Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has told Donald Trump not to cut a Covid stimulus deal with House majority leader, Nancy Pelosi. Trump is desperate for votes and he’s all out of mojo with the election just two weeks away. The American economy isn’t working for blue or white
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: A Sea of Bodies
Think of them as collateral damage from the nearly four-year term of the Trump administration. They’re the men and women who were either fired or resigned from Team Trump and, trust me, there’s a whack of them. A few of them left with their honour and integrity intact. Most were
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Wishful Thinking?
When it comes to hoping that the menacing cloud of Covid-19 will be lifted by next summer by a silver bullet vaccine, I’m as delusional as anyone. This virus is a complete pain in the ass. Self-isolation is miserable, like solitary confinement only self-inflicted. The handwashing – ugh, but
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Now?
When I spotted the BBC headline, “The grim fate that could be worse than extinction,” I instinctively recoiled and thought, “fuck, what now?” I don’t know about you but with this pandemic, the kaleidoscope of climate breakdown impacts, and the seeming “end days” of democracy, I’m up to my ass
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Warpaint. Never, Ever Thought I’d See This
HMCS Regina is getting spruced up for the annual RimPac naval exercises. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII, Regina will be sporting “dazzle” pattern camouflage paint of the wartime era. Damn but she looks pretty nice. Heart of Oak Steady, boys, Steady
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: This Is a Story About a Real Dick. Dick is a Lawyer.
CBC has a “sign of the times” story about a Thai restaurant in Windsor, Ontario that refused service to a customer who would not wear a face mask. After refusing food to a customer who wouldn’t wear a mask at a walk-up takeout window, a local Thai restaurant was given an
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Meanwhile in Germany
The Berlin tourist authority has launched an ad campaign targeting people who don’t wear masks. I guess you don’t have to sprechen Deutsch to get the point.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: "Rage" The Shortest and Best Chapter
Rage, Bob Woodward’s latest book on Donald Trump and his administration is a pretty good read. The least interesting bits are his conversations with the hopefully outgoing president. There’s a lot to be gleaned, however, in Woodward’s conversations with ex-defense secretary, James Mattis; ex-secretary of state, Rex Tillerson; ex-national security
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: "The Arctic is Dying"
This photograph is the wall of Batagaika Crater in Siberia. It’s the biggest permafrost crater in the world and it’s still growing. All the once safely sequestered carbon is being released as the permafrost wall thaws. “The Arctic is Dying.” I first encountered that headline in an Agence France
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: America Stages a Comeback – to Pre-WWII America
An insightful article in Foreign Policy predicts that America is en route to a time before the era of liberal democracy. Trump’s “America first” approach to foreign policy has deep roots in U.S. history. Before 1945, the United States defined its interests narrowly, mostly in terms of money and physical
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Real Sh*tshow of an Election – B.C. Votes
My mail-in ballot arrived last week. It’s still sitting uncompleted on my coffee table. For several years I’ve been a committed Green Party member. After leaving the Liberals, Elizabeth May and the Greens were a good fit for me. Then this dilemma surfaced. I became a lot greener than
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Government of the Rich, By the Rich, For the Rich – The Republicans’ Plutocratic Agenda
Give Mitch McConnell his due. To him, hypocrisy in defence of plutocracy is no vice. How else to explain how Senate Republicans never met a tax cut for the rich they couldn’t approve but have no tolerance for relief for ordinary Americans in the throes of a pandemic. Paul Krugman
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Goldman Sachs Warns First Class Passengers to Take to the Lifeboats
They’re going to miss the bloated bastard when he’s gone. To Wall Street, Donald Trump has been a champion of the rich, so much so that Goldman Sachs is now telling investors to unload greenbacks because Joe Biden is coming. Investors should sell the dollar, as chances grow for a decisive win by
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why Michigan? It Was No Fluke.
Why did heavily armed domestic terrorists storm Michigan’s statehouse? Why did a group of terrorists, members of Michigan’s Wolverine Militia, plot to kidnap and put on trial their governor, Gretchen Whitmer? On the day that the FBI revealed it had broken up a conspiracy to kidnap governor Whitmer I spoke
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Lindsey Has Caught "Mad Trump Disease"
Lindsey Graham figures South Carolina is just fine with black people or at least some blacks that may or may not actually exist. In a candidate forum with the South Carolina Senate race contenders, Senator Lindsey Graham has said he did not believe there was systemic racism in his state, insisting young
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone
Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving today or the more conventional holiday tomorrow, it’s good to give thanks on this weekend. We should be thankful for our families, even if it is difficult to gather, and thankful for what life gives us. We should be thankful for this guy. You may
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Coals to Newcastle
From what I’ve read, sales of legal marijuana (government stores and licenced retailers) haven’t lived up to expectations. This is especially true for what was once known as the Napa Valley of illicit weed, British Columbia. Judging by sales of legal weed in neighbouring Alberta, B.C. is faring poorly.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Has Bill Barr Decided It’s Now "Every Man for Himself"?
Bill Barr deserves no sympathy, none. As Attorney General, Trump’s very own Renfield, has betrayed the American people, disgraced his office, damaged the Department of Justice over which he presides and routinely debased his integrity, to meet Trump’s every command. Bill Barr is a loathsome man. Yet Bill Barr
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Does Trump Want to Spread Covid-19?
It’s hard to imagine an American president choosing to put the public in harm’s way as a pandemic rages but those expectations don’t apply to the Trump administration. With “second wave” infection rates surging, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) moved to mandate the wearing of masks aboard aircraft,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: South America’s Self-Inflicted Environmental Catastrophe
North Americans are all too well aware of our wildfire crisis as, every year, vast swathes of forest are consumed by fires that spread so fast they seem almost diabolical. It is becoming so hot and so dry fires that once spread through ground fuel – fallen branches, leaves,
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