At long last, the federal Conservatives have a new leader … and it’s NOT Maxime ‘Mad Max’ Bernier, who would have been the first deeply libertarian leader of a major Canadian political party. After a vote counting process that was only slightly less difficult to understand than watching Game of Thrones
Continue readingTag: donald trump
Montreal Simon: The Simpsons on Donald Trump’s 125 Days in Power
After nine days abroad in Europe and the Middle East Donald Trump is on his back to Washington and calling his trip a "home run."When in fact it was a total disaster, and Trump never looked so crazy and dangerous. President Trump failed to commit to remaining within the Paris climate
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Jared Kushner and the Trump Corruption Scandal
Well there he was at the Western Wall the other day, trying to look as pious as possible. But when you're Donald Trump that's not easy. No matter how hard you try… And by the time he visited the pope his first family act was looking a little monstrous… Read more
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett write about the psychological and social harms arising out of inequality: Members of species that have strong ranking systems need social strategies for maximising and maintaining rank while avoiding the risk of attacks by dominants. Although there
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Foreign influence’ had nothing to do with Tory Joan Crockatt’s Calgary Centre election defeat in 2015
PHOTOS: Joan Crockatt, during her brief spell as Conservative Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre. Below: Liberal Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr, who beat Ms. Crockatt in 2015; environmentalist Chris Turner who ran against her for the Greens in 2012 and did very well; and environmentalist Harvey Locke, who ran
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Patrick Butler writes about the increasing number of UK families mired in poverty and insecure housing even with one or more people working. And Ali Monceaux and Daniel Najarian discuss the importance of a fair minimum wage in providing people with a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why progressive elites are losing.
The disappointment progressives have felt with the New Democratic Party over the last couple decades has been something we have argued about but maybe not understood as well as we should. Maybe Robin V. Sears of the NDP put his finger on it the other day when complaining in print
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When the Pope meets the Antichrist.
The arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump in Rome needs a Cecil B. DeMille style Hollywood epic production. It would have trumpets and bass drums, rolling black clouds in the sky, flashes of lightening. We would see a Donald Trump dressed in black, towering over the gargoyles of Hell in
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Is the Donald Trump Story Making People Sick?
Oh boy. I thought I was going to be able to completely ignore Donald Trump's Magical Mystery Tour of the Middle East this week end.Which would have been good, because quite frankly I've got to break my Trump Show addiction, before I end up like him. Bellowing incoherently, feeling sorry for
Continue readingIn This Corner: The Return of Stuff Happens, week 18: Will the right united; the ‘I’ word is spoken.
There was a seismic shift in Alberta politics this week. Only time will tell if it’s a real earthquake that brings down two (or maybe three) parties, or whether it just grunts and groans and nothing happens. On Wednesday, Wildrose party leader Brian Jean and new Progressive Conservative party leader
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The darkening clouds of the Trump presidency.
President Donald Trump took his case to the graduating cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy the other day. They did not rise up in support. They were surprisingly polite. And probably dumbfounded. Trump’s problems are not their concern. When you are commissioned as a junior officer of the United
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump’s Russian Problem Just Keeps Getting Worse
Oh well, at least now we know why those Russian diplomats seemed to be having such a good time in the Oval Office, while Donald Trump seemed strangely out of it.Not only had he shared some top-secret intelligence with them, after ordering the White House media out of the room.It
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Owen Jones discusses UK Labour’s true social democratic platform as a model for progressive parties around the globe. And Simon Wren-Lewis points out that contrary to the spin of opponents and uninformed presumptions of much of the media, Labour’s plan is entirely
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump and the Demon Child In His Head
It's hardly surprising that Donald Trump is not happy with the appointment of a special counsel. But judging by that tweet this morning, the voices in his head are now all screaming at the same time.And when Trump visited the U.S. Coast Guard Academy yesterday, they did provoke him into an
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Madmen in the White House … this time it’s a thing, not just a ‘strategy’
PHOTOS: U.S. President Richard Nixon pointing the way to the exit for Donald Trump’s benefit. Below: Mr. Nixon about to board the helicopter that would take him away from Washington for the last time in an official capacity; a recent photo of President Trump; the sinister Dr. Henry Kissinger, then
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Binyamin Appelbaum highlights the strong consensus view that Donald Trump’s planned tax giveaways to the rich will do nothing for overall economic development. And John Buell points out that Trump’s plan for privatized infrastructure – much like Justin Trudeau’s – will serve only
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump and the Revenge of James Comey
When Donald Trump fired or "terminated" James Comey so soon after blowing him a gangster kiss, hissing in his ear, and seeming to threaten him: He must have thought he had got rid of the troublesome FBI director.Scared him off with a horse's head, or a fish wrapped up in
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: To Trump All Secrets
Donald Trump is a man of no secrets, even though much of the media is making him out to be someone with a lot to hide. A man who talks so much, but often says very little This should come as no surprise to many of us, as the entire
Continue readingMontreal Simon: One More Reason Donald Trump Must Go
When I ran this picture the other day I thought there was something strange about it. And it wasn't just that the U.S. media had been ordered out of the room. Or that it was the day after Trump had fired James Comey. I just thought the Russian foreign minister and
Continue readingIn This Corner: The Return of Stuff Happens, week 17: Comey is one letter away from comedy; B.C. on the brink
When the presidency of Donald J. Trump comes to its inevitable premature conclusion — either through resignation, impeachment, or a massive, fatal overdose of KFC — the events of May, 2017 will be seen as the beginning of the end. On Tuesday, Trump stunned the country with his entirely unexpected
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