Robert Reich does his usual fine job of warning about threats to American society and democracy posed by the entrenched interests who care nothing for principle and everything about the acquisition and retention of power: Voting rights are under attack. States across the country have adopted voter suppression laws and
Continue readingTag: American politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: A New Year rich in political opportunity.
This political junkie is looking forward to 2018. Starting with the Ontario election in June, Quebec scheduled for October 1 and then the American mid-term elections in November, there will be much on which to comment. The only recommendation we can make at this stage is to ignore the pollsters.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The trying times of Trump.
Canada’s prime minister told Global News the other day that there is “a level of unpredictability” to the current trade talks with the Americans and Mexicans. What is really amazing is that one man, on a whim, can be allowed to jeopardize US$17 trillion in annual trade between the three
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump trends to tyranny.
No American President in living history has earned the thoroughness of study and the resulting derision as has Donald Trump. Soon to celebrate his first year in office, he has earned the enmity that he himself heaped on his opponents for that high office. He has let down the American
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: By jingo, Trump’s a xenophobe.
In an era of social media on the Internet, people are having a hard time deciding what is suitable for private conversations and what is suitable for public discussions. Nobody illustrates the problem more effectively than the American President. Donald Trump seems to have it all backward. Certainly, the most
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Fake News, Fake President and the FBI.
From 1924 to 1972, J. Edgar Hoover organized and controlled the federal law enforcement of the United States of America. He built a flawed and highly politicized organization into the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The mistakes Hoover made came built in with the headquarters Hoover Building in Washington today. It
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Political Instincts of a Tomcat.
Political pundits have pondered on American President Trump for quite some time now and they still cannot get him right. The reason they fail to read him and his moves and moods is that he is not a political animal. If we accept that, we can see him for what
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Beating off the NAFTA bogymen.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) might not make it to New Year’s. Who knows? Mr. Trump might just like to go out of this year with a clean slate. He has promised his ignorant and uncaring sycophants a pyrrhic victory and he might as well deliver the killing
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The failing final days of America.
This is a time of unease. America has failed us. The heroes of the Second World War are vanishing. The people who touted democracy to the world’s oppressed are fading into history. Around the globe there is a sense of a collective waiting. People are tense, on a short fuse,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: As the pendulum swings.
There can be a pendulum effect in politics. It means that for every aberration noted in one election there is often an equal and opposite reaction in the next election. We just might be seeing this in Alabama leading up to the special election for a U.S. senator next week.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wall of Wonder.
Is the American President going to select his wonderful wall for Christmas? Hopeful contractors have erected eight samples of wall in San Diego, CA for his decision. All he has to do is pick his favourite. His Twitter followers will likely be the first to know which wall he prefers.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why Sarah is the perfect press patsy.
Her name is Sarah Huckabee Sanders and she is President Trump’s White House press secretary. Watching her in action, you get the feeling that she is something of a female version of Forrest Gump. It is her gullible nature that makes her the ideal press secretary. Having been in her
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Writing Off NAFTA.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is still on the operating table. While it appears that the gurus at Canada’s banks are giving poor odds, that seems to be what banks always do. They do appear to like spreading doom and gloom. Despite their predictions, nobody is willing to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A travesty of travellers.
The dynamic duo of Trump and Trudeau are meeting in south-east Asia this weekend. Neither has the other on their agenda. And neither has a similar agenda. They have different needs and different objectives. U.S. President Donald Trump has the shortest list to match his short memory. His top-of-mind concern
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The President who would be King.
If U. S. President Donald Trump could just live up to his tweets, he would be more interesting—and maybe deadly. Since winning the American presidency, he has been creating a cottage industry among writers trying to understand him. He makes the understanding more difficult, because he himself has no idea
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair harasses NAFTA hopefuls.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is still on life support. The end of his first year in office and President Donald Trump has not yet ended the more than US$ one trillion in trade between the three countries. Maybe he was waiting for some help from critics of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Does Donald Trump even like America?
If President Donald Trump takes any pride in the United States of America, he has a funny way of showing it. Did he run for the presidency as a joke or to get even? Maybe he was tired of being considered a joke? In his ignorance, Trump is giving the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump’s Triumph.
It could become a bigger parlor game than Monopoly. It seems appropriate to introduce it on Halloween. Our latest board game enables players to have fun ridiculing U.S. President Donald Trump. We are calling the new game Trump’s Triumph. It is both hilarious and horrifying—and how can you beat that?
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Curating the consensus of the crowd.
It is most unlikely that Maude Barlow and the membership of the Council of Canadians see Canada’s future as being a pastoral society. It just appears by the collective’s recent policy consensus that this is what they want. What it might be telling us is that Maude’s days as curator
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bad bodings for Brown.
A large piece of the Ontario provincial Conservative’s election campaign went bye-bye the other day. Brown and his buddies must have been sitting around the party headquarters war room contemplating what might have been. The directed verdict of a Sudbury, Ontario judge cut the campaign off at the knees. The
Continue reading