The system is in trouble claims Jeff Cohen writing for Counterpunch. I can see where he is coming from as it would seem like our leaders often listen to the elites more than the people who have elected them. The current system is start to reach the limits of which
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jeffrey Sachs writes that the fight against climate breakdown demands a concerted solution to global problem – rather than political wrangling over whether anybody will accept any responsibility for desperately-needed change. And Adam Tooze points out the foreseeable political threats posed by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Luke Savage highlights the distinction between photo-op liberalism and any genuine commitment to social progress: This may be the reason liberal thought endlessly obsesses over the language used in political debate and often seems to place a higher value on its tone
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ainslie Cruickshank reports on Grand Chief Stewart Phillip’s call to prevent catastrophic climate change rather than devoting public money toward fossil fuel subsidies. And Eric Holthaus points out that the recent “hothouse Earth” report includes the recognition that it’s not yet too late
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Lana Payne writes that there’s no reason to turn Donald Trump’s giveaway to the rich into an excuse for similarly destructive policies in Canada: If tax policy levers need adjusting, there is a more effective and sophisticated approach that can be taken,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Alex Ballingall reports on the efforts of the United Nations’ special rapporteur on housing Leilani Farha to push for an enforceable right to housing – and the Libs’ predictable demurral in favour of vague aspirational statements. And Jen St. Denis points out that
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Fight Against Neoliberal Fascism is Anchored in Memory
Fascism today doesn’t look exactly as it did when it spread through Germany and Italy in the 30s but the foundational elements are alive and well around the world today, including the United States of America. Henry Giroux contends the key to beating back modern neo-fascists rests in historical memory.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Imagine a World Where Every Leader Was a Variation of Donald Trump
Donald Trump likes to pretend he’s shaking everything up. In fact he’s tearing everything down and what he can’t tear down his instinct is to bog it down. You could say that he’s the first poster boy for the Age of Entropy. Yesterday I reviewed an article by political scientist
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Liberal Democracy Cannot Survive Undefended.
Since the advent of the neoliberal era, the reign of Thatcher, Reagan and Mulroney, liberal democracy has been left to its own devices. The warning sign, the red flag, was the extinction of any meaningful vestige of progressivism from the body politic. The last defender of liberal democracy we knew
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Peter Goodman discusses how austerity has changed society for the worse in the UK: For a nation with a storied history of public largess, the protracted campaign of budget cutting, started in 2010 by a government led by the Conservative Party, has
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Dying On the Edges
Neoliberalism is not conducive to our health or to our survival. Neoliberalism has brought us to a place where we have to choose to either step back or accept the butcher’s bill to keep it going. We’re running out of room, we’re running out of stuff, somebody – a lot
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: An Excellent Introduction to Neoliberalism. It’s Essential to Grasp How Its Adherents in Our Political Caste Undermine Democracy.
A lot of us see neoliberalism, manifested in the rise of market power and the spread of globalism, as a plague on society. It is a plague on democratic society. That purpose was forged almost a century ago in Austria as it emerged from the ashes of WWI. With the end
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If you’re an Albertan who demands low taxes, balanced budgets, and pipelines to B.C., expect to be told to look in the mirror
PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, a New Democrat. Below: Former Wildrose leader and United Conservative Party leadership contender Brian Jean, now retired from politics, and B.C. based environmentalist Tzeporah Berman, very much not retired from activism. By way of setting the stage for Thursday’s budget speech, Finance Minister Joe
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Wanda Wyporska discusses why we can’t expect a group of cloistered elites to do anything to solve the changeable dimensions of inequality. – Jonathan Ford and Gill Plimmer write that the UK is beginning to learn its lesson about the dangers of privatizing
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Blockbuster’ job creation in Alberta leaves UCP in search of new talking points about ‘job killing’ carbon levy
PHOTOS: The Calgary skyline in 2016. After a bad patch, the city is now back in the BMO Capital Markets’ Top Ten performance list, thanks in part to falling unemployment rates. (Photo: Kevin Cappis, Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips, and Calgary Chamber
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Impact of growing opioid crisis on life expectancy in the United States is more evidence that neoliberal austerity kills
PHOTOS: This scene is in Paris. It could be anywhere in our “globalized,” that is, neoliberalized world. (Photo: Eric Poulhier, Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Rundown but dignified Havana, high-profile U.S. economist Paul Krugman (Photo: Flickr, Commonwealth Club) and political economist Alan Nasser (Photo: Evergreen State College). Will Mexico eventually decide it
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Put the Christ back in Christmas? Never mind that! Keep the marks in the market! Merry Christmas!
PHOTOS & ILLUSTRATIONS: Early opponents of the War on Shopping fight back at Christmastime (Photo: Chicago History Museum). Today consumerism is the state religion of both the United States and Canada, helping to put the marks back in the market. Below: Sol Invictus. Any resemblance to the Statue of Liberty
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It was wall-to-wall Brad Wall as premier exits, stage right, before wheels fall off Saskatchewan Party bus
PHOTOS: Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, smiling like old times, says farewell in this video screenshot to an adoring media on his last day in the provincial Legislature in Regina yesterday. Below: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous. Political coverage was wall-to-wall Brad Wall yesterday as mainstream
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Rick Salutin writes that Ontario’s provincial election shows that nobody is prepared to defend neoliberal ideas on their merits – which should provide an opening to start challenging them in practice. And Alice Ollstein examines how Donald Trump’s corporate giveaway looks like an
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Capitalism Is Not the Only Choice
Capitalism in its current form enriches mostly privileged men and sidelines marginalized groups such as people of colour, immigrants and women. We need the courage to imagine and create new solidarity economies that prioritize people and the planet over profit. The post Capitalism Is Not the Only Choice appeared first
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