How much will we keep spending to develop more fossil fuels when we know we have to stop to avert climate breakdown? $88b/year? More? How about zero. It’s time to redirect that money to wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro so we can stop exacerbating our climate crisis. Redirect NOW! Let
Continue readingTag: Class War
Politics, Re-Spun: Fire Your Boss?!
If you are interested in: social and economic justice equality and less income inequality workplace democracy and autonomy work-life balance improving the world because you are young and you have the most to lose with a rapidly decaying planet, Then, read this paragraph. It comes from a document you should
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Are Your White Male Entitlements Maiming Your Vote this Month?
I’m not going to argue that using an Intersectionality lens in the municipal election in 2 weeks will make your voting choices perfectly easy. But I will say that your white male entitlements have likely contributed to worse choices in the past. Including not voting. When you read this entire
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Work, Dignity and Living Wages?
A strong union. Corporations that understand the social contract. Corporations that know a tad smaller profit here contributes to more dignity throughout society. Corporations that recognize the value of unions. The living wage in Vancouver this year is $20.10, almost double the minimum wage. The “precariat” are precarious proletariats. We
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Join Ricochet: A new take on independent media.
Have you joined yet? No? So, you’re good with corporate media spinning things for you, against your personal, community, national and ecological interests? Oh. Ok. 🙂 Ricochet is an audacious response to a difficult context. Independent and in the public interest, Ricochet will provide a space dedicated to investigative journalism
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: If You Read But One Thing About Universal Childcare This Week
Line them up here. In this one section of universal childcare analysis by one of the smartest people in the country, Michal Rozworski, we see a number of significant policy issues addressed: affordable childcare. universality. feminism. including mothers in the workforce more effectively. a better shot a living wage for
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Transit Should Be Free; Until Then…
$1/day is a good start to get there. It’s good for the environment. It reduces commuter stress. It forces governments to increase progressive taxation to cover infrastructure costs. It uses BC’s cheap hydro electricity. It combats rampant zombie consumerism. The post-secondary UPass system has improved commuting incredibly. So $1/day is
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What I Am Thankful For
This weekend, I am thankful for folks in Seattle who know how to transform the imperialist Columbus Day into Indigenous Peoples’ Day. May we all learn this for next year! “We are all citizens in a democracy, we are all here to work with each other, and by making this
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Harper, Militarism and the New Toonie
Harper continues to ignore, demean and disrespect soldiers while once again sending them into one of his neo-conservative “wars,” which is good for a PM heading into an election, needing to solidifying his base that loves him to kill the evildoers. But his long-term plan to militarize Canadian culture [Winnipeg
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stop Persecuting The Rich, You Stinkers!
Rich folks, corporations and capitalists are feeling persecuted AGAIN! George Monbiot explains that we [citizens in pseudo-democracies] are attacking them and their right to a free market as well as their right to be free from disloyal politicians pursuing policy goals that serve voting human people instead of businesses. Here
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Against Collective Forgetting
Workers must do our part to Stop Harper! Happy Labour Day! 🙂 In Stephen Harper’s Canada, we keep enumerating the things we’re losing: meaningful legislative debate, evidence-based policy, public science, a free and open society, among other things. But what happens if we go too long with a slow erosion
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Welcome to the 1,000th Politics, Re-Spun Editorial!
Steve Harper, the greatest threat to Canadian security in the modern era. Happy August! Happy Day! I have a few comments about this, the 1,000th editorial at Politics, Re-Spun. But you can read them below, about my sabbatical plan, new visions for this almost 12-year-old website, and other things. But
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Israel: Rogue State
Why It Matters That Norman Finkelstein Just Got Arrested Outside the Israeli Consulate Israel has the right to defend itself. Arguably, so does every nation. Israel, however, gets a free pass for going well beyond defending itself. I’ll leave the West Bank alone right now. Gaza: Is an open-air prison,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: TFWP: How Racist is Canada?
Here’s one way to tell how racist a person/nation is. Have them read this excerpt and see if they fly into a rage about “those” people, or just come up with economic arguments to keep “them” out. Hopefully, everyone you know will nod and say, “obviously!” Since this is a
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Class Warfare CAUSED Income Inequality, Not the Opposite
Horatio Alger mythology is designed to make us leave the 1% alone and shut the fuck up. If you haven’t yet seen John Oliver’s amazing rant about the perils of inequality and how the rich shame us out of talking about it by suggesting we’re trying to invoke class warfare,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Translink Impedes Transit Use
Translink is “being evasive on exactly how much money is being spent on this.” via Compass Card program delayed again by TransLink – British Columbia – CBC News. How’s that for not surprising. Translink is notorious for its taxation without representation: taking municipalities’ money without providing democratic representation to municipalities.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Occupy Movement Has Changed the Narrative, But We’re Not Done
Recently, with the WEF spending the last few years acknowledging global income inequality is a problem, I’ve declared a kind of victory for the Occupy Movement: getting the lexicon on the 1% and inequality on the tongues of the sly gazillionaires who rule the world, and into mass consumption. Now
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The 1% Has More Solidarity Than We Do
In Davos, the 1% rule the world. Literally. They also have the guns. The 1% are claiming we have it out for them; that if we don’t tone down the rhetoric and stop calling them names like “the contemptuous rich,” we might end up starting a class war. But they
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How the Tsilhqot’in Land Title Ruling Can Help Kill Enbridge
Watch Pam Palmater’s response to the SCC ruling. Click above. Stephen Harper had about a week to enjoy the glory of his remarkably understated whispery notification that the Enbridge climate killing pipeline will proceed. Yesterday the Supreme Court shut down the prime minister, which they have a tendency to do
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Elevate the World from Mediocrity to Greatness? Lululemon? GMAFB
GMAFB Capitalism dissociates us from each other. It makes us embrace consumerism and individualism and erodes community and cohesion. Yet, oddly, Lululemon’s mantra of elevating the world from mediocrity to greatness is about liberating us from those shackles. Oddly, based on Ayn Rand’s whacko philosophy [see below], we need to
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