Welcome to Alberta's 2023 election cycle. Campaigning has effectively been going on for some time now, but the writ was issued yesterday and now it's official. We're in an election cycle. This is basically a two horse race. Alberta either elects the UCP, now led by Danielle Smith, or it
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jenna Cartusciello examines the connections between COVID-19 and gastrointestinal issues as yet another poorly-studied and potentially long-lasting effect of infection with a disease we’re being told not to worry about. And Omar Mosleh reports on the backsliding in Canadian public health as diseases
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: You Do NOT Roll Over For Fascists
So, on Saturday, Jen Gerson published a column in the Globe and Mail titled “The Backlash Against Drag Artists Is Unfair, But It’s No Mystery Why It’s Happening”. I read it on Saturday, it’s taken me the last couple of days to calm down enough to write a response to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Luke Savage points out that even biased right-wing polling is finding broad support for stronger social programs and limitations on corporate domination in Canada and the U.S. But Jake Johnson writes that the Biden administration is instead increasing military funding while putting
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Zaina Hamza discusses new research showing how COVID-19 fatalities hit younger people and caused more loss of expected years of life in the second year of the pandemic than the first. Kenyon Wallace discusses why 2022 was the deadliest year of the pandemic
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: First the U.S., now Israel
2015 was a good year. May brought the “Orange Chinook.” After 44 years of Conservative rule, the longest-serving provincial government in Canadian history, the NDP won a close-fought election. Then in October, Justin Trudeau and his Liberals defeated the Harper Conservatives to end a decade of Conservative rule. To quote
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Greg Jericho rightly notes that the COVID pandemic showed beyond doubt that poverty is a policy choice – which makes it all the more maddening that the powers that be are so determined to inflict it on people as part of any
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: The Transformation Is Complete
With Pierre Poilievre the newly anointed leader of the CPC, Canadians can take a step back and breathe a sight of relief – the masquerade is over. Ever since its formation in 2003, the CPC has been a hardline right wing ideologue party that cloaked itself in the moderate nature
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – CBC News reports on the rise of COVID levels in Saskatchewan cities’ wastewater. David Axe reports on the development of the BA.4.6 variant which looks likely to represent an even greater threat than the currently-dominant version. And Bruce Mirken discusses how the failure
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andre Picard writes that COVID-19 remains an imminent and severe threat to our health – no matter how many people are choosing to operate in denial. Jianlyu Lai et al. examine how COVID has been transmitted, and find that aerosol transmission has been
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: You Don’t Think It’s Really Fascism?
If it’s not from Germany, it’s just sparkling authoritarianism, right? More seriously, way back when I first started this blog (in 2004), I wrote a piece about whether or not we were in an emerging Dark Age. That was 2 years before Canada elected a CPC government for the first
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Xue Cao et al. find that infection with COVID-19 produces accelerated physical aging among its other alarming effects, while Jan Hennigs et al. discuss the development of respiratory muscle dysfunction as a product of long COVID. Which means – as noted by Moira Wyton
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Delphine Strauss and Jamie Smyth highlight how long COVID is already preventing millions of people from working – with far more likely to face the same fate due to governments’ mass infection strategies. Emily Leedham points out how Saskatchewan’s combination of sops to
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Putin’s apologists
Russia’s war-mongering president, Vladimir Putin, has many admirers in the West. Various notable European politicians have paid homage, including the leader of France’s far right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen; former prime minster of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi; and Britain’s Brexit leader Nigel Farage. Other prominent fans include President of
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On The Emergency Measures Act
If you’ve been paying attention at all, you are aware that the Federal Government has invoked the Emergency Measures Act to deal with the “Convoy”. In this writer’s opinion, this decision came a week late, and let me explain why. First, as much as the organizers have tried to make
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sabrina Eliason, Tehseen Ladha and Sam Wong highlight how the elimination of public health protections puts children at particular risk. And CBC News examines what we know so far – and still have yet to learn – about the ultimate impact of
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Much Ado About Truckers and Building a Canadian White Supremacist Fascist Movement
So what is going on with the truckers. They are calling it a protest. But it is not like any protest I have ever been involved in. Protests are designed to attempt to make change. While they may be aimed at getting governments to change their policies, gaining public support
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Apparent Fascism Of the Trump Years – Paul Street
US commentators still seem to be mulling the prospects of how close, or how far they came to living in an authoritarian fascist state under Donald Trump. It is interesting how little air time the States dances with fascism get in the media today. The liberal economist and New York
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Stephanie Carvin, Kurt Phillips and Amarnath Amarasingam discuss how anti-vaxx themes in Canada are being pushed and used by the fascist right. Alex Boutilier and Rachel Gilmore highlight how the convoy supported by Scott Moe, Jason Kenney, and so many other right-wing
Continue readingNorthern Currents –: Widely condemned ‘Truckers For Freedom’ rally features Trudeau figure in a noose
Aside from needless greenhouse gas emissions, the only accomplishment of the so-called Truckers for Freedom convoy is further consolidation and recruitment of the far-right. Whatever your stance on vaccines or vaccine mandate, the growth of these far-right conspiracy movements and the inevitable violence that goes along with it should be
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