Just had a very nice chat with one of my local candidates for #Elxn44 in #KitchenerCentre. It was @morricemike of the @CanadianGreens. He does bookable short calls with voters to talk about issues. It’s a great idea and shows a lot of confidence. After watching some debates between local candidates
Continue readingTag: politics
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: Oh No, Not Again
The election in Canada is on Monday, and the Conservatives are annoyed that HarperCon Kenney is trying to stop his province’s healthcare system from burning down completely by then. A CPC candidate texted me during the announcement and said "Does the premier not understand the position this puts us in
Continue readingThings Are Good: Digital Violence Exposes NSO’s Tools Targetting Activists
NSO made the news again due to their tools being used to spy on Bahraini and Hungarian activists, which obviously isn’t good. NSO is a cyber security organization that focuses on offensive rather than defence; they sell hacking tools and exploits to target individuals. Anyone with enough money can buy
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Real Smart City Lacks Smart Technology
A few years ago Silicon Valley mega corps thought all cities should be made “smart” by tracking all citizen data. There was a concentrated effort by Google to violate privacy rights in Toronto and bullying the city into a finance deal which only benefit the advertising giant. Torontonians protested and
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Polarization – Far Left & Right.
Political practice in the US often seems to centre around everything but the facts of any given issue. The pandemic being one of the most obvious examples. So, we ignore the real-world material evidence of what Denmark is doing with their Corona Pass and continue to prevaricate in our
Continue readingThings Are Good: These 100 Debates Could Decide the Canadian Election
Canadians are about to vote in the country’s 44th election and this election may finally be the moment when the nation votes thinking about a green future. From coast to coast to coast in the country there will be local debates about the environment and what the candidates will do
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Noam Chomsky – On The US and Global Stability
Noam Chomsky is 92 years old, yet his grasp of world and US politics remains a force to be reckoned with. “The U.S. always portrays itself as the greatest force on the planet for peace, justice, human rights, racial equality, etc. Polls tell us that most other nations
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: What if America Pivoted to America? – William Astore
William Astore, former American Military, dares the public and the American industry of defense to think outside the box. He reimagines the role of the US military as primarily for the defense of the American republic. It is a bold and necessary move as the role of ‘policeman of the
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Ban Campaign Promises and other Electoral Rants
Campaign promises. What are they good for. Absolutely nothing. I wish we could get rid of campaign promises. If you are in government then a campaign promise is just something you think you should have done that you did not do. Maybe it is best not to remind the voters
Continue readingThings Are Good: Exposing Exxon’s Elaborate Escapades in Eluding the Electorate
Exxon (and other oil companies) knew all about the harm their products cause to the environment 40 years ago, yet they kept making profits despite threatening all life on Earth. This is some real-life cartoon villain stuff that sounds made up, but it’s real and it happened. In fact, it’s
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: All the Queer Theory in the World will not help the Women of Afghanistan – “Mel T”
This letter published in the Scottish newspaper The National. It is a letter that would likely not see the light of day here in Canada where we seem to be beholden to a small subset of society that demands we disbelieve our eyes and perceptions to order to ‘be kind’
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: Was Hoping Not To Do More Of These
Moe’s ending of restrictions and having the Roughriders hold super-spreader events has put the province into a pickle. School hasn’t even re-opened yet, and the numbers are already approaching the terrible ones after school open last year, and Delta variant is more contagious. Parents who care about their kids are
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: If You Are Going To Vote, Read This
Things are changing rapidly in the world, but as of this moment, we can say a few things about the major political parties of the Western world, with reasonable certainty. It is now undeniable, that by their actions, the major parties of the Western world, including the Democratic party of
Continue readingPop The Stack: Early Soundbite Grading-Part 1
So it’s a few days into **Election 41** and I’m still trying to finish all the grading for my Spring courses. But I can’t help bring out the red grading pen for some party leader moments this week. ## Part 1 – **Jagmeet Singh** l’ve been pleasantly surprised how extensive
Continue readingPop The Stack: A Test of the PopTheStackEmail Blogging System
This is a test of the Pop The Stack email blogging system. If this were not a test, you would be reading erudite, or at least, passionate, opinionating on the political situation of the day in Canada with a particular leaning towards the health of our Democracy and the mechanisms
Continue readingScripturient: Jail the Unvaccinated
In a recent opinion piece in Macleans Magazine, Scott Gilmore wrote what I expect many vaccinated Canadians felt about those who still refuse to get vaccinated and help end this pandemic: We need to begin treating the vaccine holdouts as the fools they are. It is not fair that reasonable
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Free Your Mind: Escaping The Mental Prison Of Cognitive Bias
As Emerson said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” People who cannot admit that they were wrong, turn their minds to stone, turn their brains off, and turn themselves into functional idiots. The intelligent response to a conflict or discrepancy between new evidence and our pre-existing beliefs,
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Last Empire
It is the illusion of powerlessness among the people which upholds every empire – for a time. But the illusion eventually wears off. No empire lasts forever. Every empire falls in the end. This last, and hopefully final empire, which I would call the global neofeudal corporate oligarchy, or corporate
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Sociology Of Delusion
Automation is going to eliminate most jobs. That could spell tyranny and neofeudalism, and the birth of a highly stratified society, where the priviledged few live in material comfort, the power elite live as global feudal lords and god-kings, and the vast majority are deemed useless and discarded, or rounded
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Retrieved from the memory hole: Our collective imagination
Here is a note from the memory hole, to jolt us back to a sense of reality: which means, a sense that all things truly are possible – with the will, the heart, and the passion, and the dedication, to create a better world for all. Memory artifact one: Henry
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