The progressive economics community, in Canada and around the world, lost a wonderful colleague, comrade and friend with the passing of John Loxley on July 28, 2020. Here I would like to share some personal reflections on John’s impact on my life as a progressive economist, and the very rich
Continue readingExcited Delirium: Covid Journal, August 6, 2020
I admit this is a full-on rant about what a mess our education system is, from the Premier to union to teacher to parent. We keep forgetting that kids are supposed to the clients or customers in all of this, not just bargaining chips.
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: It’s A Good Time To Quit Site C
Originally published by The Times-Colonist Increasingly dire reports of the instability of the land on which the Site C Dam is being built are deeply troubling. John Horgan blames COVID for the increased costs and Read more…
Continue readingScripturient: The day that reason died
I’m not a believer in alien visitations and UFOs, but I’ll bet if an alien did swing by, after an hour or two observing us, checking out Facebook or Twitter, they’d lock their doors, hang a detour sign around our planet, and race off. They’d tell their friends not to
Continue readingQueer-liberal: Trump has empowered racist jerks to act like bigger racist jerks…
The elected Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus in the United States and Member of the House of Representatives Karen Bass, who is also a leading contender to become Joe Biden’s Vice-Presidential running mate, said it best today: “Everything that has come out of his mouth, not just against Black
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When We No Longer "Give a Sh_t"
Covid-19 statistics become a blur. Millions infected, hundreds of thousands dead. Slowly what once alarmed us no longer matters as much. “If I look at the mass I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.” These are the words of a woman whose acts of charity
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Chuck Collins asks why the billionaires who have seen their fortunes continue to grow during a pandemic aren’t giving anything back to their communities. And thwap points out that to the contrary, it’s been a non-negotiable demand that even the slightest bit
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Messages Society Sends to Females – The ecstasy of eating SALAD.
Messaging in society differs depending on which sex class you happen to inhabit. I for one, have never experience this much fucking elation eating crunchy green water.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Mulcair Bites Back
I haven’t always agreed with failed NDP leader, Thomas Mulcair, but he’s on the money in his op-ed in the latest Maclean’s, “How Canada became an environmental outlier.” Liberals and the left freely denounced Stephen Harper for turning Canada into a climate pariah. At UN climate summits Canada was regularly
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: Solidarity for Breakfast in Fort Frances
We’re in the home stretch of the Conservative Leadership race and before the month is done, Canadians will know who will be the one chosen to lead the Conservative party going forward. Leadership campaigns are grueling events in the best of times, with lots of travel and attempts to get
Continue readingMagpie Brûlé: WE/Oui Oversight
It was just a week ago that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified before the House of Commons Finance Committee and in something that seems normal for 2020, it’s felt like it’s been longer. Since then we’ve seen polling come out showing the damage the WE Scandal has done to the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Back To School With Doug
This week Doug Ford revealed his back to school plan. He’s not getting high marks. Bruce Arthur writes: The safe care of our children is a fundamental social compact. So many parents have been stretched to breaking while trying to work from home and take care of their children. Society
Continue readingwmtc: a piece of new york is gone: pete hamill, rest in peace
A piece of New York City died this week. Pete Hamill, a legendary New York journalist and possibly the last of a breed, died yesterday at age 85. Obituaries describe him as a “tabloid poet” or “tabloid hero”. If he hadn’t existed, perhaps Raymond Chandler would have invented him. It
Continue readingSudbury Steve May: Here’s Why a Letter to the Editor from Ward 2 Councillor’s Adviser Published Today in the Sudbury Star is Misleading – and Unhelpful
I just read this letter to the Editor of the Sudbury Star from Tom Price, who is an adviser to Ward 2 Councillor Michael Vagnini. I have serious concerns about this letter due to a number of things in it that are simply not true. As some here know, I
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Good union jobs! Green jobs! UCP supporters need not panic, they’re not for anyone around here!
Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party, friends of the union man and woman, not to mention the environment! Who would have seen that coming? Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: Chris Schwarz, Government of Alberta). Yet there was Energy Minister Sonya Savage, her words in black and white in the text
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Back to the Future: 1992 study reveals recreation, ecology, viewscapes trump logging in Municipal Forest Reserve
Almost three decades ago, North Cowichan’s Forest Advisory Committee retained a consultant to review municipal logging on Maple Mountain and to ask people and organizations to fill out a questionnaire on what they value Read more…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Fake WE Scandal and the DipperCon Monster
It's been that kind of holiday. I should have been in Scotland running wild in the highlands, but instead I'm practically a prisoner in Toronto. Yesterday I was planning to go and do a little kiteboarding on the other side of the island, but fell asleep in my hammock, and missed
Continue readingPostArctica: Street Writing …or?
Street Writing – that’s the term I have been applying to what I have been doing since mid May. The activity has evolved from simply me sitting on some infrastructure provided seating along the Verdun waterfront to me using a little portable stool and writing on the now car free
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The sun sets on Hong Kong
Once an enterprise Canadians went to war for, the British Empire is now in disgrace. And no wonder. It owns many sins. The Atlantic slave trade, the Kenyan gulag, the theft of aboriginal lands, the list is long. And dark. But the history of civilization is the history of empires
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