Donald Trump’s main export to Canada has been a sense of national smugness, that his outrages and absurdities could never find purchase here. But it would be an act of monumental self-deception for Canadians to believe that we are an island set above the rage bubbling across the world.
Continue readingTag: United States
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Evil Men Destroying Our World Have Names
“What is happening here is a crime” – Brazillian fascist President accusing environmentalists of what he’s done. “I am not looking for who is responsible.” https://t.co/SoBmT90cDf — John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) August 23, 2019 Remember to think well of the dead, even if they wished you and yours death with every
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: Toronto Star: Build a Wall? Canada’s Response to Trump
It would be an act of monumental self-deception for Canadians to believe that our country is an island set above the rage bubbling across the world.
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Waeza Shamsia Afzal, U.S. Evangelicals, and the corruption of dogma
Reading about the courageous young Canadian woman Waeza Shamsia Afzal carried my thoughts to American evangelical Christians and their worship of Donald Trump. The connection is religion. Ms. Afzal is an observant Muslim who has decided to boycott the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Her reason: “The hajj is governed by
Continue readingTrump is no Substitute for Unions
The major reason Donald Trump was elected to the job he is manifestly unfit for was his appeal to electors in the Rust Belt states. These states had seen a collapse of manufacturing jobs, i.e. union jobs, and millions of people were thrown from the middle class into the precariat.
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Britain has bullied Iran for centuries
Britain’s imperial designs on Iran go back at least to the Great Game with Russia over control of trade routes through central Asia in the 19th century. Indeed, Iran’s southern and eastern boundaries were set by the British during the Anglo-Persian War (1856-7). By the end of the century, Britain
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Metric for Americans
American exceptionalism often means things like calling football soccer while the rest of the world calls it football . Yes, us northern neighbours do the same thing but it’s still wrong. My biggest peeve about American exceptionalism is the fact they cannot get their political colours correct. Every American election
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: How much crap should Iran be expected to take from the U.S.?
Iran under the Ayatollahs is hardly a model nation. Domestically, it is repressive and, due largely to sanctions imposed by the United States, impoverished. Its foreign policy is aggressive. It supports groups that Canada has labelled terrorist, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, aids President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war,
Continue readingThe Democrats Reinvigorate Their Party and American Democracy
While there is much to despair about American democracy these days, there are also rays of hope, at least in the Democratic Party. If I had been an American during the 2016 election, I would have been an unhappy voter. Obviously, I couldn’t vote for the buffoon, but Hillary Clinton
Continue readingPutin Fails Liberal Democracy 101
Vladimir Putin is perhaps first among the anti-democratic strongmen that have emerged to soil the world. At the recent G20 summit he couldn’t resist taking a shot at liberal democracy, suggesting that it is becoming obsolete. The fact is that while the system he so loved, and faithfully served—Soviet Communism—lies
Continue readingIs Anglosphere Democracy Becoming an International Joke?
Not long ago, if one were asked to name the world’s two leading democracies, the answer would probably have been the United States and the United Kingdom—the United States largely due to its power and the UK because of its long democratic traditions. Today, both of those countries are becoming
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Did the Chinese learn their trade antics from the U.S.?
The China/U.S. trade war heats up. The rest of us get dragged along willy-nilly. Nonetheless, there is a lot of sympathy for the American case. The Chinese have hardly walked their talk about being free traders. Ont the contrary, they have engaged in a number of nefarious trade practices. They
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Speaking The Truth
CBC and other media need to recognize the following as true if we’re going to advance as a society. It’s likely to make them, and you, uncomfortable. Growth isn’t automatic and easy. – Canada has committed genocide against First Nations people. I wrote for @washingtonpost about the failure of the
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: $33USD/Hour To Match Wall St
If you’re working in a more just world, or if CEOs were less greedy, the minimum wage in the USA would be very different. People would be insulted by the $15 for Fairness push underway today, that would be about a 50% pay-cut.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: WikiLeaks: US Shows Hand
As many journalists and others have been saying for a decade, the US was seeking Assange to charge him with an anti-Constitutional law that threatens investigative journalists around the world. The Daily Beast has been tough on Wikileaks. Very tough. But charging someone under the espionage act for publishing classified
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Court Of Public Opinion
Was there ever a question that Chicago PD was not good? Smollett, the actor, has had charges dropped. This is following when he was attacked by 2 men. Later the Twitterverse claimed that he’d paid the men to attack him for being gay, to raise his profile as an actor.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Has anyone thought about the impact regime change in Venezuela will have on Alberta’s oilpatch? It won’t be pretty!
In the stampede by Canadian politicians of all ideological stripes to support Venezuela’s self-declared “interim president,” has anyone given even a nanosecond’s thought to the impact the handover of the troubled South American petrostate’s government to Juan Guaido would have on Alberta’s oilpatch? It won’t be pretty. The federal government’s
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Is American Democracy Fucked ?
So is the American political system completely dysfunctional. I suppose the easy answer is to say they elected Trump so case closed, but of course it is much more complicated than that. What advanced developed democracy cannot manage to keep it’s government functioning. The obvious answer should be “none” but
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: The Declaration of Dependence
Photo Credit: Journal of the American Revolution Faded cursive writing on a wrinkled, water-damaged sheet ofpaper is all that remains of an important counter-point to theDeclaration of Independence. The document is known as theLoyalist Declaration of Dependence and it was pennedin 1776 in New York. A transcript of the text is as
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: Meme Monday #2
Two memes I found that put anew twist on the legend of KingArthur. There is a high level ofdiscontent with American-styledemocracy and the number ofmonarchists in the USA issurprisingly high (given theirfounding mythology). Loyally Yours,A Kisaragi Colour
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