Today is Friday. Let’s make it “think for ourselves Friday.” It’ll work: the government/corporations/1% won’t see it coming! Twitter / occupythemob: http://t.co/doHx1xWO4l. December 17, 2013 Fried Squirrels (0) December 20, 2013 Enbridge: What Now? We Escalate Our Fight (4) January 7, 2012 Day Two of Tragedy of the Market: From
Continue readingTag: Imperialism
Politics, Re-Spun: Jesse Ventura Is On Our Side On Racist Team Names
More support for changing the name of the NFL team in Washington comes from Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Yesterday, I wrote about how incredibly easy it would be to change the racist name of any kind of team. It’s really not that hard. Imagine the reverse, though. Imagine changing the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Capitalism: Swing Your Sledgehammer
It’s all about vision and hope, in an effort to envision how economics and markets can exist after the toxicity of capitalism is gone, gone gone. Are you up for it? Last night, John Holloway, author of Crack Capitalism, was the SFU Institute for the Humanities‘ guest lecturer, skyped in
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Rachel Parent and other lame anti-GMO arguments
Photo from CBC Last year, 14 year old Rachel Parent was in the unenviable situation of being in the same room as Kevin O’Leary (click here for video). Parent did a commendable job speaking on national TV. I cannot pretend that I would have had half her poise and composure
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Just How Lazy ARE Indigenous People, Anyway?
It’s a trick question. And let’s not forget how many of us are told we are inherently lazy because we are native. Hard to shake that. via Twitter / apihtawikosisan: And let’s not forget how many …. And if you want to read one person’s analysis of destructive, racist stereotypes,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Enbridge: What Now? We Escalate Our Fight
Some breaking news occurred yesterday, the Joint Review Panel of the National Energy Board approved the Enbridge pipeline, but with 209 conditions. To quote a teenager from 1994: “Big whoop.” Also, big whoop goes out to the awesome pictures of soon to be decimated pristine wilderness on the report cover.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: ACTION: Illegal Israeli Settlement Goods Sold at London Drugs
SodaStream boycott informational picket Saturday, Dec. 21, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. London Drugs, Broadway @ Cambie, Vancouver Below is a notice of an important event happening on Saturday in Vancouver. If something is labelled as “Made in Israel” but is really made in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fried Squirrels
It’s a crisp, foggy November Saturday morning in the south side of the city. Seventeen people sit in the large open area at the back end of an organic fair trade coffee shop run by a workers’ co-op inspired by the Mondragon movement in Spain. Meet-ups like this are quite
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Day One, Post-Mandela
Today is the first day of our world after the Nelson Mandela era. We don’t need to canonize him or consider any messiah characteristics, but we should stop today and reflect on what kind of Mandela legacy we want to carry forward. Here are a few ideas to consider. Chances
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Are We Good Allies to First Nations?
This is what solidarity looks like; make sure it’s authentic! Lots of us care about deepening relationships with and social/economic/political justice for first peoples. It’s hard to come in, though, sometimes as a person from an oppressor or settler class. But there is a good checklist to make sure we’re
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Does Racism Motivate Harper’s Aboriginal Education Funding Stance?
The Prime Minister’s slow clap. It could be racism. It could be concern that over time too many first nations citizens may get too educated and start demanding more in terms of inter-national justice. Or… It could be just that he thinks keeping government spending down is good for his
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: NAFTA, “Free Trade” and the TPP: Fast-Track To Full Corporate Rule
“Twenty years ago, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed into law. At the time, advocates painted a rosy picture of booming U.S. exports creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and economic development in Mexico, which would bring the struggling country in line with its wealthier northern
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: US government shutdown, and other fairy tales and political theatre
I’m not sure what to make of the hoopla going on in the US right now. I’m inclined to think it’s all just political theatre, as Gerald Celente calls it, designed to distract the people from the real issues – the central one being, who controls the government and the
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The deeper reasons for the “war on drugs”
There is a deeper reason for the war on drugs, which is the central reason for the policy, even outweighing profits from private prisons and seizure of property by law enforcement officers, both of which no doubt are also significant and strong motivations for keeping the “war on drugs” going.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: America: A Superpower Of Near-Demonic Dimensions
So says Noam Chomsky in this 2003 video produced for the BBC. I find little with which to disagree in his analysis: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Kate, Robin and Stewart’s Challenge To Us All About PTSD
I will be doing regular updates on two events to increase awareness about PTSD, particularly as the Canadian Forces spends too little on treatment of its members and PTSD. Regardless of all the ways we could improve our military or the Canadian government’s often imperialistic foreign policy, the real human
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Chemical Weapons in Syria? Merely a Pretext [Iran, Shhh.]
” It’s the Economy, Stupid.” [Or oil, or gas, or energy…] If you think you know why Syria is happening [and happening NOW], you’re probably missing a number of the elements at play. Don’t expect western governments or the corporate media to enumerate these. Sure, chemical weapons are horrible, but
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: New Prime Minister Tells Canadians- No War With Syria
What should military service actually be for? Wouldn’t it be amazing if Canada were Canada again? Wouldn’t it be even better if Canada would step up and be a better Canada than we had ever been in the past? Wouldn’t it be just spectacular if we could step up and
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: You Aren’t Sufficiently Critical of the #Media
You need to trust the media less. Almost a year ago, and before the last US presidential election, Gallup determined that there has been a stunning decline in citizens’ mistrust of the media [see below]. It crossed over from mostly trust to not so much trust around 2004-2005. If you
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