Assorted content to end your week. – Crawford Kilian writes about the profound and numerous forms of loss arising from the wildfires which leveled much of Jasper, while Marc Fawcett-Atkinson points out the typical firestorm of disinformation which immediately followed from the anti-reality right. Edward Struzik discusses the need for
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Accidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Matt Stoller writes about the “economic termites” whose barely-noticed individual bites into personal finances are adding up to a fundamentally unsound economic structure. Imogen Tyler discusses how UK demagoguery against the receipt of social benefits has provided cover for an appalling increase in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Kate Raworth discusses the need to orient ourselves toward measures of progress based on well-being rather than growth – both due to its being intrinsically more important, and more sustainable under conditions of dwindling environmental resources. And Sonali Kolhatkar laments the U.S.’ choice –
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Taking it to the Streets: the Enough is Enough Rally
“Nothing is real that does not end on the streets. If tyrants feel no consequences for their actions in the three-dimensional world, nothing will change.” – Timothy Snyder, historian. On Saturday Mr and Ms Soapbox joined hundreds of Calgarians at the Enough is Enough rally at City Hall. It was
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: I’m Not Disabled, But I Expect To Be Someday
For someone who has literally died, I’m in good health. My short bout with death a decade ago left its mark, and a computer in my chest, but overall I still do most of what I did before I stopped breathing and my heart stopped beating in a useful way.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Ian Welsh discusses how institutions under the thrall of neoliberal ideology are incapable of achieving any end other than the further enrichment of the wealthy. And Clement Nocos writes that affordability is ultimately an issue because of corporate price gouging and a
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: How the Fossil Fuel Industry Can Save Itself and the Planet
The fossil fuel industry seems to have a romantic fascination with “all the oil in the ground”, a fascination that shields it from financial reality. There are two things absolutely true about the fossil fuel industry. It has a finite end because there is a finite end to the oil
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Brian Klaas writes about the death of substantive policy discussion as both media and political actors focus primarily on horse-race messaging rather than identifying and solving problems. And Kohei Saito highlights the limiting effects of an underlying assumption that our society and
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Budget 2024: Gotcha!
In case you didn’t catch Danielle Smith’s bizzarro Address to the Province last week, the one where she signalled what we could expect in the 2024 Budget, here’s a brief synopsis. (Smith’s comments are edited for tone and appear in bold). Premier Smith’s pre-budget address to the province We need
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The Election Issue That Dare Not Speak It’s Name
What election am I referring to – whatever one is next in whatever jurisdiction you are in. Yes I am talking about that which we dare not speak – the need to change our economic system before its ultimate collapse. Karl Marx predicted the collapse of capitalism, and it was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Cordell Jacks writes about the need for an economic model which evolves beyond the short-term exploitation of people and the planet. And Jessica McKenzie interviews Charlotte Kukowski about the importance of reprioritizing in the context of readily-apparent feedback loops between inequality and the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Claude Lavoie examines the problems with the far-too-rarely-questioned assumption that public policy needs to be oriented toward top-end economic growth at the expense of human well-being and environmental sustainability. – George Monbiot calls out how the wealthiest few have torqued the law to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg examines why seemingly healthy macroeconomic indicators – and even positive personal expectations – haven’t translated into public satisfaction with political economic leaders. But Dougald Lamont is setting out how our economic system has been torqued at the behest of corporate robber
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Squid Game
The UCP’s “bread and circuses”* approach to government is no longer working. The “bread” (low taxes and high employment) is no compensation for our crumbling healthcare, education, and social services. The “circus” of blaming the federal government for everything is wearing thin. And to make matters worse, the folks at
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Katherine Wu discusses how the U.S. is facing a particularly grim set of winter illnesses as people have failed to get vaccinated against known threats, while Lauren Pelley reports on the low number of Canadians who got new COVID-19 vaccines this fall. Ewen
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Liberals Are Right About Conservative Intentions
But the Liberals are wrong about the solution. Their betrayal on electoral reform has given the CPC’s PP power over them. They could be working collaboratively to implement things the NDP also want, instead there’s a sword hanging over their heads according to polling. Stability in our economy as it
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Danielle Smith Addresses the UCP/TBA AGM
I watched Danielle Smith’s speech to her supporters at the UCP AGM and all I could think of was Salvador Dali’s painting of the clocks. Time was melting, the landscape was warped. Going backwards Smith told the crowd that in the next Legislative session the Smith government will
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Danielle Smith’s Alternative Reality
Albertans live in an alternate universe. How else can we explain last week’s press conference where Danielle Smith pilloried the draft electricity regulations which are designed to ensure Canada’s electrical grid is running on 100% clean energy by 2035* and unveiled a national advertising campaign of print, radio, TV, social
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Political Leadership in Crisis
“We’d like to know why we have not heard from you. Surely the suffering of our children merits more communication than a single tweet.” – Open letter to Danielle Smith from the parents and supporters of children infected in the E. Coli public health crisis The only thing worse
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