Chomsky clarifies the situation with the coronavirus, saying: it’s serious enough, but it represents not even a fraction of the biggest dangers we are facing, which are nuclear war, global warming, and the rising plague of neoliberal fascism. (Exactly what I have been saying since January, and before.) He began
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Views from the Beltline: A Silver Lining to COVID-19?
As an optimist I tend to look for silver linings in the darker clouds. The other day I read an article saying some Italians remarked that they could finally hear birds sing and see blue skies as a result of the decline of industrial activity caused by COVID-19. Something good
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: About That Other Crisis
As we remain fixated on the immediate, acute crisis that has engulfed the world, it is easy to lose sight of the other crisis that continues to engulf the world: Last year’s summer was so warm that it helped trigger the loss of 600bn tons of ice from Greenland –
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Central Challenge Of Our Time
What is the central challenge of our time? It is not what most people think it is. It is not race or gender, or climate change, or the environment broadly, or issues of war and peace, or poverty, or justice, or equality, or fighting terrorism, crime or violence, WMDs and
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Collapse of Modern Civilization
More than 150 years ago Thoreau commented, “Our sills are all rotten.” He was right. It is for that reason that Western, and Westernized, “modern” “civilization” is collapsing. This could be cataclysmic, of course, (as in, an ecological holocaust), or relatively peaceful, (akin to the Maya abandoning their great cities
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Is Kenney Coming After Our Pensions?
Premier Jason Kenney, ardent free market conservative, has started sounding a little like Peter Lougheed, a former premier with more progressive conservative leanings. Indeed Lougheed was once labelled “Peter the Red” by B.C. Premier Dave Barrett after he bought Alberta an airline. Lougheed never hesitated to dive into socialism when
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta War Room finally lets loose a salvo … then hastily retreats
For a moment yesterday, it almost seemed as if Alberta’s $30-million-a-year Energy War Room was finally going to live up to its pugnacious nickname and make war on the “enemies of Alberta” and their campaign of “lies and disinformation” about the cleanest, most rule-of-law-abiding, most democratic oil in the whole
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Why Would the UN General Assembly Elect Canada to the Security Council?
Prime Minister Trudeau has been hustling around the world, attempting to round up votes for Canada when the UN General Assembly elects members of the Security Council in June. Two seats are available for the Western European and Others Group, and three countries are in the running: Norway, Ireland and
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Peter MacKay—Another Made in Alberta Climate Policy?
With Peter MacKay as front-runner in the Conservative leadership race, I dared hope that finally with a leader who wasn’t from the Prairies the party might have a responsible climate policy. The early signs are mixed. Although he has not outright abandoned Canada’s Paris commitment to reduce 2005 greenhouse gas
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: … And Now We Indoctrinate Our Children
As if we needed yet another example of Albertans’ deep denial of global warming. Education Minister Adriana LaGrange claims she is receiving reports from parents of “extremist views” being taught in the province’s schools. “There was a particular document that was shown to me recently,” she complained, “in terms of
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The Greatest MIstake Humanity Ever Made
There are those who argue that the greatest mistake we humans ever made was agriculture. And they have a point. For 200,000 years we lived a hunter-gatherer way of life, and we did rather well. Evolving in Africa, we came to occupy every continent on Earth except for Antarctica. Then
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: A Royal Contribution
If one subject is done to excess in the Canadian media it’s the royals. Witness the front page soap opera “Harry and Meghan move to Canada.” It is, therefore, refreshing when a royal does something that actually matters. Such an event was Prince Charles speech to the Davos Conference. Not
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The World’s Most Dangerous Man
There are a lot of unpleasant people running countries these days. North Korea’s Kim Jong-un for example, surrounding himself with nuclear weapons while his people starve. Or China’s Xi Jinping, who has made himself emperor. Or the homicidal crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman. Or Jair Bolsonaro of
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Holocaust in Australia—We Are All Guilty
Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia, has been referred to as a blockhead, which is fair, and not because his large head is rather squarish. He was warned by his Department of Home Affairs that Australia faced more frequent and severe heatwaves and bush fires due to global warming. Twice
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The Most Consequential Decision of the Decade
This is the time when we commonly look back over the year, or decade, or century, and pronounce our choice of the most significant event or events. There are endless events to choose and a multitude of rationals for our different choices. So many in fact I weary of making
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Is This the Line in the Sand?
Crunch time. How far will Trudeau go to placate Alberta? Premier Kenney may just have drawn the line in the sand. He has said that the federal government faces a stark choice. It can either approve Teck Resources’ Frontier Mine or risk leaving the country’s oil industry “with no way
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Reality is Confirmed
Reality is essentially what science tells us it is. Everything else is speculation. About the worst story about reality that science has been telling us lately is that we are heating up the atmosphere and if we don’t stop pretty damn quick we can start writing off global civilization. This
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Kudos to Carney (and Good Luck!)
Mark Carney is a banker par excellence, a Canadian boy who made the big time. He served as Governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and is credited with helping the country weather the recession. He then went on to become Governor of the Bank of England,
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Alberta—the Old South in the Cold North
Reading the book All God’s Children, I encountered a section about the relationship of the American South to the Union just prior to the Civil War. As I read on, I realized it was remarkably similar to the relationship of Alberta to our federation today. Prior to the Civil War,
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Would It Help To Dump Alberta?
The G20’s Climate Transparency group issued its annual report this week grading all member countries on their climate performance and found them all wanting. The report said only about half the countries are on track to meet their targets for cutting emissions by 2030 and those targets are much too
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