Chrystia Freehand’s recent budget, although modest, did have some goodies in it for the military, including more than $8-billion in new funding over five years. While less than expected, perhaps, it’s not a bad raise. It is expected to bring our defence spending up to 1.5 percent of our GDP,
Continue readingTag: Russia
Views from the Beltline: An unholy duo
Christianity has often sucked up to power. Even in these days of generally more enlightened religion, there are still Christian leaders who will kiss the king’s ring in order to advance the interests of the church, or at least of the church leadership. There is no better example than the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Tim Loh discusses how Europe’s premature end to public health measures is resulting in another COVID wave. Lei Lei Wu notes that nearly two-thirds of U.S. children hospitalized with the Omicron variant had no other underlying condition, while Natalie Huet reports on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Kit Yates discusses how the lifting of COVID-19 public health protections in the UK has predictably precipitated another wave of infections. Natalie Grover writes about the two-year-long battle to get decision-makers to accept that COVID-19 is transmitted through the air. And Catherine
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Putin and NATO
A proposed explanation, if not a justification, for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is that NATO pushed too far east and thus posed a threat. Actually it wasn’t so much a matter of NATO pushing east as being invited east. Countries that had been part of the Soviet Union, including
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Caroline Chen discusses the reasons why we’re still waiting for COVID vaccines for children under 5 – leaving the people least able to protect themselves to bear the full weight of irresponsible declarations of surrender against the pandemic. Benjamin Ryan reports on the
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The Ukraine war—a boon for the Prairies
War mostly bings death, destruction and suffering, but it also brings profits for some. In the case of the current war in the Ukraine, much profit will be brought to Canada’s Prairie Provinces. We have already seen the dramatic escalation in the price of oil, currently soaring to as high
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sarah Bartsch et al. study the costs and benefits of face mask use, and conclude that even without factoring in improvements to public health mask mandates produces positive outcomes from a financial perspective, while Caroline Alphonso reports on Ronald Cohn’s exhortation for Ontario not to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Associated Press reports on the continued disparity in COVID-19 vaccinations between countries which is exacerbating the risk of new and more severe variants for everybody. – David Moore and Donald Shaw report on the threat of industrial chemicals at risk of being
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Putin’s apologists
Russia’s war-mongering president, Vladimir Putin, has many admirers in the West. Various notable European politicians have paid homage, including the leader of France’s far right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen; former prime minster of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi; and Britain’s Brexit leader Nigel Farage. Other prominent fans include President of
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Nuclear War Not Humanity’s Only Option
Aside from the insane invasion of democratic Ukraine by the Russians, there’s another pending catastrophe in store for humanity anywhere between this afternoon and the next 5000 years. Destruction from space rocks slamming into our atmosphere is a near certainty in our solar system, but we have technology that can
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The Max Planck Society explores how COVID-19 has developed to hide out and mutate within the human body. Tami Luhby discusses how even a receding Omicron wave has continued to have devastating effects on millions of Americans. And Jessie Anton reports on the concerns of
Continue readingNorthern Currents –: Making sense of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
What has become clear is that Canadian and American media are manufacturing consent, and presenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine outside of its historical context. The act of invasion is 100% Vladimir Putin’s decision, and the invasion was not justified. At the same time, the conditions that led to this
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Chilling Words
Ever since Putin started massing troops along Ukraine’s eastern border, I’ve been wondering exactly what Russia’s objectives really were. Put aside the propaganda from Russia about Ukraine posing some kind of threat, and one is left wondering exactly what Putin’s goals are in invading Ukraine. Russia’s claim is that Ukraine
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Spheres of Influence – Ukraine vs Russia
Going to war over spheres of influence. The 21st century is going to be just as rough as the 20th century. “Russia says, for instance, that it is threatened by Nato expanding eastwards and potentially including Ukraine as a member. The response of the Nato powers is to say that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Carly Weeks examines why so many Canadian children still haven’t been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. John Loeppky asks that we not eliminate the digital solutions which have allowed people with disabilities to participate on somewhat more equal ground. Zak Vescera reports on Saskatchewan’s ballooning waitlists
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is the UCP suggesting it’s time to show Russia a thing or two by halting the TMX pipeline expansion?
Will members of all Canadian political parties soon demand that we halt the TMX pipeline expansion project? I ask because, with the current great power tension in Ukraine likely to reach some kind of a climax soon, we are already hearing fierce calls in Canada for severe and even warlike
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why post-Brexit, post-Imperial Britain should build Yachty McYachtface, and build it now!
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s big idea to spend hundreds of millions of pounds building a new royal yacht to serve as a floating trade show venue is an excellent project for the new post-Brexit “Global Britain.” It would be an utter waste of money, of course, and not even the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: There are better ways for Alberta’s only New Democrat to spend her time than calling for more Canadian troops on Russia’s doorstep
Last week, Heather McPherson, New Democrat Member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona, was sounding as belligerent as any Alberta Conservative on the topic of what she termed “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.” In a lead-up to a question in the House of Commons, a clip of which Ms. McPherson distributed on
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Russia, Fascism & The West
Whatever problems Russia has, and every country has problems, as does Russia, two things are clear: Russia is not trying to take over the world. Davos and Washington are doing that. The West is in no position to criticize any nation over human rights. We have imported the Chinese totalitarian
Continue reading