Unfair or not, Justin Trudeau has taken a hit in the public’s mind over his pretty clumsy trip to India. With JT et famille sporting an elaborate wardrobe of Bollywood’s best fashions, the Indian press took the piss out of him pretty relentlessly. The local scribblers piled on. Now Trudeau’s
Continue readingTag: libya
Dead Wild Roses: Fundamentally Evil, but Hugely Profitable
As the cheery title of the post suggests we can see the one universal maxim that all of humanity can get behind in action – “greed is good”. “Trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery are big business generating profits estimated at $150 billion a year, the UN labour agency said
Continue readingAlberta Politics: News Satire: U.S. will not tolerate foreigners acting like Americans, officials say
ILLUSTRATIONS: A map showing some of the countries in which the United States has interfered in the political process (grabbed from Geology.com). Below: U.S. CIA Director John O. Brennan, Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candid…
Continue readingReturning to Libya
My position on ISIS is that it was a product of the American-led coalition’s invasion of Iraq, therefore it is up to the coalition members to deal with it. As my dear mother taught me, if you make a mess, you clean it up. Fortunately, we wisely chose n…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On permanent campaigns
Luke Savage is right to point out that Canada’s permanent campaign has merely taken on a different dynamic under the Trudeau Libs, rather than actually coming to an end with the Harper Cons losing power:Again, branding is the key here. As a part of its…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The refugee crisis: Harper Conservatives just can’t spin it both ways
PHOTOS: Refugees from the Syrian civil war clog a road near the Syria-Iraq border. (UNHCR photo.) Below: Saskatchewan Conservative MP Kelly Block’s constituency leaflet; Ms. Block herself; Immigration Minister Chris Alexander. For several years, the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has played to the worst instincts of a significant
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: You’ll Need More Than a Six-Pack for That Job.
Well, that was the idea anyway. Brace yourselves. In a move that could send chills down the spine of every member of ISIS, it’s been revealed that Canada is ‘considering’ expanding its war effort to Syria and, gasp, Libya too. Libya? That’s that place that Gaddafi guy used to run.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Harper’s Experiment to Wrap Canadians in "Protective Stupidity" Mission Accomplished?
The Tyee’s Murray Dobbins laments the success Stephen Harper has had, with the powerful support of a shamelessly collaborative media, at manipulating the Canadian public. Harper’s amoral political calculations about who and when to bomb people has little to do with any genuine consideration of the geopolitical situation or what
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Elizabeth May Responds To Harper’s Iraq War Motion
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May agrees with Harper that “Canada cannot stand on the sidelines,” but warns that “bombings have never ended an Islamic or any religious extremist terrorist threat.” The post Elizabeth May Responds To Harper’s Iraq War Motion appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingLibya—another dictator replaced with chaos
Political use of the term “blowback” first appeared in the CIA’s internal history of the 1953 Iranian coup. Orchestrated by Britain and the U.S., the coup replaced the democratically-elected Mosaddegh government with the Shah. The term proved most appropriate as the big power mischief ultimately led to the Iranian Revolution
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: More Government Propaganda While Canada Once Again Stands Alone
A very strange Oped piece appeared in the Globe and Mail on the weekend, written by none other than Stephen Harper. It was a follow up to a government announcement that we would be giving the Ukrainian military another 220 million dollars, on top of the 300 million already provided,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Mound Of Sound Guest Post: Libya – We Screwed Up Good, Real Good
Libya, remember that place? That’s where NATO waged a bombing campaign against the forces of the late dictator, Muamar Gaddafi. When Gaddafi was ousted we figured we’d done real good. If you judge our warfighting prowess by the outcomes, Libya ranks right up there with Afghanistan. The country has become
Continue readingArt Threat: Sheen and gloss, personal and political: A Review of We are the Giant
We Are the Giant, a powerful portrait of five human rights activists in Syria, Libya, and Bahrain, personalizes the multiple, simultaneous, and in many ways ongoing struggles often monolithically referred to as the Arab Spring. Through first-person interviews as well as archival, news, and cell phone footage, director Greg Barker
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Vijay Prashad on anti-imperialism [video]: the ‘third way’ on Syria
I concur with most of what Vijay Prashad is arguing in this video talk except to say that there is a lot more at stake in Syria than for example Libya, in terms of the power balance in the Middle East. When the NATO attack on Libya got underway some
Continue readingRedBedHead: Massacre in Egypt: Is Revolution Worth The Price?
As I sat down to write this post the news of a tragic massacre of at least 32 Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated protestors, and the injury of 300 more was plastered all over the internet. That much is clear, the rest is yet to be disentangled (if ever) fro…
Continue readingRedBedHead: Massacre in Egypt: Is Revolution Worth The Price?
As I sat down to write this post the news of a tragic massacre of at least 32 Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated protestors, and the injury of 300 more was plastered all over the internet. That much is clear, the rest is yet to be disentangled (if ever) from two completely opposing
Continue readingRedBedHead: Massacre in Egypt: Is Revolution Worth The Price?
As I sat down to write this post the news of a tragic massacre of at least 32 Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated protestors, and the injury of 300 more was plastered all over the internet. That much is clear, the rest is yet to be disentangled (if ever) from two completely opposing
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: And this is where we juxtapose: Libya edition
March, 2011: The Harper government rallied opposition parties to “war” Monday, casting Canada’s military intervention in the Libyan crisis as a moral imperative. … “This government along with the international community cannot stand idly by,” said [Defence Minister Peter] MacKay who opened debate on a motion to approve the deployment
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Human Rights Watch: Challenges for Rights After Arab Spring
The willingness of new governments to respect rights will determine whether those uprisings give birth to genuine democracy or simply spawn authoritarianism in new forms.
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