So is there anything good to say about Doug Ford. Well he is not Pierre Poilievre or Danielle Smith. At least Ford does not seek votes by appealing to people’s fears and hatred. He is more of an old fashioned corporations know best, privatization will solve all our problems, capitalist
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THE FIFTH COLUMN: Housing As A Right
Should housing be a right. That is the question. But the real question is what would that mean and how do we make it more than a token right but an actual effective right. In North America we had this mythology that everyone could own their own home. That has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Anthony Newall et al. study the effects of the influenza vaccine – finding that each percentage point in vaccine uptake saves over a thousand U.S. lives which would otherwise have been lost to the flu and pneumonia. And Kit O’Connell discusses how people suffering
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jess Davis reports on the World Meteorological Organization’s conclusion that 2023 saw the worst-ever level of climate breakdown under every key indicator. And Brett Christophers rightly argues that we’ll never make progress in combating the climate crisis as long as we’re operating under
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Capitalism is Slavery
Listen to Nathan explain the problem with a capitalist structure that forces the elderly to continue working. @nathanreo #revolution #deconstruction #deconstructingcapitalism #capitalism #socialism #decentralization #socialprogress #awakening #humanevolution #shiftinconsciousness #consciousness #spirituality ♬ original sound – Reo “Capitalism is a gross system of slavery and human rights abuse. . . . It’s
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Feudalism
Have we ever lived outside of a system of pseudo-feudalism with peasantry, slavery, or the working poor labouring for the benefit of Kings, land barons, or factory owners? One perspective of the past thousand years or so might go something like this: Peasants lived on the King’s land, first for
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The Election Issue That Dare Not Speak It’s Name
What election am I referring to – whatever one is next in whatever jurisdiction you are in. Yes I am talking about that which we dare not speak – the need to change our economic system before its ultimate collapse. Karl Marx predicted the collapse of capitalism, and it was
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Mask Up for Measles!!
The WHO put out this reminder about measles, which is hitting Europe and the UK hard and starting to be seen more in Canada too: I re-did it to bring more attention to the pandemic we’re currently swimming in: And a few people commented things along the lines of measles
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Seize the Moment!
Until we redefine prosperity, consumption will continue to drive us down a destructive path (from Joe Tegerdine). People are going to fly to vacation spots to sit in the sun to get a tan, a bit annoyed when all the smoke blocks the sun and they have to move hotels
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Socialism, Capitalism, Corporatism, & The Future Of Humanity: Ideology vs Reality
A few thoughts on the recent, very thoughtful and interesting discourse and debate, between Professors Brookes and Wolff, linked in the video below: To Professor Wolff:Bravo – brilliant crystalization. To Professor Brookes:Great respect for your human decency and moral sentiment of basic justice and compassion, certainly, but are you not
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Can a Slingshot Down this Goliath?
I read Andreas Malm‘s book, How to Blow Up a Pipeline a few months ago, then watched the movie, and then was reminded of it all again by Abigail Thorn’s latest Philosophy Tube video about being plagiarized by a man. Thorn explains how subtle sexism led to free labour in the home. Even
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Global Fascist Coup: Time To Face Reality
We need to stop making the irrational and unfounded, anti-empirical assumption that the corporate and financial elite are stupid – they are demonstrably sociopathic, but they are not stupid, as a class – and it would be stupid of them to not cooperate and coordinate, orchestrate, plan and carry out
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: There’s Money in Prevention
The insurance companies and finance mags are still openly discussing the problems with ongoing Covid, even if schools and hospitals aren’t. Illness affects the bottom line! Don’t be surprised if you try to get insurance and they ask a lot of questions about whether you’ve had Covid, how many times, how
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Compassion as the Antidote for Capitalism
A Taylor Swift fan took the brave position of calling out the beloved superstar, and everyone else involved, for the death of Ana Clara and many in need of medical attention at her concert Friday night in Rio: “First of all, Taylor made sure fans had water during the show.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Culture of Uncare or Pandemic of Inhumanity
Psychoanalyst Sally Weintrobe coined the term “culture of uncare” to explain intentional efforts to sever links from one another and from the environment. She calls it “severing links,” but the word that comes to mind is alienation. We’ve been alienated from our environment, from our work, from others, and from
Continue readingAlex's Blog: Crack-Up Capitalism, Quinn Slobodian: A Review
In this engrossing historical account, Quinn Slobodian lays out how a few very rich men—yes pretty much men—and the neoliberal intellectuals upon whose ideas they fed, imagined and sometimes built their versions of utopia: “zones” free from the grasping hands of the many who want to tax their riches or
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Housing and Value(s)
Here’s a little story about the house at the end of my street. About 30 years ago, it was a bit of a grow-op, with vicious guard dogs, one that actually ate the leg off the neighbour’s family dog! When I’d walk down the street with my kids, we’d always
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Christian Priorities
One for the Christian right. Sexual impurity was a two-fold concern in the ancient olden days. First, it was to ensure that everyone’s spreading their seed in fertile ground, instructing men to stay away from lieing with other men as if they’re women as well as avoiding masturbation and barren women!! Guys
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Covid or Climate: Can’t it be both?
In a local school board meeting from last June, in which they discussed their plan to remove HEPAs in rooms that had mechanical ventilation added (as if it’s and either/or option), they first discussed how far they’ve overshot their energy budget. There were clear implications that Covid mitigations had forced
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Weirdness of Now
This morning I listened to a Naomi Klein interview from this week about her very different type of book, while reading a prescient Geroge Monbiot article that he reposted from last March. There’s a striking amount of overlap. Both are about the new right-wing alliances being formed, and the furthest
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