Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

The Disaffected Lib: Bannon Bites Back

Aug

22

2017

That didn’t take long. With Steve Bannon booted from the White House last Friday and back at the helm of Breitbart news the same day, it didn’t take long for the first attack on Donald Trump. The subject was Afghanistan and the man/baby president’s announcement that he would follow in George w. Bush’s and Barack ...

cartoon life: From the beach, Scheveningen, The Hague, Netherlands

Aug

22

2017

Our last day we walk up the beach along the North Sea. This is remarkable colour-wise, for drawing on a sunny day outside when the screen is quite hard to see, and you guess at the colour on the palette. Filed under: art

The Disaffected Lib: An Invaluable Primer on Neoliberalism

Aug

22

2017

It arrived by stealth, largely unnoticed. It boils down to the idea that markets are superior to governments and that the political caste should defer to markets wherever possible. It is a theory that has now consumed the world even as we have, perhaps too late, discovered that it’s a scam. The Guardian’s latest “Long ...

Michal Rozworski: Summer writing round-up

Aug

22

2017

I know it’s been a bit quiet on the blog this summer, but that’s in part because I’ve been doing a bunch of writing elsewhere. Here is a quick summary of what I’ve been up to. In the run-up to the UK election, I wrote a piece for Jacobin on one of the most important ...

A BCer in Ottawa: Eating up the Hill: Pizza Hut Lunch Buffet

Aug

22

2017

Not every Pizza Hut offers the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. But those that do are magnificent. Luckily, the one in Ottawa on Bank Street, south of Walkley is about a 20-minute bus ride away so I don’t visit too often. Otherwise, it could be dangerous. I did make a mid-week visit during my staycation, however. It ...

The Disaffected Lib: Guess What the Dumb Bugger Did Now?

Aug

22

2017

Donald Trump is known for not heeding advice. Those who give him advice are often frustrated when he proceeds to do just the opposite. Take yesterday’s solar eclipse. While Washington was a good hike from the path of totality, the man/baby president took the opportunity to gaze directly at the sun, completely unprotected, for several ...

Things Are Good: Saving the Ozone Layer Helped More Than We Thought

Aug

22

2017

It turns out when nations of the world get together to try and save the environment they can be really good at it. The Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987 to save the ozone layer, and it did. Indeed, a new report says that it not only saved the ozone layer the protocol also cut ...

Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links

Aug

22

2017

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Karri Munn-Venn argues for a federal budget focused on social well-being – not merely on economic productivity. And Tom Hale discusses the harm done by social isolation. – The BBC reports on new research showing that the UK’s public support for parents is falling behind the rate ...

Warren Kinsella: Check out our fine frisbee form!

Aug

22

2017

Wise Law Blog: LawFact of the Day: Employment Law

Aug

22

2017

Here is your daily LawFact from Wise Law for Tuesday August 22, 2017. Today we are talking about Employment Law. The amount payable to wrongfully dismissed employee depends on length of employment, age salary and several other factors. It can be as much as one month for each year of service, or even more in ...

Politics and its Discontents: Echoes Of History: 1955 and 2017

Aug

22

2017

From this tragedy large, diverse groups of people organized a movement that grew to transform a nation, not sufficiently but certainly meaningfully. What matters most is what we have and what we will do with what we do know. We must look at the facts squarely … The bloody and unjust arc of our history ...

Montreal Simon: Donald Trump and the Eclipsing of the Presidency

Aug

22

2017

Although I had better things to observe, like that amazing solar eclipse, I thought I'd better watch Donald Trump's address to the nation, in case he declared war on North Korea.And eclipsed the earth permanently.But as it turned out, all he did was declare a little more war on Afghanistan. Which will have little impact on ...

Northern Reflections: What Comes Next

Aug

22

2017

There is some disagreement about whether or not Mark Twain actually said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but often it rhymes.” Be that as it may, Geoff Smith writes that these days, in the United States, you can hear the rhymes — with the 1920’s: Americans in the era both celebrated and recoiled from the impact ...

Warren Kinsella: Happy anniversary, Lala

Aug

22

2017

A bunch of Kinsellas, two Carrs and one Kirbie. A formidable team to have on your side. Kennebunk, 2015.

Dead Wild Roses: Latent Racism in the United States – Divide and Conquer

Aug

22

2017

The election of the Republican candidate Donald Trump has really screwed the American society up. The 45th POTUS whose actions and policies that can only be described as ignorant inept has brought the United States to the brink of a major societal schism between an substantial group of alienated, antediluvian, racist white nationalists ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: In the Fascist Fashion.

Aug

22

2017

We should be worried about what happened in Quebec City the other day. It was not just unseemly. It certainly was not funny. They came for a fight, to create and to foster mayhem. For an insular society, these Quebecers brought dishonour to their country and their province. The fascists, who call themselves La Muete ...

Anti-Racist Canada: The ARC Collective: Salzberg and DeLuca Finally Respond to Vancouver Failure; DeLuca Blames CAP and SoO

Aug

22

2017

When the members of the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam (based primarily in Alberta) and the Cultural Action Party (based almost exclusively in British Columbia) along with the Soldiers of Odin no-showed their own rally just because at least 4,000 people showed up who would have none of their shit, Joey DeLuca and Brad Salzberg were ...

Alberta Politics: Breakup on the right? Naw, Canadian conservative politicians’ long romance with the Rebel isn’t over

Aug

22

2017

PHOTOS: Wildrose-UCP MLA Drew Barnes, who still stands with and by Rebel Media, at a protest on the steps of the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton in December 2015. Below: Federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer (Photo: Marcos Oliveira, Wikimedia Commons), UCP leadership candidates Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, and Alberta NDP House Leader Brian Mason. With ...

In-Sights: R.I.P. Merv Adey

Aug

21

2017

It’s a sad day today. I knew Merv had been seriously ill for some time. Four weeks ago, he was hoping that a series of new treatments would be successful and we planned to meet this month at his “humble digs.” Merv and I began communicating in 2011. His first message to me said: The ...

Canadian Dimension: Correcting the Lies About Venezuela

Aug

21

2017

Photo by Cristian Hernandez As the class struggle heated up in Venezuela this year, fueled by interventionist threats by the pro-US Organization of American States (OAS) bloc, many former supporters of the Bolivarian revolution have remained sitting on the fence. Fed up with these fair-weather friends and their critiques which recycle corporate news propaganda, some ...

DeSmogBlog: Amid Closure of B.C. Salmon Fisheries, Study Finds Feds Failed to Monitor Stocks

Aug

21

2017

Canada has failed to monitor and gather data on 50 per cent of all managed salmon populations on B.C.’s north and central coasts, according to a study released Monday in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Researchers from Simon Fraser University found the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is monitoring fewer streams now ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Solar Eclipse from Regina, SK

Aug

21

2017

The eclipse today was visible from Regina, but not the totality available to Americans in many states. My new Canon SX540 HS did a good job with a pair of solar eclipse filter glasses taped over the lens. The sunspot chain was very sharp and visible at 200X digital zoom, 80ISO. I made a projector ...

Warren Kinsella: X: Recipe for Hate gets its first review!

Aug

21

2017

Four out of five stars, too! From NetGalley: A fast-paced and engaging inside look at a historical time that doesn’t get lots of attention but will resonate today.

The Decarie Report: August 21: Damn!

Aug

21

2017

“If Rural NB Wants Better Public Services, It has to Pay More” That’s the headline on Norbert Cunningham’s column today. Yeah. They want bread? Let them eat cake. It’s smug, arrogant – and servile. In this case, the service referred to is a community centre. Norbert. We, all of us, spend $10 million dollars a ...

The Disaffected Lib: "Anti-Fa"? Hell, Yes. Proudly Fighting Fascism, Fang and Claw, Since 1937.

Aug

21

2017

Anti-Fascists Heading to War We all get sent out anyway and we always sign up for the privilege. Those who have read this blog over the years will know that I’ve devoted a good number of posts about what it was like growing up with a “disabled” parent. Today the Conservative right is on the ...