American public intellectual, Henry Giroux, sees his homeland about to embark on America’s “Second Gilded Age” dominated by “The Rule of Billionaires and Militarists.” During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump made it clear that he liked the uneducated and that once he assumed the presidency, he would appoint a range
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The Disaffected Lib: So Much for Democracy
We now know that Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by well more than 2.5-million ballots. Perhaps as many ballots again were not counted due to Republican efforts to disqualify eligible voters. – Strike One. We now know that investigations by the Central Intelligence Agency determined that Russia
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Cap’n "Tip Jar Subsistence" for Trump’s Labour Secretary
Who better to serve as labour secretary than someone steeped in the idea of minimum wage politics? Now please give a big, Donald Trump welcome to Andrew Puzder, fast food empresario and CEO of the company that owns the Hardee’s and Carl Jr.’s burger chains. Puzder, who served as an
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Relax. We’re a "Post-National State" Now. We Have No Core Values.
Sheesh, didn’t this guy get the memo from our first post-national prime minister, Justin the Liberated? I refer to Michael Doucet, executive director of Canada’s Security Intelligence Review Committee, the outfit that oversees our country’s spy apparatus and operations. Doucet questions whether Donald Trump’s espoused support for torture means Canada
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: He’s Wrong. He Has to Be Wrong. Tell Me He’s Got It Wrong.
The interval since the US election on November 8th has brought us multiple examples of the buffoonery of America’s president-elect. From the angry tweets about SNL to how he may or may not structure his business affairs to his phone call to the Taiwanese president that has China in an
Continue readingAnti-Racist Canada: The ARC Collective: Kevin Goudreau Arrested for Assault
You know who we haven't talked about for a while? Not Paulie. We talk about him a lot. No, we're referring to Kevin Goudreau this time or, as we've taken to calling him, the Goudreau. We've profiled the Goudreau and his misadventures for years on the blog. Mostly because he
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Trump Has Germans Thinking a Lot About Democracy
The German people have not forgotten their past and president-elect Donald J. Trump has them revisiting those painful memories of a darker time. An article in Der Spiegel asks “How Much Mussolini Is There in Donald Trump?” The writer reviews a number of fascism checklists and the results aren’t promising for
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Monbiot Tackles Neoliberalism’s Death Grip on the West
Neoliberalism has been the default operating system of western governments, Canada included, since it was ushered in during the Thatcher/Reagan/Mulroney era. Justin Trudeau is a neoliberal as were his predecessors over the last three decades. Canada remains in the clutches of neoliberalism and no one, no leader, no party is
Continue readingAgainst the Grain: The Vultures of False Equivalency Descend
I really shouldn’t be surprised that even the much beloved Humans of New York decided it was Trump supporters who needed to be humanized in the wake of at least ~700 hate crimes committed in the past 3 days targeting almost entirely minorities. Okay, so, I have some thoughts.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Birds of a Feather
Donald Trump and Viktor Orban – could this be America’s next presidential bromance? Hungary’s prime minister said he’ll no longer be considered a “black sheep” in the eyes of the US after speaking with Donald Trump, who has invited him to visit Washington. In a phone conversation, the president-elect “made
Continue readingPop The Stack: Don’t Throw Away Our Shot
For the first time, we find ourselves not as a reflection of another power. Our politics is not a derivation of Westminster or Washington anymore. Our politics is specific to us, not a derivation from a distant metropolis. — “Canada in the Age of Donald Trump” — Stephen Marche, The
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When the President Does It, That Means It Is Not Illegal.
Takes you back, doesn’t it? Back to the days of Richard Milhous “Tricky Dicky” Nixon. It came up in the Frost-Nixon interviews. Flash forward to 2016. Now we have the Giant Orange Turd channeling the worst of Nixon. At a Tuesday lunch with the New York Times, President-elect Donald Trump
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The A, B, C’s of Dictatorship
Harvard prof and Foreign Policy columnist, Steven Walt, has a thoughtful essay, “10 Ways to Tell if Your President is a Dictator.“ My fears about Trump’s foreign policy have always been two-fold: that he might pursue a more sensible grand strategy but do it incompetently, thereby weakening America’s international position, or
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When the "Indispensible Nation" Becomes Expendable.
Writing in Foreign Policy, Max Boot argues that “Trump’s ‘America First’ Is the Twilight of American Exceptionalism.” Boot’s essay begins with an extensive catalogue of the similarities between Obama’s policies and what Trump will likely deliver. He finds Obama a latter day Jefferson and sees in Trump a 21st century
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Question of Time We Don’t Have
The last line came with a jolt unexpected from a Guardian article: At the risk of losing objectiveness but keeping candor, we are fucked. That from John Abraham, a professor of thermal sciences and a very busy climate monitor. I admit that after Trump’s election victory, I secretly hoped and
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: responding to those who voted for Trump
I’ve been thinking a lot about the questions of what it means to vote for Trump and who the Trump supporters are. I’ve seen lots of posts about how Trump won because he spoke to the working class, and the working class wants change and human dignity. There are some
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How the Leader of the Free World Became the Leader of the Global Right Wing.
AmeriKa’s president, Donald Trump, will not be the leader of the free world. He will, however, be the leader of the global right wing. Across Europe, the radical right is embracing the next US leader as one of their own. Donald Trump validates their ugly bigotry, racism and xenophobia. He
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Steve Bannon – Every Demagogue Has One
Think of him as the guy who will toss the red meat to the Gullibillies. Steve Bannon, Trump’s lead strategist designate and former Breitbart chief, has a lot of people very, very nervous. Vice News calls Bannon a right-wing Rottweiler. The Bannon/Breitbart juggernaut has inroads to the radical right across Europe
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: That Didn’t Take Long. Is This Assange’s Reward?
Is Julian Assange getting an early Christmas present? A week after Donald Trump’s election victory and six years after Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, a Swedish prosecutor went to the British capital to visit Assange in the embassy. Assange’s team said he agreed to the interview
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Will Trump Embolden Bigots in Canada?
Yesterday we read Kinsella’s post about a white power, Alt.Right handbill posted in his neighbourhood. Today we have an account from CBC Ottawa of a woman, Anna Maranta, a rabbi no less, who awakened in the early hours of Tuesday morning to find a swastika and the word “kike” spray
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