When you choose to ride the tiger, there is no option but to stay aboard. This situation with Donald Trump is increasingly serious. It was emphasized and underlined the other day when the publisher of the New York Times warned the American president that he was endangering lives with his
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David MacDonald studies the increasing concentration of wealth in Canada, while noting the need for wealth-based taxes (and particularly an inheritance tax) to start building a more fair society. And Alan Rappeport and Jim Tankersley report on the Trump administration’s latest move
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Surely it’s time for us in the reality based community to act on our convictions as decisively as conservatives do
Surely it’s time for the reality based community – that’s us, my progressive friends – to start making some new democratic realities! In 2015, as you will recall, many of us overcame our reservations and voted for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals on the basis of his firm, clear, unequivocal promise to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Evening Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joel Achenbach and Angela Fritz discuss how climate change is amplifying all kinds of extreme weather (with severe heat as only the most obvious example). And Umair Irfan examines some of the dangerous economic and social side effects of unprecedented heat waves. –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – The Equality Trust makes its submission to a UK study of social mobility by pointing out the need for increased equality as the first step: To genuinely improve social mobility in the UK, the over-arching policy priority has to be for a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Saskatchewan, Ontario have no constitutional case against Ottawa’s carbon tax, only a political strategy
By vowing to go to court to fight the federal government’s carbon tax, Saskatchewan and now Ontario are rejecting the most cost effective way to reduce carbon pollution, the Pembina Institute complained yesterday. “It is deeply irresponsible of the Saskatchewan and Ontario governments to reject carbon pricing,” said Isabelle Turcotte,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the need for Canada’s immigration policy to actually respect the human dignity of refugees and asylum seekers – contrary to both the rhetoric of the Cons and the actions of the Libs. For further reading…– The Canadian Press reported on the Cons’ anti-immigrant advertising – as well as
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Division in the Land of Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves: Donald Trump freed the truth. America is a nation divided as never before. It is increasingly vulnerable to its enemies. It has heaped scorn on its friends. Its inner anger is spilling over its borders to the north and south. Those betrayed are its own
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump versus Trump-Lite.
It seems that we have spent enough time by now to have taken off our sackcloth over Doug Ford and the conservatives winning the Ontario election in June. Yes, I pooh-poohed the outrageous idea that Doug Ford could lead anybody anywhere. And we have certainly had enough recriminations about Kathleen
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Prab Gill saga seems to have legs, so UCP Leader Jason Kenney attacks environmentalist Tzeporah Berman …
Astonishingly, the Prab Gill saga appears to have legs. Yesterday, the Star Metro arm of the Toronto Star’s effort to create a national footprint, informed Alberta readers there’s no way the United Conservative Party will be revealing the contents of its insider investigation of ballot stuffing and snatching by Mr.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Paul Krugman highlights how work requirements and other barriers to social benefits serve only to needlessly increase poverty without improving employment rates. And Patricia Cohen writes about the growing gap between soaring profits and eroding wage gains in the U.S., while Irina Ivanova
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Elevation of Devin Dreeshen to role of UCP Boy Wonder must be a bitter pill for Derek Fildebrandt
What a bitter pill the elevation of Devin Dreeshen to the role of Boy Wonder of the United Conservative Party must be to Derek Fildebrandt! The Independent MLA for Strathmore-Brooks, after all, used to be the Boy Wonder of the UCP himself. Unless Mr. Fildebrandt can pull off a truly
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Trumps do Europe this summer.
Donald Trump and his lovely wife Melania are doing Europe this summer. Distaining the very pedestrian bus tours, the Trumps are using Air Force One and helicopters to speed their European journey. God forbid that they should have to meet and communicate with any of the lower classes. It was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: By-elections conveniently over, United Conservative Party pushes out MLA accused of ballot stuffing at nomination meeting
With many Albertans apparently in a mood to take Jason Kenney’s claim at face value his year-old United Conservative Party is renewed, reformed and ready to govern, you can’t be too careful about evidence that the same-old-same-old Tory entitlement continues to lurk on the Opposition benches of the Legislature. Not
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The UCP brain trust can explain that MAGA cap: Devin Dreeshen’s here to help Canadians with Donald Trump!
If the events of the past few days in Europe make anything clear, it’s that sucking up to Donald Trump is not likely to get you very far, except possibly somewhere worse than you’d have been if you’d stood up to the man. But Jason Kenney, former Harper Government Cabinet
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP by-elections wins in central and northern Alberta are no surprise, but offer little cause for optimism to NDP
It’s Friday the 13th, and after two by-elections yesterday in central and northern Alberta, supporters of the province’s NDP government are awaking to a new reality that’s pretty much the same as the old reality. That is, rural Central Alberta is deeply Conservative country pretty well no matter what, and
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: UCP candidate’s ties to Trump campaign caps off sleepy by-elections in Fort McMurray-Conklin and Innisfail-Sylvan Lake
Photo: Sid Fayad, Laila Goodridge, Jane Stroud, Nicole Mooney, Abigail Douglass, Devin Dreeshen. Voters will head to the polls tomorrow to elect new MLAs in two relatively sleepy by-elections. The two districts, Fort McMurray-Conklin and Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, were both held by United Conservative Party MLAs before they became vacant and voters
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Remember when those confident British voters chose ‘hope over fear’ with Brexit? What Would Jason Tweet now?
While much of the world looked on in dismay as the results of the Brexit votes rolled in two years ago last month, Jason Kenney Tweeted his congratulations to the people of Britain for “choosing hope over fear by embracing a confident, sovereign future, open to the world.” How’s that
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump, America’s problem.
The rest of the world is just annoyed. Canadians are thoroughly pissed. If Donald Trump is America’s problem, why are the rest of us having to deal with it? We never wanted Trump, we never asked for Trump. Why is he spending so much time telling us alternately that he
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Stephen Harper’s Paris speech to Mojahedin-e Khalq: No laws were broken; appropriate interests were served; get over it!
Many readers would be offended if someone were to suggest the Roman Catholic Church was a former terrorist organization with cult-like attributes. Still, wouldn’t terrorism be a fair description of the Inquisition, the brutal effort to root out heresy carried out from the 12th to the early 19th centuries by
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