Jason Kenney’s mid-September sojourn to India with a couple of his United Conservative Party sidekicks was pure political theatre, likely aimed as much at the Alberta Opposition leader’s real main enemy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as at Alberta’s NDP premier, Rachel Notley. Still, lots of Albertans were wondering last week
Continue readingTag: United States
The Maple Monarchists - Blog: Emperor Pedro II’s 1876 Visit to Canada
Emperor Pedro II Brazil was once an empire. And interms of economic, military, and socialdevelopment it ranks as a golden age ofthat country. Embodying this period ofprogress was Emperor Pedro II (who Iwill need to write a full profile of atsome point). Between suppressing theslave trade, and eventually abolishingit, he
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Ford and Trump and Moe Peas In a Rotten Pod
That movie about the incapable political leadership from the future is actually already here, it won’t take 500 more years. Ontario has their Harper-style Fake News now too https://twitter.com/OntarioNew…/status/1026965194243751936 Some of it is due to this bad man. A host of the Ford videos, Lyndsey Vanstone, presents as a news
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s the appropriate response to Riyadh’s diplomatic hysterics? How about reopening our embassy in Tehran?
Is there an appropriate response by Canada to the bizarre events of the last few hours on the diplomatic circuit? It’s not just that Canada’s ambassador has been kicked out of Saudi Arabia for Tweets by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and an official in her department that by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic tantrum provoke a moment of cognitive dissonance for Canada’s ‘ethical oil’ crowd?
Saudi Arabia has given the Canadian ambassador 24 hours to pack his bags and go home because, the Saudi Foreign Ministry complains, Canada is meddling in the internal affairs of the oil-soaked feudal theocracy by expressing concern in Tweets about its arrests of human rights activists, clerics and journalists. Last
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Very Model Of A Very Stable Genius
Randy Rainbow updated this song, and it’s genius. Really.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Stephen Harper’s Paris speech to Mojahedin-e Khalq: No laws were broken; appropriate interests were served; get over it!
Many readers would be offended if someone were to suggest the Roman Catholic Church was a former terrorist organization with cult-like attributes. Still, wouldn’t terrorism be a fair description of the Inquisition, the brutal effort to root out heresy carried out from the 12th to the early 19th centuries by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Independence Day: An excellent moment for Canadians to recommit ourselves to being different from the United States
Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day in the Great Republic immediately to our south. Normally, as befits our national character, we Canadians celebrate this occasion with restrained fondness for our American cousins, coming as it does just three days after la fête du Canada. On the 242nd observance
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Do we need a Canadian version of the Logan Act to put a stop to dangerous freelance diplomacy?
Most observers of Canada-U.S. politics and the two countries’ unexpectedly fraught trade relationship would agree former prime minister Stephen Harper’s no-longer-secret visit to the White House on Tuesday is unlikely to do much good and has the potential to do harm. What Mr. Harper, now just another private citizen in
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Warning, Don’t Read This About the USA
It’s a crime against humanity that #BabyJails are not shut down in the USA. The extreme human rights abuses taking place each day are horrifying. Many medical staff are going to need to lose their license and go to jail to come close to delivering justice to the victims. 7/
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Worst President Possible
Who puts children in cages?Not men assured living wages.A #FightforFifteen?A quaint little dream,While American Dreams shrink in stages.#WhereAreTheChildren?#ChildrenConcentrationCamps.This started when?President Orange Gramps.* *Obama and Bush share some blame. — John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) June 18, 2018
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: So, Let’s Get this Straight.
Trump, despite the advice and warnings of America’s security/intelligence agencies and his country’s major allies, gives in to Netanyahu’s propaganda campaign against Iran, and walks away from the Iran nuclear weapons deal. Iran, therefore, in an act of crushing military stupidity, fires a missile barrage at Israeli targets in the
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: A Little Humour Too Much For The White House Press
The WHCD has always included a roast, so long as I can remember back to the W Bush years. Colbert’s roast of Bush is among my most favourite moments in history. Why are you guys making this about Sarah’s looks? I said she burns facts and uses the ash to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Geopolitical Sunday: Don’t hold your breath waiting for the state of war to officially end on the Korean Peninsula
If the Korean War formally ends any time soon, North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Why not? Just because he presides over a very large military and leads a country that’s not very nice to it’s own citizens when they step a centimetre
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Mission accomplished in Syria? Don’t bet more than you can afford to lose on that claim!
Mission Accomplished? Donald Trump’s crowing Tweets prove the wisdom of Karl Marx’s dictum: History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. This fact is a significant blessing, nonetheless, at least insofar as Friday night’s tactically and legally dubious missile raid by U.S. military forces on Syria is concerned. How
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Well, With the Week He’s Had Who Wouldn’t Want to Let Off a Little Steam?
The United States has launched missile strikes against government targets in Syria. This time Britain and France tossed in a few missiles of their own, brothers in arms sort of thing, I suppose. Trump announced the strikes in an address to the nation Friday evening. “The purpose of our action
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trudeau in India, Part II: Canadian governments, and not just Liberals, have a history of playing footsie with bad actors
PHOTOS: A screenshot of what looks like a video of the controversial snapshot of Jaspal Atwal and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, grabbed from Twitter. The ownership of the photo is attributed variously, usually to the last place someone saw it. What does seem clear is that Mr. Atwal was almost as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Whose side should Canada take if two NATO states start shooting at each other? Don’t laugh … it could happen
PHOTOS: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. If he looks ticked off, it’s probably because he is. (Photo: Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons.) Hey! Don’t blame me if the only good royalty-free pictures of President Erdoğan come from Russia! Below: U.S. President and Commander in Chief Donald J. Trump (Photo: Gage Skidmore,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thanks to Donald Trump, the post-war American imperium that’s run like a Swiss watch is coming unsprung!
PHOTOS: U.S. President Donald Trump’s inaugural parade makes its way through Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2017, just before the stuff hit the fan and everything went to hell in a handbasket. (Photo: United States Navy.) Below: President Trump, former president Barack Obama, the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Impact of growing opioid crisis on life expectancy in the United States is more evidence that neoliberal austerity kills
PHOTOS: This scene is in Paris. It could be anywhere in our “globalized,” that is, neoliberalized world. (Photo: Eric Poulhier, Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Rundown but dignified Havana, high-profile U.S. economist Paul Krugman (Photo: Flickr, Commonwealth Club) and political economist Alan Nasser (Photo: Evergreen State College). Will Mexico eventually decide it
Continue reading