Ask yourself what America would look like if Donald Trump is re-elected president of the United States. What would America look like by the time Trump would be sworn into a second term in January? What would it look like after that? Trump has already erased any doubt that he
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: In Parts of the United States, the Civil War is Still Unfinished Business
Colfax, Louisiana is what the New York Times calls a ‘flyspeck’ town. Today the town is remembered for the ‘Colfax Riot’ when, in 1873, white supremacists massacred scores of former slaves. In 1921 those killers who themselves lost their lives, three of them, were venerated by an obelisk erected in
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Some Good News? Ya Want Some Good News?
I just finished a telephone consult with my GP. I’m still not sold on over-the-phone medicine but these are unusual times. Among other things I wanted to know about this year’s seasonal flu situation. Is there a vaccine yet. What were they prediction in terms of severity and spread. Apparently
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Christian Fundraiser Collects $220,000 for Kyle Rittenhouse’s Defence.
What says “Christian” better than raising donations to defend a murderous little shit who gunned down three unarmed protesters? Religion News Service reports an outfit called Give Send Go has raised almost a quarter million dollars so far to fund Kyle Rittenhouse’s defence costs. As RNS reports. the fundraising site
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Clinging to Hope. Hope for Hope’s Sake – Thomas Homer Dixon
As Thomas Homer Dixon sees it, humanity’s only hope is the power of hope itself. THD, author of “The Upside of Down” (now in my ‘re-read’ stack) has written a new book, “Commanding Hope: The Power We Have to Renew a World In Peril,” to be released on Tuesday. I
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How Close is America to Falling Apart?
Is America at a breaking point? Is this a nation in a pre-revolutionary moment? Chris Hedges has been claiming for some time that America is heading for some redefining unrest, possibly revolution. He’s not alone. America is in two camps and they both exude a “we can’t go on like
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Merkel – Hard Times Ahead
Trust Angela Merkel to lay it on the line. The German Chancellor has warned her people that the Covid-19 pandemic is probably going to get much worse as summer turns to fall and that there’ll be no return to normalcy until an effective vaccine is available. “We have to expect
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Deadliest Part of Covid-19 Isn’t the Virus
In years to come we may rue allowing the Covid-19 pandemic to suck all the air out of the room. It’s as though everything else that threatens humanity – on a scale dwarfing this pandemic to insignificance – was somehow put into suspension. From The Lancet. We opened this year
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: China Tastes the Lash But the Whole Neighbourhood Feels the Sting
Conventional wisdom holds that China will dominate the global economy in the 21st century. Maybe, maybe not. While climate change has been bumped off the radar of public consciousness by the Covid-19 pandemic, China has been getting a taste of the lash, a sampling of what lies in store. In
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is the US Navy Giving the F-35 a Pass?
The United States Navy’s love affair with the Lockheed F-35 joint strike fighter has cooled. For all of its amazing technology, the F-35 simply is too flawed to be of much use to the fleet. It doesn’t carry much payload and, to be stealthy, it is limited to what it
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Interpol – Half of World’s Water Supply Stolen Every Year
We take water security for granted at our peril. It’s vastly worse in places that are water insecure. “According to Interpol, thieves steal as much as 30% to 50% of the world’s water supply annually – a big number. Compounding this problem is the fact that, as the scarcity of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Hiding in Plain Sight. America Is Failing.
“Something’s happening here, What it is ain’t exactly clear.” As you watch the goings on in America today, does that ever leave you feeling just a little unsettled? Do you wonder what’s coming next? Those who experienced the United States during the turbulent 60s and early 70s have a working
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What’s That Dripping Sound? Oh, It’s What Remains of Alberta’s Petro-Prosperity Stream.
We can’t say we weren’t warned. The fossil energy giants warned us. The Europeans warned us. The investment and insurance giants warned us. They told us, by their words and by their deeds, that fossil fuels, especially the high-carbon/low-value stuff – bitumen and coal, were a lousy bet, some at
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Paralysis of Polarized Thought
There’s a thoughtful essay in today’s South China Morning Post that touches on the trap that snares polarized societies. It begins with a passage attributed to John Maynard Keynes: “When my information changes, I change my mind. What do you do sir?” It’s a good rule for people to follow
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Your Pre-Election Reading List
The next two months will see the release of a slew of “tell all” books on Donald Trump, Trump’s administration, a panoply of alleged crimes and grifting, and the Trump clan including Melania, Ivanka, Uday and Qusay. The most recent books came from John Bolton and Trump’s niece, Mary. Niece
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Welcome Aboard, Ensign O’Toole
He may not be much but Canadians, 38 per cent of them at least, consider Justin Trudeau their choice to handle the pandemic and engineer some sort of economic recovery. Respondents to the poll, conducted by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies, were split about the prospect of a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s All About That Apple in the Garden of Eden
It’s the Forbidden Fruit parable for the 21st Century. Jerry Falwell Jr. brought low by an unfaithful wife who could not resist the devil’s apple, a hotel pool boy. It’s positively Biblical. A faithless wife, easily seduced, who then drew her husband, her Adam, into a rebellion against the Lord.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Trump Unleashes Psy-Ops on America
We saw a hint of this in the runup to the 2016 presidential election when then candidate Trump hinted that he might not accept the election results – unless they went his way. Thanks to a perverse electoral system, Hillary won the popular vote by a 3 million margin but
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Wexit Is a Shakedown And the Tories Are Blackmailing Canada
Erin O’Toole could hardly wait to get his ass in Andrew Scheer’s old chair before he was on the phone to Justin Trudeau to raise that gravest threat facing Canada, Wexit. By midday, O’Toole had already spoken to his main rival in Parliament, a call both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s
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