Yesterday, inspired by a link sent to me by The Mound of Sound, I wrote a post on some of the dire implications of the surveillance state and the preparations being made by The Pentagon to deal with mass civil breakdown.Today, a guest post by The Mound offers a sharp
Continue readingTag: the guardian
Politics and its Discontents: They’ll Be Watching You
Every breath you takeEvery move you makeEvery bond you breakEvery step you takeI’ll be watching you. -The Police – Every Breath You Take Recent revelations, some of which I have written about, should make us all acutely aware that in the surveillance state, which now describes much of the world,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Window Of Opportunity Is Growing Increasingly Short
So says Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, if we are to take action to limit the global average temperature increase to two degrees Celsius: Six years ago we said that emissions would have to peak by 2015 if we wanted to hold them to 2C.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, featuring my take on the IMF’s recent report (PDF) on the relationship between equality, redistribution and growth. I’ve already linked to other responses to the report from the Guardian and the Economist. But the column raises a point left largely unaddressed in those pieces – and which seems particularly
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Canada’s Sad Devolution
What was once Canada the cool, the country a 1991 Economist cover story called the “post-modern nation-state”, has now devolved into a rightwing hellhole. So says The Guardian in an article entitled Sadly, Rob Ford epitomises what Canada has become. Using Toronto’s Chief Oaf Rob Ford and the hard-right policies
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Emily Badger discusses how poverty affects people who are forced to use their physical and mental resources on bare survival: Human mental bandwidth is finite. You’ve probably experienced this before (though maybe not in those terms): When you’re lost in concentration trying to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Bad Days And Defiance
Yesterday was not a good day for me. First, I awoke to read about the government raid on the Guardian office resulting in the destruction of computers containing some of the material leaked by Edward Snowden on illegal state surveillance. Eerily reminiscent of the U.S. Department of Justice raid on
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Chalk Up Another One For Orwell
Or, to update the metaphor, computers being destroyed by the govenment: The message is clear: citizens do not have the right to material that would allow them to decide for themselves whether the overarching and illegal domestic spying being carried out by western ‘democracies’ is justified. Following revelations of the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Forced Feeding At Guantanimo
I really questioned whether I should put the following video on my blog, so graphic is it in its depiction of the forced feeding that 40 of the detainees in Guantanimo are currently being subjected to. Rapper Mos Def volunteered to undergo the procedure, for purposes that I think will
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Lest anybody think the Harper Cons’ combination of dishonesty and secrecy is limited to political payoffs, Blacklock’s reveals (PDF) that they subsidized the shipment of corporate jobs out of Canada – and didn’t deign to inform the public that the program existed until
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: UN must challenge Canada’s complicity in mining’s human rights abuses
Canada is due for review at the UN human rights council – abuses by its mining companies must not be overlooked By: Meera Karunananthan | The Guardian (UK), Published on Wed Apr 24, 2013: Canada is scheduled for its universal periodic review (UPR) at the UN human rights council on 26 April. The UPR is
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Indigenous rights are the best defence against Canada’s resource rush
First Nations people – and the decision of Canadians to stand alongside them – will determine the fate of the planet By: Martin Lukacs | The Guardian (UK), Published on Fri Apr 26, 2013: In a boardroom in a soaring high-rise on Wall Street, Indigenous activist Arthur Manuel is sitting across from one
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Patients exposed to harm on a staggering scale
This item first published here in September is worth republishing as the BC Liberal Gov’t takes more action against Therapeutics Initiative, a science based reviewer that troubles major pharmaceutical companies and their client politicians. Make sure you read RossK’s recent piece: Nevermind The Stunt-O-Meters…The Therapeutics Initiative Is An Issue That Matters.
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: The sins of the Argentinian church (article in The Guardian)
The sins of the Argentinian church (article in The Guardian): The last pope was a member of the Hitler Youth. The new one acted like a fascist collaborator in his adulthood. Fancy Francis, aka Jorge Bergoglio, was not a progressive-minded liberation theologist like Oscar Romero. Apparently the CONclave members have
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada’s Environmental Activists “Threat To National Security”: Harper Government
RCMP and CSIS treat peaceful protest actions and questioning the Harper Government as ‘forms of attack’, label activists involved “national security threats”, documents reveal. By Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb. 22, 2013: The Harper Government is intensifying its attacks on environmental and other activist movements in Canada, according to documents released under freedom
Continue readingNorthern Insight: More Bad Pharma
A few days ago, Patients exposed to harm on a staggering scale provided excerpts from Ben Goldacre’s book Bad Pharma. You can download or listen to a lengthy interview with Dr. Goldacre at The Guardian’s Science Weekly Podcast. I recommend this episode to anyone interested in knowing more about operations
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Globe and Mail joins the cabin boys – deceitful blind quotes come to Canada
Aspiring to be a cabin boy to the big shots, an unnamed Globe and Mail reporter scans the horizon for news. Actual Globe reporters may not be as snappily dressed as illustrated, or willing to climb as high for a story. Below: Bob Garfield. The Globe and Mail wants to
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Private prison companies look to Canada as industry faces lawsuits in US
US states are beginning to rely less on privately run prisons, but Canada may be a land of opportunity for the two biggest firms By: BILBO POYNTER | The Guardian US private prison firms are targeting Canada for fresh opportunities as pressure builds at home on the troubled multi-billion dollar
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Concentrated media ownership dangerous
Numerous times in past decades, politicians studied media ownership in Canada. Despite expressions of concern, concentration has increased and, with Conservatives determined to end CBC’s meaningful role, the situation will be worse. In Britain, the Leveson Inquiry began a year ago to examine the culture, practices and ethics of the
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Dirty Energy Lobby Wins In EU – Shale Gas Now Considered “Green Energy”
lobbyist-payoff1.jpg In a headline that would appear to be ripped off the pages of The Onion, The Guardian UK this week reported “Gas rebranded as green energy by EU.” After billions of dollars spent in lobbying efforts over the years, the dirty energy industry in the European Union has managed
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