The U.S. departed almost radically from an habitual practice on a resolution at a United Nations Security Council meeting Monday. It didn’t vote in Israel’s favour. The Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza during the remaining weeks of Ramadan. The resolution passed with 14 votes
Continue readingTag: Biden (Joe)
Views from the Beltline: Biden, Trump and the authoritarian urge
Recent polls show that Donald Trump and Joe Biden are tied in this very early stage of the 2024 presidential race. Each has just over 40 percent support of registered voters. To many liberals everywhere this is a puzzlement. Joe Biden is a decent man who has restored sanity to
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Finally—Democrats romance the working class
Early in the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, Donald Trump was the subject of much mockery. No way this buffoon could win said the pundits. Michael Moore, left-wing rabble-rouser and and film-maker, disagreed. To put it in his words, “This wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full time sociopath is
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: U.S. voters (and conservatives) trash Trump
The Democrats are quite pleased with their showing in the U.S midterm elections. From where I sit, it doesn’t look quite that cheerful—they lost the House of Representatives and may yet lose the Senate. Nonetheless, the prediction was for the usual midterm result which is a drubbing for the president’s
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Have conservatives all gone mad?
As a social democrat I may be prone to seeing the virtues in progressives and the vices in conservatives. But I challenge any objective observer to deny that a streak of madness hasn’t overtaken the conservative political world. Consider the UK. Run by the Conservatives for the past dozen years
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy—a timely effort
As a passionate believer in democracy, I feel compelled to comment on the recent democracy summit called to order by President Biden. Cynicism about the summit is thick on the ground. Not least because democracy in Biden’s own country has become so corrupted by wealth, gerrymandering and a flawed constitution
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Big climate promises at the UN … but
The United States and China, rivals on the world stage and also the two biggest economies and the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases made some big climate promises at the UN this week. Chinese president Xi Jinping promised China will stop building coal-fired power plants abroad, a big deal
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Is Facebook killing people?
President Joe Biden missed his goal of 70 percent of Americans vaccinated against Covid by July 4th. Some cities are now urging even vaccinated residents to resume mask-wearing, and in states such as Missouri and Utah, where large swaths of the population remain unvaccinated, health officials are warning of hospitals
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Leashing the corporations with the Biden tax
There was a period following WWII when we approached utopia. Well, OK, maybe that’s overstating it, but we had created probably the finest society, in terms of the economic welfare of ordinary people, that humanity has ever managed. We had for some time enjoyed the benefits of capitalism but in
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Biden admin getting it right on taxes
For some time, corporations have had things their way. With globalization, which was largely designed by and for them, they were able to slip the leashes that nation states had imposed on them and move wherever labour was cheapest and taxes lowest. And, in effect, blackmail governments for favours. Now
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Make America fair again?
The United States is the most unequal of the advanced countries. By far. And it’s getting worse. The ratio of the average income of the richest 10 percent to the poorest 10 percent in the U.S. is 18.5 whereas for most Western countries it’s closer to ten. (Canada’s is 9.4.)
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Joe Biden—union man
During Joe Biden’s election campaign, he promised he would be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” This may be the most important promise he made, at least on the economic front. Income inequality has steadily increased in the U.S. in the last 30 years and is considerably greater than
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Lula—Brazil’s Biden?
Brazil and the United States have at least one thing in common in their recent political histories. Both had popular progressive presidents replaced by fascists: Donald Trump replacing Barack Obama in the U.S. and Jair Bolsonaro replacing Luiz Inácio da Silva (Lula) in Brazil. Both successors proved as incompetent as
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Joe Biden—a Teddy or an FDR?
Many progressives are hoping for great things from Joe Biden. The United States faces huge problems aside from the pandemic and its economic fallout. There is an opportunity here for a bold and progressive president to make his mark and do great good. This brings an inevitable comparison to the
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Is Joe up to the challenge?
The strongest emotion many people felt in response to the election of Joe Biden as president of the U.S. was relief. Relief not because Biden is the new president but because the dreadful Trump is gone. Biden’s challenge is immense. Rarely has a new president had to deal with such
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Another Albertan’s reaction to President Biden’s climate announcements
When I read about U.S. President Biden’s first steps down the climate change path he intends to follow, I was delighted, primarily because of his stated intention to rejoin the Paris climate agreement. That alone will give us all some hope that humanity may yet deal with the global warming
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Democracy and mass delusion
I have always been intrigued by people’s tendency to believe what they want to believe rather than what the facts are telling them, to believe what their innate biases desire rather than what is true. I do it myself, of course, although I hope that for the most part I
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Donald Trump is now as American as apple pie
Donald Trump is for real. His victory in 2016 was no fluke. He got more votes this time, including more support from Republicans, the party he was predicted to shatter, than he did last time. He even got more votes from Latinos and Blacks. For half the U.S. public, Trump
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Electing Biden isn’t enough
In 2016, Americans embarrassed themselves by electing Donald Trump as their president. Then Trump took over and has embarrassed them ever since. If they want to regain the world’s respect, they must not only elect Joe Biden next Tuesday, they must repudiate Trump. They must elect Biden in a landslide.
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: I’d dump Barrett on climate change alone
When Senator Richard Blumenthall asked U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett the simple question “Do you believe that human beings have caused global warming?”you might think this highly-educated woman would simply have answered yes. The simple truth. But no, her actual answer was, “I don’t think I’m qualified to
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