In 2008, made-in-America Casino Capitalism took down economies around the world and, in case you haven’t noticed, they haven’t come back and won’t anytime soon. Wall Street did what al Qaeda could never dream of achieving. Now America is once again threatening to scupper the global economy. Today the
Continue readingTag: China
The Disaffected Lib: Is China Ready to Make Its Move? Will Beijing Tear Up the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
Most Canadians, and most Americans for that matter, don’t appreciate the lengths the United States has been going to in order to contain China and slow its ascendancy – politically, economically, militarily and technologically. China’s space programme has been targeted by the United States using its ITAR trade regulation to
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: China Warns Washington to Act on Debt Ceiling
When you have a serious debt problem and your biggest creditor gives you a slap upside the head maybe it’s a good time to rethink what’s not going right at home. The Chinese government has conveyed a sharp message to Washington – stop acting like children. Beijing demanded US President
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Arms Race Update – Turkey Buys Air Defence System from China
Turkey, NATO’s sole member from the Muslim world, has ordered a new, air defence system – from China. A government committee chaired by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister, decided this week to proceed with buying the long-range anti-aircraft and ballistic missile system from the state-owned China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corporation,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: And We Thought All We Had to Deal With Was Enbridge.
Nexen, the Chinese Communist Party’s anchor in Athabasca, is urging Canadian National Railways to start shipping bitumen by rail car to Prince Rupert where it can then be loaded on supertankers for transport to the Peoples’ Liberation Army and other users. Apparently China is getting impatient with Comrade Steve’s inability
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Blackberry mess and what Canada needs
Another year, another dead Canadian tech giant. Blackberry was sold yesterday for scrap to the Toronto private equity firm Fairfax. The purchase price of $4.7 billion is essentially valued at its cash of $2.6 billion and the value of its patents. Blackberry’s active businesses are being valued at essentially nothing.
Continue readingThings Are Good: India Bans Shark Finning
Chinese demand for the fins of sharks (I have no idea what they are good for) has gone up over the past couple years. India is one of the largest exports of shark parts to China and the Indian government has decided to ban the act of removing fins from
Continue readingLeDaro: Festival on Mount Wugongshan in China’s Jiangxi province
Thousands of people are taking part in the 2013 International Camping Festival on Mount Wugongshan in China’s Jiangxi province. The event, which began on September 14, has attracted more than 15,000 campers from all over the world, according to Xinhua News Agency. Reuters I like pictures. An interesting festival.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Living Large Chemically
China is taking a page out of North America’s book, discovering that antibiotics are the key to industrial livestock production. Already half the antibiotics used in China go to keeping livestock ticking over until they can be slaughtered. Shocked? You shouldn’t be. China is at 50%. In the U.S., the
Continue readingApple and the exploitation of Chinese labour
I have been an Apple fan since I got my first computer—Mac all the way. I cringe, therefore, when I encounter articles about the company and its exploitation of Chinese labour. So I really didn’t need to read this morning that Apple’s new iphone is being produced under illegal and
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Untangling the Temporary Foreign Worker Knot
Banks as predators? Surely, no! Temporary foreign workers have become a lightning-rod topic in Canadian labour in recent months with the high-profile news of the Royal Bank of Canada replacing staff with TFWs. But the issue is not about RBC, which is merely the latest flashpoint. The temporary foreign worker
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The real reasons for threats of war against Syria
(that the mass media won’t tell you about) 1. The Middle East holds 60% of the world’s remaining energy reserves: therefore, the entire region is critical to control – for anyone with an empire fetish, that is. And if you’re serious about controlling the Middle Eastern oil reserves, then you
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The United States Air Force Wants to Go All Nano on China’s Ass
At times it seems the U.S. military is obsessed with finding ways to attack China. They’ve already staged a full-dress rehearsal of a stealth first-strike against China, Operation Chimichanga. That scenario envisioned a wave of F-35 stealth light bombers, protected by F-22 stealth fighters, catching the Chinese napping and wiping
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Arms Race Update – There Goes the Neighbourhood
Singapore’s RSS Swordsman When Obama announced America’s military “pivot” out of the Middle East and into Asia-Pacific, it was bound to shake up the neighbourhood – that plus China’s rapid military expansion that the pivot is intended to counter. When China and the U.S. get testy it’s bound to stir
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Cash Crunch Offers New Insights Into the F-35.
The United States Air Force is scrambling to protect the F-35 light attack bomber from the threat of cancellation. There has been talk over the past week that the F-35, in the era of budget sequestration, could be a goner. It’s funny how a cash crunch can shake out straight
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is America Courting War with China?
Ever since it staged Operation Chimichanga, a dress-rehearsal of a stealth, first-strike attack to take out Chinese air defences, America has been treading gingerly along what may be the road to war. Chinese J-31 Stealth Fighter China has been busy responding with its own stealth fighters, anti-satellite space weaponry, an
Continue readingLA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Analysis And Comment: THE STRANGE CASE OF THE MISSING TERRORIST SCIENTISTS IN THE NEWS
In April of this year the RCMP announced that they had uncovered a bio-terrorist threat involving two Canadian scientists working for the innocuous sounding: Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The agency itself had been in the news lately due to regulatory failures leading to a number of food poising cases from bacterial outbreaks in
Continue readingRedBedHead: Genes, Robots & The Internet: How Capitalism Revolutionizes The Planet
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Continue readingRedBedHead: Genes, Robots & The Internet: How Capitalism Revolutionizes The Planet
I was hoping to get to this sooner but life intervened (and technology in the form of a sick computer), along with the second Egyptian revolution, which has been riveting, inspiring, frightening. Nonetheless I wanted to complete my thoughts on the question of Marxism, capitalism and technological advancement – at least this portion of it. In the future I want to write something on Ray Kurzweil
Continue readingRedBedHead: Genes, Robots & The Internet: How Capitalism Revolutionizes The Planet
I was hoping to get to this sooner but life intervened (and technology in the form of a sick computer), along with the second Egyptian revolution, which has been riveting, inspiring, frightening. Nonetheless I wanted to complete my thoughts on the question of Marxism, capitalism and technological advancement – at
Continue reading