…Burning oil caused the melting in the first place… A week ago [was it that long?] two climate change activists pulled a Yes Men on our greatest employee, Mr. Stephen Harper. But last summer, you may not have seen an equally clever, but more hi-tech, stunt by Greenpeace’s Save the
Continue readingTag: A Better World is Needed
Politics, Re-Spun: What Does Post-Corporate Media Look Like?
I know you’re wondering. But it’s hard to imagine. Kind of like a fish imagining life without water. We’ve known corporate media for generations. Since the advent of psychology and marketing, the influence/manipulation of corporate media is ubiquitous. And not in a good way. But let’s take a few moments
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Cheap T-Shirts Keep Harper in Power
Whenever I read stories about corporations wanting to do the right thing, I never hold my breath. Clothing corporations, the sector where “sweatshops” originates, want us to believe they care. They don’t. Read what nonsense they are trying to peddle to get us off their back for exploiting people so
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Rachel Parent and other lame anti-GMO arguments
Photo from CBC Last year, 14 year old Rachel Parent was in the unenviable situation of being in the same room as Kevin O’Leary (click here for video). Parent did a commendable job speaking on national TV. I cannot pretend that I would have had half her poise and composure
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Come On, Let’s Really Increase Taxes on the Rich
Well, here’s something you don’t see [ever] in corporate media: a review of tax measures in the USA since the crash in 2008 that have succeeded in increasing taxes on the rich. And it turns out, tax increases that are regressive [sales taxes, etc.] or include the non-rich, seemed to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Yesterday’s Climate Justice Protest #SpinAlert
Sean Devlin, of ShitHarperDid.ca, had the temerity to interact with our employee, Mr. Stephen Harper. Yesterday, we saw a new level of action against climate destruction policy. In the style of co-conspirator Brigette DePape, two protesters crashed Harper’s contemptuous public appearance. Harper holds the media and the general public of
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What’s Wrong with America, Billionaires and Corporations?
Riotously popular economist Umair Haque had a few interesting tweets about America, corporations and billionaires this week. [View the story “What’s Wrong with America, Corporations and Billionaires?” on Storify] December 30, 2013 How the Occupy Movement is Enriching People’s Lives (1) April 18, 2011 Embracing BC NDP Corporate Tax Increases
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How the Occupy Movement is Enriching People’s Lives
Imagine an eco-community of micro-homes designed as a first step out of homelessness. Housing, easy to get into, if people care. Occupy Madison in Wisconsin has come up with an innovative first step of a solution [see below]. These 96 square foot homes are no long term solution, at all.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Ultimate New Year’s Resolution
It’s mostly us. Many of us have heard of the idea of planning policy to consider effects seven generations downline. We’re pretty smart. It shouldn’t be that hard. But we have many incentives to think short term. Sometimes so short that we are ignorantly and apathetically victimizing our descendants. But
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Ending Homelessness: Easy If You Simply Care
If we are a caring society. If we acknowledge that there are a myriad of reasons why a community’s homeless population is homeless. If we thought we should invest our tax dollars and take advantage of good research, good experience, good pilot projects and professionals to address homelessness and other
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Merry Christmas!
I’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and/or the joy and warmth of the holiday season. Make 2014 a year of more love, more compassion, more sharing and more service. Three things to mark this day: Some pictures. Here are 75 amazing pictures from 2013. Some more pictures.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Greed + Government Cuts Erode Society [Bah, Humbug!]
The greedy and selfish among us are NOT on our side. Happy Christmas Eve! I hope you’re all giving lots of money to charities because ’tis the season and all that. But what happens if generally, as a society, we can’t or won’t give so much? Coupled with public sector
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Enbridge: What Now? We Escalate Our Fight
Some breaking news occurred yesterday, the Joint Review Panel of the National Energy Board approved the Enbridge pipeline, but with 209 conditions. To quote a teenager from 1994: “Big whoop.” Also, big whoop goes out to the awesome pictures of soon to be decimated pristine wilderness on the report cover.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: ACTION: Illegal Israeli Settlement Goods Sold at London Drugs
SodaStream boycott informational picket Saturday, Dec. 21, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. London Drugs, Broadway @ Cambie, Vancouver Below is a notice of an important event happening on Saturday in Vancouver. If something is labelled as “Made in Israel” but is really made in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fixing Cyncial Corporate Media
How to inoculate yourself against cynical corporate media. Corporate news media is not on our side. It is on the side of stoking fear, cynically eroding possibilities of a better, more robust democracy, and scaring us into obedience to corporations and government through sensational stories that undermine our happiness. But
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fried Squirrels
It’s a crisp, foggy November Saturday morning in the south side of the city. Seventeen people sit in the large open area at the back end of an organic fair trade coffee shop run by a workers’ co-op inspired by the Mondragon movement in Spain. Meet-ups like this are quite
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Absence of Resilience
The city of pain Absorbs your fracturing soul Social fabric frays March 15, 2009 No One Is Illegal – Ignite resistance ~ Canadian multiculturalism is not enough! (0) December 11, 2013 How Harper is Gutting Canada: THE LIST (0) April 23, 2013 Did Earth Day Not Quite Do It
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Does Violence at Home Affect Workplaces in Canada?
Worksafe BC at least isn’t keeping itself in the dark Here is yet another stigma-laden, denial-inducing taboo topic in society and workplaces: domestic violence. And when we connect violence at home to effects on people as workers in the workplace, we get lots of crickets. So I’m happy to report
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Practice CrimeStop: You Are the New Terrorist
Balloons are a threat to civil order. The police must protect themselves from you with riot gear. You are a bad person. You. You enemy of the state. You radical environmentalist. Or worker rights advocate. Or whatever cause you are promoting. You. You are a threat to order. When you
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: IKEA: Swedish for Discrimination Against Workers
Values, discrimination, the Swedish way: all these ideas are in the mix as stakeholders of IKEA’s treatment of workers express how they feel about IKEA’s plan to break its union in Richmond, BC. We’ve been writing about this new front line in Canada’s war against workers for months now. But
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