In the good old days, we used to be able to bring babies in strollers to protests/rallies/occupations opposing wars based on lies [Iraq] or psychotic arms races. In the good old days, you didn’t have to worry about being assaulted or beaten to death by the police, or having your
Continue readingTag: A Better World is Needed
Politics, Re-Spun: Canada’s Seeks the OECD Record for Income Inequality
America: Where the rich get richer faster than in so many other places! Yesterday I wrote about the rebooting of the Occupy Movement in 10 days. I’m very excited. And to help you understand why this is such a big deal, especially in Canada, it’s important to see how Canada is
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Occupy Wall Street Returns. Friday!
Occupy Returns! This Friday! Ladies and gentlemen, citizens of the world, the 99%: Occupy Wall St. returns on Friday. And not for one day. But we’re starting with 3 months. Let’s call it a trial marriage. After all, if it fails, the despotic corporate totalitarians who run the world will
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stop. Obeying. The. Rich. NOW!
Once upon a time, we were taught to envy and respect our “betters,” like the rich. No more. They’re taking our money and throwing us under the bus every day. And it’s not even just the super-rich or those in America, it’s the aspirational rich; they’re just as toxic. This
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Yes, Your Parents’ Standard of Living Was Better
Ugh. We’re so much poorer than our parents! Yes, your parents’ standard of living was better, so what are you going to do about it? When I was growing up in the 1970s, most [maybe 80%?] of my friends had a mom who stayed home and didn’t work. Over the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Don’t Tolerate Ignorance About the Minimum Wage
Now, stop tolerating ignorance! And smile, TGIF. Hello. It’s Friday. For many people it’s TGIF. But for many people who aren’t even teenagers, the work week isn’t ending today. We often THINK minimum wage is for the new entries to the job market. Maybe it was one day. Maybe just
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stop Listening to the Big Oil Spin!
Do the math. Please. For a great long time, I’ve been talking about how we must dump the oil, gas, fracking, tankers, pipelines, coal…all the carbon-based energy systems because of climate breakdown [aka climate change, aka global warming, aka the greenhouse effect]. We need to transform our society to a
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Science + Good Policy = Averting Climate Breakdown: Go!
Can you do it? Can you be inspired by the strong possibility that we can move to a post-carbon energy infrastructure, like I wrote about yesterday? Can you not reject science like the tarsands-addicted bad employee of ours, Mr. Harper? Can you see that, as a species, we must choose
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: You Have NOT Grown Numb to Crisis
“The goal was to touch upon the fear of becoming numb to crises that don’t affect you directly.” With a myriad of crises in the world, we fear becoming numb to their severity and how they can make us so depressed. I think on a large scale, political, environmental and
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Build Worker Solidarity Now or Suffer the Wrath of the 1%
Working people need to seek out solidarity opportunities. Unions and unionized workers need to reach out to non-unionized workers and seek legislative improvements for all, like improvements to the EI and doubling the CPP and renegotiating the Canada Health Accord and expanding Medicare and getting a national pharmacare program and
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: SUPPORT: Auto Unions in the US and Canada are on a Roll
With all the union busting and union bashing going on by the 1% and their compradors in government, it’s nice to see the labour movement getting some traction. The next few days in Tennessee and Ontario could move workplace democracy and the 99% ahead significantly, with thousands of new unionized
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What is Soft Fascism, Anyway?
I keep writing about soft fascism. Why is that, anyway? Soft fascism is a process of anti-democratic governing that is not as overtly totalitarian or authoritarian as more historically memorable fascist states. Soft fascist governing has features like: corrupt electoral processes legislative tactics that undermine democratic engagement warrantless monitoring of
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: This Week Will Clobber You, Politically
I apologize in advance, British Columbia. This will be the week from hell, and it started yesterday while we were all Family Day-ing. Hold your breath: Yesterday, the Conservative Soft Fascist Party of Canada rammed through the “Fair (sic) Elections Act” that will further protect us from the possibility of
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: If You Value Democracy, Call Your Nearest Conservative MP, NOW!
Call your nearest Conservative MP right now, until 330pm today, west coast time. Let them know that their Orwellian-named “Fair” Elections Act is clearly designed to further erode democracy and we see through it. See below for where you can contact such MPs. We can’t let them ram this through,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Because You’re Not As Dumb As They Think You Are!
Today is Friday. Let’s make it “think for ourselves Friday.” It’ll work: the government/corporations/1% won’t see it coming! Twitter / occupythemob: http://t.co/doHx1xWO4l. December 17, 2013 Fried Squirrels (0) December 20, 2013 Enbridge: What Now? We Escalate Our Fight (4) January 7, 2012 Day Two of Tragedy of the Market: From
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Canada’s Growing Income Gap Between the 99% and the 1%
The rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer, and the gap between them is growing. This is the test of whether we can be content in our complacency. Here’s why. In 2010, a tax filer required an annual income of $201,400 to be in the top 1%. This was 37% higher than
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Jesse Ventura Is On Our Side On Racist Team Names
More support for changing the name of the NFL team in Washington comes from Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Yesterday, I wrote about how incredibly easy it would be to change the racist name of any kind of team. It’s really not that hard. Imagine the reverse, though. Imagine changing the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Capitalism: Swing Your Sledgehammer
It’s all about vision and hope, in an effort to envision how economics and markets can exist after the toxicity of capitalism is gone, gone gone. Are you up for it? Last night, John Holloway, author of Crack Capitalism, was the SFU Institute for the Humanities‘ guest lecturer, skyped in
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What’s With Pipeline-Loving Old Men?
High 5′s to people are aren’t old men! [on average, 19 times out of 20, +/- 3.6% of the time.] My apologies if you’re a man, or over 55, but those two demographics love the Big Oil, and they’re giving you all a bad name! Here’s why. I know lots
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Mandela Was More Radical Than Most Know
Well, I miss Mandela. The post-Mandela world is sadly less colourful. While all sorts of people, including reprobate politicians in Canada laud him for this and that, it’s important to remember that he never seemed to angle for being a darling of right wing, neoliberal libertarian freedom fighters. Here are
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