With an electorate as deeply divided as America’s, it’s not unusual for elections to be decided by a point or two. So what happens if one side disenfranchises nine or ten percent of the electorate, people who just happen to vote overwhelmingly for the other side? Is that country still
Continue readingTag: USA
Things Are Good: Great Lakes get More Protection
In a demonstration of the usefulness of having an embassy in another country, Canada and the USA have renewed a pact to protect the Great Lakes. This is a good thing as the Great Lakes need more protection and better environmental care from both sides of the border. The pact
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Essential Mitt Romney
David Brook’s view of The Mitt’s turbulent and troubled youth: He had a pet rock, which ran away from home because it was starved of affection. He bought a mood ring, but it remained permanently transparent. His ability to turn wine into water detracted from his popularity at parties. If
Continue readingTrashy's World: If the GOP and The Chair…
… do the next to impossible and beat President Obama, I will be curious to see the US to Canada emigration data about 12 months later. I wonder if the Harperites have thought of this? Millions of Democrats and other progressives trying to escape an emerging theocracy… should they be
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The War on Women in the United States
If it happens down south, you know who is next in line. Support this video, reblog it, post it everywhere. The rights of women are threatened, take action and don’t let the bad guys (aka republicans) win. Filed under: Education, Feminism, Medicine, Politics Tagged: Abortion, Feminism, Planned Parenthood, Reproductive Freedom,
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: 192 billion reasons to fear privatization
Below is a list of the 11 US health corporations on the Fortune 500 list. They had a combined revenue of approximately $192 billion in 2010. They make billions of dollars in profits. Trying to reform America’s largely for-profit health care system is bound to come up against these
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Media Fails Again On Climate Change Coverage During Massive Heat Waves
corporate media ball chain.jpg North America just witnessed the hottest month in the history of record keeping (about 117 years). The month of July shattered every previous record, but was certainly not a freak occurrence. So far, the first 7 months of this year have been the warmest on average
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Chomsky on One Minute with George Bush
Essentially, it would be for the laughs because as Chomsky explains, the Office of President is largely a ceremonial role. Filed under: Politics Tagged: American Presidents, Education, Noam Chomsky, USA
Continue readingTrashy's World: FIFA sucks… and so does the IOC…
This is such utter bullshit. Either the fix was in or that ref was just so completely incompetent that it defies imagination. And I know more than a little bit about the game. Tell ya what. If the players or the coach are fined for those justified remarks, I –
Continue readingNorthern Insight: One reason why the rich stay that way
Harry Reid: Bain Investor Told Me That Mitt Romney ‘Didn’t Pay Any Taxes For 10 Years’, Huffington Post, July 31, 2012 WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has what he says is an informed explanation for why Mitt Romney refuses to release additional tax returns. According a Bain
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: London Olympics: 12 Athletes With Very Interesting Names
Names have always facinated me. What do they really mean? Or subtly suggest? If anything. Consider these 12 names carrying the hopes of hundreds of thousands of people around the world at the 2012 London Olympics: Kelsey Titmarsh, Canada, Gymnastics Karen Cockburn, Canada, Trampoline Hope Solo, USA, Soccer Sarah Hammer,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: If America is Israel’s Best Friend, Why Does Israel Respond with Treachery?
The CIA deems Israel America’s greatest counterintelligence threat in the Middle East. This is America as in Israel’s hands down greatest benefactor and defender. The CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Impoverished States of America
Poverty in the United States is set to reach levels not seen since the 1960s. Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor. More discouraged workers are giving up on the job market, leaving them vulnerable as unemployment aid
Continue readingArt Threat: Representing Eisenhower – The ongoing dialogue around the design of the Eisenhower Memorial
I caught wind of a different kind of political art and politics of art this past weekend while reading the latest issue of Vanity Fair. As anyone who’s done any kind of planning in teams can imagine, building a monument can be a mighty task. As it turns out, the
Continue readingNorthern Insight: It is an old and cruel tactic
The Battle of Blair Mountain, Chris Hedges, Truthdig “…Reduce wages and benefits to subsistence level. Break unions. Gut social assistance programs. Buy and sell elected officials and judges. Fill the airwaves with mindless diversion and corporate propaganda. Pay off the press. Poison the soil, the air and the water to
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Hero – redefined
Bravery and drone pilots, Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, July 10, 2012 “The Pentagon is considering awarding a Distinguished Warfare Medal to drone pilots who work on military bases often far removed from the battlefield… “So medals would be awarded for sitting safely ensconced in a bunker on U.S. soil and launching
Continue readingThings Are Good: Declaration of Internet Freedom
Around the world governments are trying to restrain the ability of people to freely share information across the internet. Bills like SOPA in the USA and Bill C-30 in Canada to the more recent TPP all focus on propping up old media monopolies and curtailing people’s privacy and communication rights.
Continue readingThings Are Good: USA Urban Population Growth Outpaces the Suburbs
Regular readers know that in the modern world an urban lifestyle is more sustainable than a suburban lifestyle so it’s pretty good news to see that more people in the USA are moving into urban centres. America is where the suburbs started and have had the largest cultural impact and
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: We Need To Resist the Lure of American Exceptionalism
American exceptionalism is an intriguing, occasionally lethal, notion. Americans, it seems, are brought up to believe the United States is exceptional, the best, “number one.” From Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue there’s this rich messianic broth that sets Americans apart, above all others. But what is American exceptionalism absent a
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Syria Isn’t About Syria
Bahrain and Syria both have repressive governments and both had uprisings in 2011, the United States and Saudi Arabia stopped one but are continuing the other, showing democracy and humanitarian concerns don’t shape foreign policy, national self-interest does. In February 2011 protesters took to the streets in Bahrain calling for
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