history ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

Dead Wild Roses: Cold War Latin America, The ‘Gulag’ of the United States – John W. Dower

Aug

8

2017

The crimes humans commit against each other have numerous justifications and rationalizations, to most of us in North America, we hear more about the atrocities of our enemies, that we do of the ones we commit in our name. John Dower examines the Cold War period in history and concludes that our hands were just ...

wmtc: what i’m reading: city on fire

Aug

4

2017

I finished City on Fire, Garth Risk Hallberg’s astonishing debut novel, a few days ago, but stories from the book are still playing in mind. I initially didn’t want to commit to reading a 900-page tome, but as I savoured the last scene, I was sorry to put it down. City on Fire brings you to ...

PostArctica: Ellis D. Kropotechev and Zeus, This marvelous time-sharing system. 1967

Jul

24

2017

Stumbled on to this interesting little 16mm film made by a couple of Standford grad students in 1967. Some computer history and plenty of innuendo. Enjoy!

The Canadian Progressive: Can peaceful grassroots activism stop the white supremacist movement’s embrace of violence?

Jul

24

2017

The threat of white supremacist terrorism is a constant in U.S. history, writes Shane Burley, author of the forthcoming book, Fascism Today: What It Is and How We End It. The post Can peaceful grassroots activism stop the white supremacist movement’s embrace of violence? appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.

wmtc: why do we need to say black lives matter? a brief and partial history lesson

Jul

23

2017

The African American experience in Los Angeles County, California: a brief and selected timeline of sorts.* From 1940-1960, thousands of African Americans migrated from Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, and other southern states to California, hoping to find decent jobs, affordable housing, and equality of opportunity. California was not quite as welcoming as advertised. Housing was strictly ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Heretics and Believers

Jul

11

2017

Peter Marshall’s Heretics and believers: a history of the English Reformation from Yale University Press (2017) arrived as a belated birthday present on Friday past. It’s proven to be well worth the wait. As the official blurb describes it, “Peter Marshall’s sweeping new history—the first major overview for general readers in a generation—argues that sixteenth-century England ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Roman Concrete

Jul

7

2017

I remember some about this story a few years ago. I don’t think the formula for the Roman mix was well understood at that time. Portland Cement doesn’t cut it. Glad they made this breakthrough, it should help build more durable structures.

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: A Look Back At Moose Jaw High Street

Jul

3

2017

This mural was destroyed by a fire.

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: STC Bus Shut Down By Callous SaskParty

May

31

2017

Today is a terrible day in Saskatchewan history. The Brad Wall government has ended public transportation to most Saskatchewan communities. There is tomorrow no bus service between Saskatoon and Regina, a sort of event you’d expect after a major natural disaster, not an incompetent government decision poised to directly harm thousands of people, and inconvenience ...

wmtc: what i’m reading: leaving lucy pear

May

26

2017

The year is 1917. A teenage girl from a wealthy family is pregnant, the result of rape — by a man who her mother pushed her to pursue for marriage. Now the girl is being forced to surrender her baby to an orphanage. She has met the person who runs the orphanage, and she cannot ...

Dead Wild Roses: Break the Social Contract – Break the State, and the People.

May

25

2017

This excerpt features Dr. Gus Abu-Sitta and Andre Vltchek discussing the Ecology of war and its effects on people living in war conditions. One of their digressions from the main topic was the idea that sanctions, and other Western initiatives are designed to denude the State of its non-coercive powers i.e utilities, education, and medical ...

centre of the universe: Acting Your Age

May

24

2017

Here’s the thing. We live in a society that values youth over experience, wisdom, ability and knowledge. I’m not sure why we do that, but children are more valuable to us than non-children, which also translates into vilifying people who opt not to breed. There’s a whole bunch going on in this statement, and I…

wmtc: arun gupta’s perfect takedown of food-as-cultural-appropriation

May

22

2017

I read this on Facebook and absolutely love it. The author, Arun Gupta, understands and acknowledges cultural appropriation as a fact and a legitimate concern (as do I). But he also believes the “reactionary left” spreading lists of ethnic restaurants run by white people …essentializes the notion of culture as rooted in the very soil ...

The Political Road Map: Politics in Cinema

May

4

2017

May the fourth be with you and May you enjoy this post and share it throughout the galaxy! To say that cinema has become a favorite past time of people is to greatly under appreciate its impact on our society and our lives. I always find it interesting how the political process is represented in ...

wmtc: what i’m reading: giovanni’s room by james baldwin

Apr

22

2017

James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, a landmark in LGBT literature, is one of our library’s current “Raves & Faves”. The 1956 novel takes place in Paris, narrated by a young American man who is trying to come to terms with his sexuality. In the past, this was said to be a “gay novel;” now it is ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: CBC Interviewed a Gunman?

Mar

28

2017

This is a wee bit outrageous. On March 21, 1977, Robert McLagan held 11 employees at Toronto’s Banque Canadienne Nationale hostage for nearly 12 hours. Frum and her producers were able to get McLagan, one of his hostages and a police officer on the line as the situation was unfolding — even giving CBC Radio listeners the chance to hear the beginning of a negotiation that ...

Dead Wild Roses: People Centred Human Rights – Malcolm X

Mar

14

2017

I consider this text a long form of the very basic radical assumption – the Masters’s tools will never dismantle the Master’s house’. That is, working within the bounds of any oppressive system, one can only do so much and the chance of affecting meaningful structural change approaches zero. The People Centred Human rights approach ...

Dead Wild Roses: The DWR Quote of the Day – For Her Own Good — Barbara Ehrenreich & Deirdre English

Mar

11

2017

Patriarchy at its finest. “In the second half of the century, these fumbling experiments with the female interior gave way to the more decisive technique of surgery—aimed increasingly at the control of female personality disorders. There had been a brief fad of clitoridectomy (removal of the clitoris) in the eighteen sixties, following the introduction ...

Dead Wild Roses: Noam Chomsky on the High Cheeto-King

Feb

28

2017

Trump level insanity dissected. Filed under: History, Politics Tagged: Al Jazeera, Analysis, Cheeto King, Noam Chomsky

Dead Wild Roses: You Won’t Understand, Unless You’re Female – History and Struggle.

Feb

19

2017

Secondary school, history class. You cover a small amount of information on the suffragettes, and your teacher shows you a video of Emily Wilding Davison getting struck down by Anmer, the King’s horse. Your teacher asks the class, “we’ll never know why she did this” But you know All the girls in your class know, ...

Dead Wild Roses: Media vs Elite Consensus

Feb

4

2017

Professional entertainers cannot be the end of your disatification with the system. Organize, agitate, and make a difference with people who share the same beliefs. It is the only way to change society. Filed under: Media Tagged: History, Media, Solidarity

Dead Wild Roses: A Critique of Post Modernism and Identity Politics

Jan

31

2017

This is a meaty read folks, and much better when put in context of the original article that you should read here. It will need a second and third reading, IMHO. “Identity politics flows logically from this broader censure of universalism. It is derived from the postmodern condition of fragmentation and decentring, ...

Things Are Good: How Early Video Games Expressed Environmentalism

Jan

31

2017

It can be fun to tune out and just play some games, and that’s a good thing. There are games that are obviously educational like Math Blaster and there are games like Carmen Sandiego that celebrate fun over learning while still teaching. Indeed, there are many games being played that entertain and educate at the ...

Dead Wild Roses: Democracy and the Crisis of Confidence – Christopher Lasch

Jan

17

2017

The excerpt is from a great piece by Christopher Lasch writing in the short lived journal “Democracy”. Written in the 80’s, details the systemic problems facing US democracy. The situation described shows the roots of where we are now, and how (unfortunately) we have arrived here. “The centralization of power in the United ...

Scripturient: It’s Not a Wonderful Life

Jan

7

2017

I’m convinced many Americans – Donald Trump among them – think Frank Capra’s famous film, It’s a Wonderful Life, was a documentary, not entertainment. It has all the elements of Trumpist utopia: a white, Christian, unquestionably patriotic, male-dominated, patriarchal culture where the bad guy gets away with stealing from others, and making himself rich at ...