politics ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

Dead Wild Roses: Noam Chomsky on the Erosion of Democracy

Oct

18

2017

If I were to have just one wish to come true, it would be that people would take the time to think about the world they live in. I realize that reflection and critical something is not always possible, but if we’re in the wish zone I think it could happen. Noam Chomsky, prescient as ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: “Flabbergasting”

Oct

16

2017

“Flabbergasting” If you need to hear every Conservative talking point repeated without a thought in the world, try the Regina Chamber CEO’s take on CTV: “Nation building” “tidewater” “energy independence” “What’s in the best interest of the country” “a lot of money that comes from the United States that fuels these environmental groups” “Stand up ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Twitter Suspended Victim

Oct

12

2017

Some days (most days) Twitter really sucks at limiting abuse, and supporting victims of the same. People wonder why it's so hard for women to come forward with their stories and then #RoseMcGowan gets suspended from @Twitter #ROSEARMY — Julia Elizabeth (@julaelizabeth) October 12, 2017 Women fight on. And to the men out there, stand ...

Earthgauge Radio: Earthgauge News

Oct

11

2017

The inaugural edition of our new podcast Earthgauge News! A weekly Canadian environmental news podcast featuring the top environmental stories from across Canada for the week of Oct. 9, 2017. Join us here every week or subscribe in iTunes or your favourite podcast catcher.

Trashy's World: Purchase infrastructure – just not ready for climate change

Oct

7

2017

Climate change? We need to plan for the future. Now. (0)

Babel-on-the-Bay: “Nice suits and empty slogans.”

Oct

7

2017

That comment about suits and slogans was in the last line of the Toronto Star’s pompous editorial on “The challenge for Singh.” The newspaper editorialists want Singh and Trudeau to square off on progressive policy issues in the 2019 federal election. Lot’s of luck on that! But the problem is that the Star writers think ...

Dead Wild Roses: Violence in DWR’s Front Yard – Edmonton’s Brush With ISIS-Style Terror

Oct

2

2017

Well. That happened. (Never fear folks, yours truly and the rest of the DWR crew were nowhere near the downtown where this incident took place.) I’m used to commenting on and reporting on these types of events when they happen not where I live. The events that happened on Saturday (September 30th) changed ...

Dead Wild Roses: The US military is a Toxic Convoluted Ouroboros

Sep

28

2017

William Astore writing for Tom’s Dispatch. “I first came across the phrase “using a sledgehammer to kill gnats” while looking at the history of U.S. airpower during the Vietnam War. B-52 “Arc Light” raids dropped record tons of bombs on parts of South Vietnam and Laos in largely failed efforts to ...

Things Are Good: Nuclear Weapon Ban Signed at UN

Sep

21

2017

Nuclear weapons are an existential threat to humanity. If they are used in violence it is likely that the planet would enter a period of nuclear winter – meaning that if you don’t die in the initial waves of explosions you’ll die from starvation. Not a good thing to think about. Thankfully, yesterday 122 members ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy’s oily legacy is the stain that can’t be cleaned, as climate plan revelation reminds us

Sep

20

2017

Photo: Province of BC/Flickr CC Licence In 1988, a year before the Iron Curtain fell, I was in Budapest and after a stroll I went back to my group in the hotel and said this: “Folks, this regime is in trouble…when I was in the main square, the money changers were doing their deals bold ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Saskatchewan’s Worst Former Minister?

Sep

20

2017

Do you use that sexist language about your daughter, mother, sister? We need more women in politics. Your sexist comments won't stop us. https://t.co/WVMnm7EyEY — Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna) September 20, 2017 Gerry Ritz makes his latest bid for the role of most disgraceful person who happened to be a Minister of the federal government, from ...

Things Are Good: Capitalism Will End, Celebrate What Comes Next

Sep

13

2017

The damage that wealthy bankers did to the economy back in 2007/08 is still with us, and that has led to a whole generation questioning the validity of modern hyper-capitalism. That same germination witness ongoing environmental destruction and the erosion of labour rights (amongst a litany of other ills) all for the goal of getting ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Ted Cruz Likes Porn, Literally

Sep

12

2017

So Ted Cruz, how will you remember 9/11? Ted Cruz: pic.twitter.com/TW0psPuBQh — Antony Copland (@SprowstonStud) September 12, 2017 8 months ago, this Twitter user claimed Ted made the same mistake while watching Twitter-hosted porn: Well that was weird. In my Activity TL the verified account of @tedcruz just liked a hard core porn tweet. And ...

Dead Wild Roses: When is Violence Acceptable in Society? – The Fascist/Antifa question.

Sep

9

2017

I am playing catch up with the recent dust-up around the choice of tactics used by Antifa in the United States in it’s struggle against the proto-fascist elements energized by the current Republican Administration led by Trump. There are several sources in this brief overview, first from a academic journal to help with the ...

Dead Wild Roses: When is Speech Violence? – Wittgenstein’s Language Game

Sep

6

2017

Interesting article from the folks over at JSTOR. “According to Willinsky, “The schooled representation of meaning sets language in the hands of those who hold the proper definitions.” In other words, appeals to the dictionary serve a political purpose; they preserve existing power structures, and fortify the way things are at the ...

Dead Wild Roses: Cloak and Mirrors – Who are We Fighting?

Sep

5

2017

CJ Hopkins writes a polemic about one of the themes that crops up in leftist literature. The elite, who are our real enemies (of the common people) will employ just about any set of tactics to keep the populace engaged in harmless activity. Bread and circuses if you will. Yet, the marriage of politics and ...

cartoon life: Nuclear war singalong

Sep

4

2017

Filed under: cartoon, comment, political Tagged: Billy Joel, cartoon, current events, editorial, humour, Kim Jong Un, politics, Trump

The Common Sense Canadian: Forget Paris: Justin takes LNG, Kinder Morgan over climate, democracy

Sep

1

2017

Justin Trudeau joined by Canadian premiers at Paris climate talks in 2015 (Province of BC/Flickr) Justin Trudeau is not as young as he looks – obviously. If he was, he would have noticed a sea change in public attitudes that this old man, more of his father’s generation, has not just noticed but takes as ...

Alex's Blog: EXPANDING THE POLITICAL IMAGINATION

Aug

31

2017

The other day, CNN ran a focus group on what some American voters were now thinking about their president. The comments were almost universally critical including among Trump voters. But even some of the most critical, it seems, may still be Trump supporters. It was, for me, a valuable reminder that pointing out Trump’s flaws, ...

Susan on the Soapbox: Lessons in Leadership from a Red Tory

Aug

27

2017

Are there any Red Tories left in Alberta? If so they should consider what Kim Campbell has to say about leadership and apply her comments to the men vying for the leadership of the UCP. Kim Campbell was Canada’s 19th Prime Minister. A few short months after being sworn in as PM she had “political ...

Things Are Good: How One Hawaiian Mayor is Making His Town Better

Aug

24

2017

Hawaii is a beautiful part of the world and like most gorgeous parts pf this planet it’s feeling the pressures of climate change. Despite the American government’s blatant rejection of science and sense in environmental policy one Hawaiian mayor, Bernard Carvalho, is bringing his community into the 21st century. Indeed, when the American government pulled ...

Dead Wild Roses: You Know Its Bad in the US When Inverted Totalitarianism Seems Reasonable

Aug

24

2017

Paul Street writing for Counterpunch. : “The Republican deal with the Trump phenomenon has always been based on opportunism. The Trumpenstein’s growingly evident status as an irreversibly deadly liability for the Republican agenda could make it easy for top GOP players to unsheathe their knives and sink them into the president’s back. With Trump having already ...

Things Are Good: Tough Lobbying Rules in Ireland Work Well

Aug

23

2017

Ten years ago when a bunch of bankers greatly damaged the economy the country of Ireland suffered quite a bit. The people of Ireland made the connection between influence on politicians from large corporations on poor public policy – thus they changed the rules on how the private sector can influence the public sector. The ...

Things Are Good: Saving the Ozone Layer Helped More Than We Thought

Aug

22

2017

It turns out when nations of the world get together to try and save the environment they can be really good at it. The Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987 to save the ozone layer, and it did. Indeed, a new report says that it not only saved the ozone layer the protocol also cut ...

Dead Wild Roses: Latent Racism in the United States – Divide and Conquer

Aug

22

2017

The election of the Republican candidate Donald Trump has really screwed the American society up. The 45th POTUS whose actions and policies that can only be described as ignorant inept has brought the United States to the brink of a major societal schism between an substantial group of alienated, antediluvian, racist white nationalists ...