and Mail quoted in Taft 2017 p. 196 Kevin Taft Oil’s Deep State: How the petroleum industry undermines democracy and stops action on global warming—in Alberta, and in Ottawa Ottawa: James Lorimer 2017
[81] Taft 2017 pp. 195-96: “The message to the medical community, civil servants, and the public was loud and clear: Even if you were concerned about global warming, you’d better be quiet. And, mostly, they were.” Kevin Taft Oil’s Deep State: How the petroleum industry undermines democracy and stops action on global warming—in Alberta, and in Ottawa Ottawa: James Lorimer 2017;
Ipsos Reid 2002b pp. 29-30 (70 per cent of AB opposed to implementing Kyoto December 2002): “As you may know, the Kyoto Accord on climate change requires Canada to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases to 6% below what they were in 1990 over the next 10 years. This means that Canada would have to reduce its current emissions by about 20% to meet its target. Based on what you have seen, read or heard, do you personally support or oppose implementing the Kyoto Accord?” Ipsos Reid “Canada’s stance on the Kyoto Accord” Public Policy Landscape v17#6 (November/December 2002)
[82] GoA 2016 p. 87: “Government has deferred the impact of most of the carbon levies on non-oil sands production until 2023.” Government of Alberta Alberta at a Crossroads Alberta Royalty Review Advisory Panel Report (January 2016): 209pp;
Leach 2016 University of Alberta Professor of Economics and Law Andrew Leach Twitter (18 December 2016): 7:35pm (see 4th row from bottom);
WSJ 1/7/17 (“concerns about such costs are overblown”): “Some of the company’s oil sands operations will soon have carbon emissions that are comparable to other kinds of extraction, [Suncor Chief Executive Steve Williams] says. While regulatory concerns may intensify, for now restrictions in even the most stringent areas equate to a price of just $1 a barrel, he says, suggesting that concerns about such costs are overblown.” Bradley Olson “Oil company wins over investors by promising to stop looking for oil” Wall Street Journal (1 July 2017)
[83] Muehlenbachs 2015 pp. 178, 157 (‘typically left inactive to avoid costly enviro obligations’): “The operating decisions made for 84,000 wells in Alberta can be replicated by modeling well operators as dynamic optimizers. Within-sample goodness-of-fit tests show that the model is able to closely predict actual operating choices. … I find that increased oil and gas prices and recovery rates might increase per-well annual production, but will not substantially increase the number of active wells. … If optimistic conditions are not enough to induce well reactivation, this implies that wells are left inactive not because of the option to reactivate, but rather the sunk cost of decommissioning is too high to warrant undertaking. … This article demonstrates that for the majority of inactive wells, temporary closure is, in effect, permanent closure. … The estimated model suggests that only with a drastic, arguably implausible increase in prices and recovery rates will there be a significant increase in the number of reactivated oil and gas wells, implying that wells are typically left inactive not because of the option to reactivate but rather to avoid costly environmental obligations.” Lucija Muehlenbachs “A dynamic model of cleanup: Estimating sunk costs in oil and gas production” International Economic Review v56#1 (February 2015): 155-85;
Stein & Lang 2007 pp. 126-27 (Canadian foreign minister during US’ 2003 Iraq invasion and its 2004 coup in Haiti, professor Bill Graham): “Foreign Affairs view was there is a limit to how much we can constantly say no to the political masters in Washington. All we had was Afghanistan to wave. On every other file we were offside. Eventually we came on side on Haiti, so we go another arrow in our quiver.” Quoted in Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar Toronto: Viking Canada 2007;
Vastel 2003 Michel Vastel “Haïti mise en tutelle par l’ONU?” L’Actualité (Montréal) v24#4 (15 March 2003): 14-15 [Google translation: “Haiti placed under UN trusteeship? Aristide must be overthrown. And it’s not the Haitian opposition that’s demanding it, but a coalition of countries brought together at Canada’s initiative!”];
Boychuk 2005 Regan Boychuk “Year 201: State terror, the pacification of Haiti’s poor majority, and the Canadian choreboy to empire” (MA ‘thesis’: York University Department of Political Science 2005): 99pp
[84] Bamford 2024 (Israel’s 2nd AI slaughter in Gaza): “Back in 2021, the Israeli military described its 11-day war on Gaza as the world’s first "AI war." Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza offers a more recent—and devastating—example.” James Bamford “How US intelligence and an American company feed Israel’s killing machine in Gaza: Because it isn’t so much the bombs that kill but the list that puts civilians in the way of the bombs” The Nation (12 April 2024)
[85] Forbes 1/9/13+b (CIA creates what they want to see: Palantir) Andy Greenberg and Ryan Mac “How a 'deviant' philosopher built Palantir, a CIA-funded data-mining juggernaut” and Samantha Sharf “Meet the venture arm of the CIA” Forbes (1 September 2013);
AP 18/2/25 (‘fears fueled AI contributing to deaths of innocents’ 2025) Michael Biesecker, Sam Mednick and Garance Burke “As Israel uses US-made AI models in war, concerns arise about tech’s role in who lives and who dies” Associated Press (18 February 2025)
[86] Watson Institute 2025 p. 2 (WWIII’s journalism policy): “The war in Gaza has, since October 7, 2023, killed more journalists than the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined. It is, quite simply, the worst ever conflict for reporters.” Nick Turse “News graveyards: How dangers to war reporters endanger the world” Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs (1 April 2025): 35pp
[87] Chomsky 2018 48:41-50:57 (Trump climate policy 2016-20) Noam Chomsky, “Noam Chomsky on mass media obsession with Russia & the stories not being covered in the Trump era” Democracy Now! (27 July 2018): 59 mins;
Chomsky 2019 (‘since the game is pretty much over, why not have fun while we can’–Trump transportation dept 2018) Harrison Samphir and Noam Chomsky “"The task ahead is enormous, and there is not much time"” Jacobin (12 July 2019);
ALDP 2021 (job benefits of oilfield cleanup June 2021) Regan Boychuk, Mark Anielski, John Snow Jr. and Brad Stelfox “The Big Cleanup: How enforcing the Polluter Pay principle can unlock Alberta’s next great jobs boom” Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project (June 2021): 40pp;
National Observer 12/4/22 (Wheatley #2 26 August 2021) Jessica McDiarmid, “Ticking time bombs: Thousands of abandoned oil wells threaten Ontario communities,” National Observer (12 April 2022)
[88] Smith 2022 5:33-5:55 (AB’s newly sworn-in sole-executive musing about executive power October 2022) Premier Danielle Smith “Premier Danielle Smith to address media” (11 October 2022): 1h 4mins;
Boychuk 2023b (Kenney stepped away for another quisling summer 2022) Regan Boychuk “The RStar Scam: The sordid history of a suddenly famous subsidy scheme” Alberta Politics (27 February 2023);
Appel 2025b Jeremy Appel “Authoritarianism: They say they’re for freedom but ...The UCP want more control” Alberta Views v28#1 (January/February 2025): cover, 24-28;
Global News 9/8/23 (Trudeau bought $5B pipeline that cost $30B August 2023) Kamyar Razavi “The feds bought a pipeline for $5B: How did the cost balloon to over $30B?” Global News (9 August 2023);
CBC 28/9/23 (Nazi ovations in Cdn Parliament September 2023) “How did a volunteer from a Nazi unit get invited to Parliament? Your questions, answered: Invitation process is 'pretty opaque,' former official says” CBC News (28 September 2023)
[89] Trudeau 2025 (Trudeau resigns as Jason Kenney did in 2022: to make way for next US lackey) Justin Trudeau resignation speech CBC News (6 January 2025);
Scripps 8/2/25 (Trudeau: ‘Mr. Trump has it in mind that absorbing our country is a real thing’ February 2025) Justin Boggs “Trudeau caught on hot mic: Trump serious about annexing Canada as the 51st state: Trump has also expressed interest in having the US own Greenland, the Panama Canal, and the Gaza Strip” Scripps News (8 February 2025);
Appel 6/1/25 Jeremy Appel “New report debunks Alberta Energy Regulator’s tailings spills data: Regulator’s data lacks crucial evidence of environmental harm, with spill volumes and footprints vastly understated, ecologist Kevin Timoney finds” The Orchard (6 January 2025);
Timoney 2025 p. 17 (“Although AER leadership is aware that its monitoring and management of spills are not defensible, no changes have been made.”) Kevin P. Timoney “Regulatory failure to monitor and manage the impacts of tailings spills, Alberta, Canada” Environmental Monitoring and Assessment v197#125 (3 January 2025): 20pp
[90] Jefferson 1786 (‘We should not press too soon’) 2nd United States Minister to France Thomas Jefferson Letter to Archibald Stuart (25 January 1786) in v9 (November 1785 – 22 June 1786) of Julian P. Boyd (ed.) The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Princeton: Princeton University 1954): 217-19
[91] Dyer 1940 pp. 263-64 (Greenland after Canadian confederation 1868): “That Robert J. Walker was an ardent expansionist and imperialist is not new. ... Walker’s political reasons for the purchase of [Greenland] were related to his desire to acquire Canada.” Brainerd Dyer “Robert J. Walker on acquiring Greenland and Iceland” Mississippi Valley Historical Review v27#2 (September 1940): 263-266;
Walker 1868 pp. 3-4 (‘purchase’d flank ???[military term] British America on Arctic & Pacific’ 1868): “The proof has heretofore been submitted by me, that ... the Dominion of Canada, was gotten up in England in a spirit of bitter hostility to the United States. It then was, and still is, intended to embrace all British America, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with a railroad from Halifax to Puget sound, and an area exceeding that of the United States Prior to the purchase of Alaska. By this great purchase, we have flanked British America on the Arctic and Pacific, cutting her off entirely from the latter ocean ... with even British Columbia now being rapidly Americanized. Now, the acquisition of Greenland will flank British America for thousands of miles on the north and west, and greatly increase her inducements, peacefully and cheerfully, to become a part of the American Union.” Robert J. Walker “Report to US Secretary of State William H. Seward” (24 April 1868) in US State Department A Report on the Resources of Iceland and Greenland (ed.) William Mills Peirce (Washington: USGPO 1868): 1-5;
Trump 2024 (“ownership & control of Greenland an absolute necessity” 24 December 2024): “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” US President-elect Donald Trump “Announcing the nomination of Ken Howery as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark” (24 December 2024) American Presidency Project online
Newsweek 28/3/25 (Putin on Trump & ‘Greenland’ March 2025) Russian President Vladimir Putin: "As for Greenland, this is a question that concerns two specific countries and has nothing to do with us. ... Let me remind you that by 1868, American newspapers were ridiculing the purchase of Alaska. ... But today this acquisition, I mean the acquisition of Alaska, is certainly assessed in the United States itself quite differently" Jordan King “Putin issues Arctic 'conflicts' warning over Trump’s Greenland plans” Newsweek (28 March 2025);
CP 24/4/25 (1670 charter for Canada up for sale? April 2025): “Hudson’s Bay heads to court seeking permission to auction off 1,700 pieces of art and more than 2,700 artifacts ... It is still unclear what specific artifacts could be included in the auction beyond the 355-year-old royal charter that launched the company. ... The charter, granted by King Charles II in 1670, is "one of the most significant archival documents that exists in Canada," said Cody Groat, chair of the Canada Advisory Committee for Memory of the World, which is under the umbrella of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Groat called the document "foundational" to discussions around political governance in Canada and treaty negotiations with Indigenous people. That’s because the charter, which established Hudson’s Bay as a fur trading company, also granted it "semi-sovereign rights" which allowed it to operate both "as a business entity and as a colonial government at the same time," Groat said.” Sammy Hudes “Grand chief requests halt to auction of Hudson’s Bay items linked to First Nations” Canadian Press (24 April 2025);
Cheney 1930 p. 15 (tariffs misunderstood century ago): “[Before WWI] a healthy popular interest in this and other economic questions kept a constant discussion going on in regard to them. If this had continued much good might have come from it, for it is impossible for such discussion, if it does not stop too soon, to fail to bring out some truth. Today there is seldom to be heard anywhere any real argument about whether the tariff is a help or a hindrance; only a question of just how high, or, still more often, just how much higher, the rates should be. That complacence with the general principle of protection has nowhere been more in evidence than at the last convention of the American Federation of Labor at Toronto in October of 1929. The majority of the leading representatives of organized labor in the United States are either indifferent toward a high tariff or positively in favor of it. This suggests the wisdom of once more examining the effects which the tariff actually has on the wages, the security, and the bargaining power of labor.” Skidmore College Professor of Economics Coleman B. Cheney “A robber tariff” Labor Age v19#6 (June 1930): 15-17, 28;
Hudson 2025 (tariffs misunderstood today): “Donald Trump’s tariff policy has thrown markets into turmoil among his allies and enemies alike. This anarchy reflects the fact that his major aim was not really tariff policy, but simply to cut income taxes on the wealthy, by replacing them with tariffs as the main source of government revenue. Extracting economic concessions from other countries is part of his justification for this tax shift as offering a nationalistic benefit for the United States. His cover story, and perhaps even his belief, is that tariffs by themselves can revive American industry. But he has no plans to deal with the problems that caused America’s deindustrialization in the first place. There is no recognition of what made the original US industrial program and that of most other nations so successful. That program was based on public infrastructure, rising private industrial investment and wages protected by tariffs, and strong government regulation. Trump’s slash and burn policy is the reverse – to downsize government, weaken public regulation and sell off public infrastructure to help pay for his income tax cuts on his Donor Class.” Michael Hudson “Donald Trump’s distorted view of America’s tariff history” Democracy Collaborative (14 April 2025)
[92] Baron & Johansen 2022 (Magna Carta signed 15 June 1215): “represented a response to King John’s troubled reign, characterized by conflicts with the barons over heavy taxation and military failures. This document emerged from a backdrop of discontent among the barons, who had borne the financial burdens of John’s wars and sought to limit the king’s authority. The Magna Carta established that even the king was subject to the law, introducing concepts of due process and requiring that certain taxes could only be imposed with the consent of the realm’s council. ... Despite King John’s attempts to annul it, the Magna Carta became a symbol of the rule of law and has been revered as a cornerstone of modern governance.” Martin J. Baron and Bruce E. Johansen “Signing of the Magna Carta” EBSCO Research Starters (2022);
Hudson 2024a (Pope backed kings against Magna Carta 1215): “When England’s barons drew up the Magna Carta in 1215 to give them the right to block King John from imposing taxes without their consent, the king asked Pope Innocent III to excommunicate these barons for opposing his divine rule. Innocent did so, issuing a bull annulling the Magna Carta and backing the divine right of kings not to let their nobility limit their ability to impose taxes to finance Rome’s wars against other Christian countries. But that had little effect in stopping domestic resistance to royal taxation.” Michael Hudson “Reshaping Christianity and the modern state: A journey from usury to fiscal power” Robinson’s Podcast (14 November 2024);
Innocent III 1215 Pope Innocent III Papal bull annulling Magna Carta (24 August 1215): 1p;
Linebaugh 2009 pp. 36-38 (Magna Carta comes into effect 11 September 1217): “After the death rattle of John and during the minority of the new king, Henry III, only nine years old, the fate of Magna Carta, indeed its whereabouts, was uncertain. France controlled half of England. ... It was not until ... [September 11th 1217 that] France and England made peace, at an island in the river Thames near Kingston. ... the reissue of the charter in time of peace established it as a basis of government. ... The date 11 September recurs in this study four times altogether. First in 1217; second, when Scot William Wallace defeated England in 1297; third, on that day in 1648 when the English Levelers submitted the Large Petition that called for popular sovereignty, reparations, juries, religious toleration, and the opening of the enclosures; and fourth, when the South Sea Company congratulated itself on that day in 1713 for receiving the license (or asiento) to trade African slaves to Spanish colonies in America.” Peter Linebaugh The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and commons for all Berkeley: University of California 2009;
Wikipedia Treaty of Kingston (11 September 1217): “Information on the treaties is based on three early documents but none of these is known to have been based on an original manuscript.”;
Fix 2025 pp. 7-8 (US empire peaked 2009): “By definition, the full pulse of imperial power is visible only in hindsight, once the pinnacle of dominance is a distant memory. As such, we can say little about the imperial future, other than that the next century will likely be dominated by China. Indeed, the era of Chinese supremacy has already begun. It happened with little fanfare in 2009.” Blair Fix “The half life of empire” Economics From the Top Down (4 May 2025): 10pp
[93] Forrester, Mass & Ryan 1976 p. 56 (System Dynamics: ‘nonlinear relationships are needed to show resource extraction costs & prices as a result of depletion/how need for pollution-control arises’): “System dynamics is a way of combining all available information, including written description and personal experience, with computer simulation to yield a better understanding of social systems. ... Nonlinear relationships are needed to show, for example, how resource extraction costs and resource prices rise as a result of resource depletion or how the need for pollution-control expenditures arises as environmental pressures begin to impose previously unencountered constraints.” Jay W. Forrester, Nathaniel J. Mass and Charles J. Ryan “The system dynamics national model: Understanding socio-economic behavior and policy alternatives” Technological Forecasting and Social Change v9#1-2 (1976): 51-68;
Hume 1758 pp. 109-10 (‘Nothing more surprizing than the easiness w/ which the many are governed by the few’ 1758): “Nothing appears more surprizing to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. When we enquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find, that, as FORCE is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular.” David Hume “Of the first principles of government” essay 4 in v1 of Essays: Moral, political, and literary (eds.) T.H. Green and T.H. Grose (1758; London: Long, Green 1889): 109-13
Regan Boychuk is an independent researcher and political economist born and raised in Alberta. He has founded numerous public interest projects that have been defunded, including Reclaim Alberta, the Alberta Liability Disclosure Project, Carbon Tracker North America (2x) and the Polluter Pay Federation.
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