I’ll defer to others much better versed than I am in the vagaries of international politics to offer a more informed analysis, but the recent deference of the U.S. toward Saudi Arabia warrants a closer look. Despite, or perhaps because of, an unfortuna…
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In This Corner: Stuff Still Happens, week 12: Bombings, and bodies, keep piling up
Another week, another atrocity. This time, it’s Brussels, Belgium (a city described in January by Donald Trump as a “hellhole”) that came under sophisticated and yet cowardly attack by ISIS on Tuesday. Bombs went off in three locations leaving at least 30 people dead. That an attack would happen in Brussels is hardly surprising. The […]
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Still Happens, week 11: The Trump express rolls on; the Canadian ketchup controversy
It started as a joke. It’s still a joke, but nobody’s laughing anymore. Donald J. Trump famously entered the U.S. Republican race back in June by riding a down escalator. C’mon, a down escalator? What better symbol of failure than a down escalator? Everybody had a good laugh, and went about seriously dissecting the ‘real’ […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Carol Goar writes about the need for Canada’s federal government to rethink how we view taxes. And Simon Wren-Lewis tries to explain the resilience of austerian ideology even as it fails every test in the real world….
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: UPDATED: Donald Trump – Equivocator-In-Chief?
Synonym Discussion of equivocatelie, prevaricate, equivocate, palter, fib mean to tell an untruth. lie is the blunt term, imputing dishonesty . prevaricate softens the bluntness of lie by implying quibbling or confusing the issue . equivocate implies u…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: UPDATED: The Political Whoredom Of Mr. Christie
Not that he had any semblance of previous virtue, but yesterday former Republican presidential nomination contender Chris Christie confirmed his capacious political whoredom by endorsing Donald Trump, a man he had previously ridiculed:“We are not ele…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Sean McElwee examines how the wealthy control the U.S.’ political system, while public opinion plays far too little role in policy choices:A comprehensive study by Grossmann finds that public opinion was a significan…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What’s Their Excuse This Time?
Some years ago, Rick Mercer had a special called Talking To Americans, its purpose being to satirize the profound ignorance many of our U.S. cousins have regarding Canada. Here is a brief clip:Given their chronic conviction that the United States is th…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Ian Welsh discusses the attitude of meanness underlying so much of the U.S.’ political and cultural scene. – Ryan Meili and Adrienne Silnicki write about the dangers of relying on paid plasma donations…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Ignorance Is Not Bliss
As a retired person with no financial pressures, I realize that I am probably part of a comfortable minority. Many across a wide demographic range struggle with daily life, leaving little time for what some might call the luxury of reflection and criti…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Thomas Piketty writes that regardless of the end result, Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign may mark the start of a fundamental change in U.S. politics: Sanders’ success today shows that much of A…
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Still Happens, week 6: Trudeau keeps promise, gets roasted
The Trudeau government made good on one of its election promises this week. Whether it was a good decision remains to be seen. As promised, Trudeau is pulling our fighter jets out of the international bombing mission that is kicking the crap out of ISIS. Trudeau has never fully explained why we would pull out, […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- David Dayen examines the different treatment granted by businesses to well-connected elites compared to everybody else, and says it’s understandable that voters are looking for leaders who understand t…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Will Any Woman Do?
There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.So said the first woman to become the United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, at a rally for Hillary Clinton. Surely I am not the only one disgusted by the implication of…
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Still Happens, week 5: The trial of Jian Who, and Trump is trumped
The Iowa caucuses were held on Monday, and the picture for both parties is now crystal clear — I can say without fear of contradiction that Martin O’Malley will NOT win the Democratic nomination. O’Malley was running for the Democratic nomination, apparently. When the votes were tallied, the former governor of some state — no […]
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: She’s Back
And it sounds like Stephen Colbert has missed her. I haven’t.Recommend this Post
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Still Happens, week 1: Happy new year … sort of
Welcome to 2016! Let’s start the year by forgetting old animosities, starting fresh and looking forward to an era of peace and goodwill between all religions and peoples. In that spirit, Iran and Saudi Arabia are engaged in a violent spat over, basically, something that happened in 632. This week, Saudi Arabia (which is Muslim, […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On countermovements
Alison is right to highlight the latest right-wing astroturf group in Canada. But we shouldn’t assume that mere exposure will meaningfully affect the growth of corporate-owned politics alone.As is typically the case, Canadian politics tend to be influe…
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 51: It was a very bad year
Well, I did it. And I’m sure you’re thrilled. When I started writing this blog, I vowed to write a weekly review of events as I saw them. I did it mostly as a personal challenge, a way to instil a little discipline in my undisciplined life, and to boost my memory of the events […]
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Year in review: from plunging oil to rising hope, the Top Ten news stories of 2015
PHOTOS: Cameras try to follow a nearly invisible Rachel Notley through the crowd at an Edmonton hotel on May 5, 2015, moments after she had been declared the winner of the Alberta election. No one could quite believe that the NDP had just won a majorit…
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