Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joe Vipond and Noel Keough highlight the gap between the global impetus to avoid climate breakdown and the narrow self-interest of the Alberta oil industry. Michael Bueckert discusses Jason Kenney’s attempt to turn the government apparatus against the exercise of fundamental freedoms through
Continue readingTag: donald trump
Babel-on-the-Bay: Mr. and Mrs. Trump go to war.
In the last half of the 20th Century, Hollywood star Bob Hope was famous for his Christmas shows for American military. These shows took place in areas of conflict where Americans where deployed around the world. Hope’s compensation was that he could edit the recordings of the shows and run
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Howard Mann discusses the World Bank’s new model for public-private partnerships which deliberately avoids placing any real risk with the profiteers who participate only to make money off of necessary infrastructure. – The New York Times takes an in-depth look at the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: For want of a wall.
About a quarter million Americans can now be classified as slaves. They are not being paid for their work. They have to do their jobs anyway. You will understand this better when you realize that they work for an organization that has Donald Trump as its chief executive officer. These
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who’s left at the Trump White House?
OK, so it is hard to get good help these days. The problem is that the revolving door they put on the employee’s entrance at the White House is getting far more traffic than even president Donald Trump’s detractors expected. The question is, is the atmosphere just getting more toxic
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Demagogues Debasing Language
“[The English language] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts… if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” ― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language The language sins of politicians are
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Imperial Trump is the problem.
The Emperor of Twits was using his Twitter Throne to criticize the Fed last week. It seems that president Trump is unaware that he might just be the problem and certainly not the solution to the turmoil over interest rates and the tumbling of the markets. The leader of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Guardian’s editorial board writes that there’s no excuse for political choices which leave people homeless – and no reason not to starting correcting ongoing breaches of the right to housing. And Emily Mathieu reports on the push for Toronto to declare a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With friends like these … it’s sure depressing to compare Canada in 1979 to the U.S. in 2018
Canadians of a certain vintage will clearly remember “the Canadian Caper,” that dangerous moment in 1979 when our diplomats put their lives on the line to smuggle six of their American colleagues out of revolutionary Iran. Given the situation in Iran – revolutionaries storming the U.S. Embassy, diplomats held hostage,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Avi Lewis contrasts the real crises which demand our attention against the manufactured ones which are instead promoted by far too many of our political leaders: Even for those of us who have not yet experienced personal loss and trauma from climate catastrophe,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Pompeo’s Rebellion.
It makes you wish you were there to see the look of astonishment on the European’s faces as American secretary of state Mike Pompeo explained his version of Donald Trump’s ‘Brave New World.’ It happened last week in Brussels. It might have contradicted the agreement Mr. Trump made with China’s
Continue readingMontreal Simon: How Robert Mueller Is Rolling Up The Trump Crime Family
I'll never forget how Mad Mike Flynn used to warm up Donald Trump's election campaign rallies, by getting the Trumpling mob to chant "lock her up, lock her up, LOCK HER UP!!!!!!!"Triggering a foaming frenzy of hatred aimed at Hillary Clinton, that was drenched with misogyny and depravity.And of course I
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Trish Hennessy discusses the connection between child care deserts and child poverty, while pointing out the importance of eradicating both: While the evidence shows the importance of greater learning and socialization opportunities in the early years, it also shows that Canada is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thoughts from the road: General Motors, China and Alberta, a new landscape emerges from Monday’s dust
OTTAWA Now that the dust is settling from Monday’s announcement General Motors Corp.’s last auto assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., will soon be closed, the emerging landscape is not promising for Alberta. Leastways, it’s not hopeful from the perspective of an Alberta that has no plan to transition from a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: American capitalism betrays us.
Since 1908, when Sam McLauglin started building auto bodies in Oshawa for William Durant’s Buicks, Canada has been part of what became General Motors. Through good times and bad times, in World Wars and in boom times Canadians have supported GM. Today, we stand betrayed. The relationship was always a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Robinson Meyer rightly criticizes the Trump administration for trying to bury a devastating national climate assessment on Black Friday. – David Leonhardt discusses the U.S.’ increasing corporate concentration and monopolization of nearly every major industry – and the resulting pressures on communities and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta politicians need to tread carefully when they comment on the coming job losses at GM Canada in Oshawa
We don’t yet know why General Motors Corp. has decided to walk away from its last auto-assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., which CTV reported last night the Detroit-based company will announce it is doing at 10 o’clock this morning. I’m sure there will be plenty of suspects. I have one
Continue readingMontreal Simon: American Thanksgiving: How To Survive The Horror Of Trump
It's Thanksgiving Day in America. A day for our neighbours to watch the floats in the Macy's parade, or just enjoy some quality time around a dinner table.And of course, stuff themselves with turkey.But as we all know, the U.S. is not a happy place these days.Read more »
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: And a possum shall lead them.
Are you old enough to remember American Walt Kelly’s sage words: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”? And if you knew what those words meant, there is still hope. Cartoonist Kelly died in 1973 but people still make pilgrimages to the Okefenokee Swamp to seek the wisdom
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump, Stephen Harper, and the Canadian Trumplings
It was quite the scene the other day. Emmanuel Macron at the Arc de Triomphe warning about the dangers of the new far-right nationalism, and accusing those who support it, of betraying patriotism.While Donald Trump sat there looking like he was about to explode.And in fact did explode, when he returned
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