Donald Trump doesn’t know how to shut his big, fat, greasy mouth. Today Trump tweeted, “Obama is a terrible negotiator. He bails out Chrysler and now Chrysler wants to send all Jeep manufacturing to China–and will!” Chrysler vice-president of design and president of the Dodge division, Ralph Gilles, fired back:
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The Disaffected Lib: Bloomberg Endorses Obama, Acts on Climate Change
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has endorsed Barack Obama for re-election as president of the United States. Bloomberg chose Obama over Romney as the best candidate to deal with the climate change that fueled the hurricane that smashed into New York City. “The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: My Eulogy For Bud
Bud is being buried this morning. I wrote about my uncle Bud a few days ago but I took down the post. It was too personal, too angry, even disrespectful of his privacy and dignity. What a difference a few days can make. Today they’ll be burying a man I
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: China, the Voracious Economic Giant, Steve the Supplicant
Given how fast Stephen Harper is working behind his veil of secrecy to sell out Canada to China, this timely warning from Der Spiegel: “I love nature,” says Huang Nubo, 56, a businessman with an estimated net worth of at least $1 billion (€772 million). The founder and chairman of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: New York Governor, Mario Cuomo, Warns There Are More Sandys to Come
New York governor Mario Cuomo spent part of the day inspecting the subway station being restored beneath Ground Zero that was heavily flooded in the recent megastorm. The clip doesn’t seem to have made it to YouTube yet but, in the middle of the interview, Cuomo surveys the damage to
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Steve Harper’s Betrayal of Canada
David Suzuki is credited with pointing out that you cannot have a healthy economy without a healthy biosphere. The first is utterly dependent on the second. A corollary. If you’re damaging the environment in order to inflate profits, you’re actually damaging the economy also. Suzuki’s warning came to mind in
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Drill, Baby, Drill
Severe storm events of increasing frequency and intensity. That has been one of the core predictions we’ve been getting, and largely ignoring, from the climate science community for the past several years. They keep telling us. We keep ignoring them. Must mine bitumen, must mine bitumen. Now, thanks to fracking,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Rape-Happy States of America
I stumbled upon this in the comments section of another blog, did a bit of searching, and found out it is true – in more than half of the American states, a rapist can sue for custody or visitation rights. 31 in fact. In the wake of Todd Akin’s comments
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Nation Chock Full of Crazy People
Looking at the United States today or at least the Tea Party half of it is like sneaking into an old-time carnival Freak Show. There is a big chunk of the American population seriously detached from reality and some of those actually ran for the Republican presidential nomination – you
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Chris Hedges Votes Green – For the Same Reasons You Should Too
Chris Hedges has declared his choice for the upcoming American elections. He’s voting Green. You should too. Here’s why. “The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle between the corporate state and
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Sandy May Cut the Big Apple a Huge Break
It looks as though Hurricane Sandy may arrive in New York City well before high tide. That would be a huge break for the Big Apple. High tides magnify storm surge flooding driven by powerful onshore winds. In a city with vast underground infrastructure and so many low-lying, even beneath
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: There Are Whistleblowers, Then There’s This Guy
Kostas Vaxevanis has blown the whistle on the rich and powerful in his country and he’s been arrested and hauled into court for it in what could turn into an astonishing showdown in a country that is a powderkeg of pent up resentment just looking for a spark. Vaxevanis is
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: One Alberta Government Too Many
One thing that grates on plenty of British Columbians is that Canada has two Alberta governments, one too many. We have a provincial Alberta government that sits in Edmonton and a federal Alberta government that sits in Ottawa. The Alberta government in Ottawa does things the provincial Alberta government can’t
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: My Ode to Bud
From the time I hit puberty we (I) called my Dad, “DeadEye.” That didn’t change for the next forty years. Dad came back from Britain with less than he arrived with. Sans one eye, a good hunk of stomach, half of his large intestine, a chunk of lung and shredded
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Robert Reich Warns Progressives – We Can’t Give Up
There are plenty of us who get frustrated and discouraged and even wonder why bother? Robert Reich says that’s the certain path to a truly regressive future. He’s speaking to American voters but the message applies to us all. This is for those of you who consider yourself to be
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What If We’d Had Nothing Better Than Harper and Hillier in 1812?
For years I’ve been something of student of the history of the War of 1812. On the wall behind me are buttons from the great battles of that war including Queenston Heights, Lundy’s Lane and Crysler’s Farm. Buttons from the 8th (Kings), the 41st Foot, Brock’s own 49th Regiment of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Harper’s Pipes May Be Backing Up
There are signs that the fight for the coast may have new impetus. As reported recently in the Associated Press, the United States could soon come into a bounty of oil. Part of it comes from newly discovered reserves, part from the Gulf of Mexico and a huge new source
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Mass Evacuation Ordered for NYC
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered as many as 375,000 New Yorkers to head for the hills before the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. At a press conference Sunday, Michael Bloomberg said some 375,000 people in a number of coastal areas including Coney Island, lower Manhattan and parts of the Queens neighbourhood
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Greek Madness
Austerity-bludgeoned Greece has a society teetering on collapse. It is a country headed by a government gone mad. Even as, “doctors in Athens hospitals are handling only emergencies, bus drivers are on strike, schools are still short of textbooks and thousands of state employees are demonstrating against their dismissal,” Greek
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Chanelling the Spirit of Posterity, Long Dead
For the five or six years this blog has existed I have strongly lamented the demise of posterity in our societies, our economies and our politics. In an era in which any perceived fetter on maximized production and maximized consumption was denounced as heretical, posterity was irrelevant, valueless or worse.
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