…It costs everything to have no foresight. Humans who are good at foresight get undermined by those who aren’t.
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Writings of J. Todd Ring: Reading History And Social Theory As If People, The Planet, Or The Future Mattered
A Review of Stephen Toulmin’s Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda Of Modernity, and, A Reading List For Thoughtful People Slow to get going, then increasingly fascinating, Toulmin’s Cosmopolis is a genuine must-read. As a history of culture and consciousness it is stellar. I’d give it four out of five stars,
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: BoJo Unwell, Like The Economy And Environment
Boris Johnson is at death’s doorstep. This would otherwise be an unremarkable point, except he’s inexplicably the Prime Minister of the UK. Sorry you started taking the advice of doctors seriously, too late for everyone including yourself. But then again, ignoring experts is what you've made a career out of.https://t.co/pJK3uLvEIj
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Six Founding Principles Of Good Government
Or, Public Policy 101: Tax “Bads”, Not Goods Public policy, or government policy, should reflect certain basic principles. Let’s set out a few. Not everyone will agree, but polls repeatedly show the great majority, from the moderate grassroots right, across to the left, in general agree, and in general strongly
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Why The Left Is Once Again Wrong
Also happening now, and further showing the continued failure of the left: the left is shouting in defence of payroll taxes – which kill jobs, as they are a tax on hiring and employment, as well as a regressive tax that hurts small and medium business the hardest. The
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Faux Left, and, The Urgent Need To Unite The People
What’s called “the left” is really a few camps, very narrow in range: There are neoliberals such as Hilary Clinton, Obama, Biden, and the Democratic party establishment, who are (like Tony Blair and new Labour in B, and the Liberal party of Canada) in reality extreme right – they are
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Meditations For Difficult Times
What do you do when the world has gone insane? Well, you stay calm, and keep working for justice, peace, democracy, ecological balance, and freedom. You also have to stay well. That does not mean unthinkingly obeying irrational fascist orders. It does mean managing stress, eating well, getting exercise,
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Central Issue: Oligarchy vs Democracy
The central issue, now as always, is not about wealth, or distribution of wealth. It’s not about bread and butter issues. It’s not about taxes or spending, budgets or allocations, or who gets what and how much. It’s about power. The oligarchs know that. The elite know that very well.
Continue readingcartoon life: The year so far
Get put in charge of government. Yay. No more Libtards. Implement laws making face masks illegal. Damned rioters. Refuse Carbon Tax income distribution schemes that put money into your budget. Double down on digging tar out of the ground. Jobs jobs jobs. Reduce taxes (eliminating your income source) to focus
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Imagine Alberta Without Kenney
Imagine an Alberta government not under investigation for election fraud? One that doesn’t fire tens of thousands during a pandemic so Ottawa can pay them instead? A provincial government which doesn’t bail out sub-$4/barrel oil to the tune of billions, while cutting doctors’ pay. UBI Universal Basic Income would allow
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: #LockDownNow To Spare Lives
This is interesting, and packed with references to explain the assumptions. Canada is being too soft on the new coronavirus, and we’re paying the price in the long run. For example, it’s not “essential” for post secondary education to continue this semester(, but we probably can with all but a
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Priorities
The population of the US is now shown exactly the parameters of the class war being waged. Will they realize the stakes and take action against their class antagonists? Paul Street writes in Counterpunch about the divide in the US and how radically different ‘solutions’ are being proposed – hint
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Step Number One
Stephen Toulmin’s proposal of a return to a modest Renaissance humanism sounds wonderful (as a fresh start, so to speak, and only a start) compared to dogmatic ideology-fetishizing modernism on the one hand, or the arguably even worse alternative of polysyllabic post-modernist nihilism on the other. But when the people
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague 2020: Life On The Inside
The WHO’s warnings to close schools at the end of February were accurate. Unsurprising to me, the climate crisis Deniers are out in full force trying to deny scientific pandemic response since their beloved oil markets have tanked completely. It’s not enough for them to kill us with air pollution
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Joe Biden – Political Seppuku
Paul Edwards has a entertaining style of apocalyptic prose. He writes this screedy piece in Counterpunch, but you can feel his frustration directed toward a political system engineered to maintain the plutocratic status-quo. “Well, partly, yes. Hillary, for what she’s worth, swore nobody liked him or wanted to
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Austerity Is The Enforcement Mechanism designed to keep the Rich in Control of the American Political Economy – Rob Urie
Counterpunch columnist Rob Urie tackles some of the political consequences of the neoliberal choices we have made as a society. “The question of bailouts is fundamentally different from that of taking care of people. An adequate response to the pandemic will require years of dedicated effort, not tossing a
Continue readingsomecanuckchick dot com: COVID-19 aid being held hostage by the CPC and the NDP!
The CPC and the NDP are failing Canadians. The CPC and the NDP need to stop playing politics. At the time of this post, COVID-19 aid being held hostage by the CPC and the NDP! The CPC leader, Andrew Scheer, is a despicable excuse for a human being… content to
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Essential Reading: A Very Short List
Here is a short letter (email) I just sent to a few friends. It has a very short list of a few of the books I would consider essential reading. (I’m still working through some of them, while reading others as well.) * With these few books, an excellent understanding
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Political-Economy 101
Governments and corporations, and the state-corporate media they control, systematically distort or conceal the truth, peddle illusions and starkly deceitful false narratives, and lie. (Does anyone remember Iraq’s WMDs?) This is political-economy and media studies 101. Unsurprisingly, vested interests tend to serve their own narrow interests – and routinely
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Today in UCP Alberta…
It galls me the level of disregard for our society being exhibited by our Alberta UCP government. The naked capitulation to business interests over the public well being is infuriating.
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