This was initially meant to be a lengthy Facebook post for those who look to me for information on complex matters (which I do happily, by request). However, it received such appreciation and requests to make it open to all (which I eventually did) that I thought I’d post it here, too, but
Continue readingTag: Syria
Alberta Politics: What’s next? F-35 boondoggle to land on the deck of a Canadian Mistral carrier?
PHOTOS: The F-35, possibly the worst military aircraft ever made, dollar for dollar or pound for pound, photographed to make it look less like a brick. A hovering version of the same plane. A not-quite-finished Mistral-class helicopter carrier. SANTA FE, N.M. I suppose a hotel in the desert, just down
Continue readingwRanter.com: Refugees: a Jewish issue comes to the fore
A quintessentially Jewish issue has dominated the news and become a prominent election issue ever since the picture of three-year-old Alan Kurdi lying dead in the Mediterranean surf generated headlines worldwide earlier this month. For many, the painful image has crystallized the ongoing question of what the world ought to
Continue readingSaints and slackers on the refugee front
The Canadian government has come under considerable criticism for its sluggish reaction to the Syrian refugee crisis, and deservedly so. As I pointed out in a previous post, this is in sharp contrast to our response to other similar crises. A number of countries are doing much better than us,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Get Used to It. This Is Just Beginning.
It’s amazing how the plight of refugees fleeing a war on the other side of the world has had such a deep impact on electoral politics in Canada. I’ll bet we won’t be nearly so caring and concerned about this sort of thing ten years from now. Our hearts may
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ian Welsh discusses how our problems with poverty and inequality arise out of artificial scarcity: We either already have excess capacity or we have the ability to create more than people need of all necessities. This includes housing, food and clothing. We still
Continue readingHow many refugees should we accept?
Joseph Stalin once said that if you kill one person it’s murder, if you kill a million it’s a statistic. The old psychopath, who knew a lot about killing one person and about killing a million, put his finger on a key element of human sensibility. We have difficulty connecting
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The refugee crisis: Harper Conservatives just can’t spin it both ways
PHOTOS: Refugees from the Syrian civil war clog a road near the Syria-Iraq border. (UNHCR photo.) Below: Saskatchewan Conservative MP Kelly Block’s constituency leaflet; Ms. Block herself; Immigration Minister Chris Alexander. For several years, the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has played to the worst instincts of a significant
Continue readingLeDaro: Stirring Images of Syrian Boy’s Body Now Symbol of Europe’s Crisis-NBC
Today, a photo from Turkey showing the body of a lifeless Syrian boy washed upon a beach became a symbolic image of the refugee plight.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney sails close to the wind on Anti-Terrorism Act at picnic visit
PHOTOS: Liberal candidate Adam Vaughan’s photo of the Kurdish Peace and Cultural Festival in Toronto Saturday, with an image of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan visible in the background. (Grabbed from Twitter.) Below: Defence Minister Jason Kenney, who bragged about being at the event, and Mr. Vaughan. Jason Kenney, who notwithstanding
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Point of No Return?
A friend sent me a link to a Rolling Stone article, “The Point of No Return: Climate Change Nightmares are Already Here.” It’s a relatively complete and accurate synopsis of the state of our climate-changed world today. Fair warning – it’s a dismal read that you may find upsetting before
Continue readingAlberta Politics: That Conservative foreign policy election plank: shaky, incoherent and quite possibly dangerous
PHOTOS: A screen grab from the Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s notorious electioneering video showing the himself and Defence Minister Jason Kenney in Iraqi Kurdistan, with the face of a Canadian special forces soldier blocked out by the CBC – unlike the version that appeared on the PMO’s website. Note the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – Destroying History, for What?
There is no morality to be found in religions and their scriptures. It is a human being who interprets the words and it is human being that makes the decision to x or y – no religious magic involved. So what is happening in Palmyra with ISIS is a
Continue readingLeft Over: The Fundamental(ist) Reasons for It All…..
Rise of the ‘precariat,’ the global scourge of precarious jobs Barely one in four of the global workforce has a stable job, UN reports By Brian Stewart, CBC News Posted: Jun 01, 2015 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Jun 01, 2015 8:36 AM ET Back in the 7-‘s, when i was
Continue readingLeDaro: His Highness Emperor Stephen Harper
Harper is putting Canadian troops on the frontlines in Iraq, when even the United States would not, and then sending Canadian troops to Syria. He’s taking our country deeper into war and putting our Canadian soldiers at risk. Who does Harper think he is? Is he trying to be a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Final Chapter for Bashar Assad
Things are not looking up for Syrian strongman, Bashar Assad. His first problem is the Sunni Muslim coalition of Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia (ordinarily not the best of friends) that has materialized for the sole purpose of running Assad out of Damascus. The advances are not only a sign
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Alison picks up on Armine Yalnizyan’s important question as to whether the Cons have a Plan B other than hoping for factors beyond our control to boost oil prices. And Brad Delong argues that based on the foreseeable direction of our economy,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: "Whack a Mole" is No Reason to Go to War.
We spent a decade in Afghanistan playing whack-a-mole, essentially achieving nothing. We had no coherent vision of what ‘victory’ might even look like much less how it could be achieved. In the result we never committed anything remotely like the size force that would have been necessary to keep the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Simon Wren-Lewis connects the UK’s counterproductive austerity program to the lack of any wage growth. And Gary Lamphier observes that Alberta is serving as a case in point that jobs generated through public policy rigged in favour of the wealthy are no
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: That Burnt Smell, That Hissing Sound? That’s the Fuze.
Well, if nothing else, Stephen Harper might just have earned Canada a ringside seat to the outbreak of a Middle East regional war. The way the International Crisis Group sees it, the Saudi air war on Shiite Yemeni rebels might just be the burning fuze that explodes the Sunni-Shia powder
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