The Toronto Star: a thread
This is a thread about newspapers being unfair. Not partisan. @TheTorontoSun is partisan, for example – it is openly and unapologetically conservative. But the @TorontoStar likes to style itself as…
July 2020
Right In Front Of Our Noses
All of us, Andrew Nikiforuk writes, should be wearing masks. That’s what Nassim Taleb, a Lebanese born mathematician, told us back in January: Taleb warned in late January that this…
Liberal MPs not doing their job.
When the mail box notification dinged the other morning with another e-mail from the liberal party, I thought it might be news of finance minister Bill Morneau’s resignation. No such…
The Cancer Diaries, Part 4
A home is not a sterile environment. Not mine, anyway. With two cats, a dog, numerous houseplants, rooms full of books, and my sometimes lackadaisical attitude toward cleaning, our home…
The Vanishing Half by American author Brit Bennett tops Alberta independent bookstores’ fiction bestsellers
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, July 19, 2020. The lists are compiled…
Musical interlude
CHVRCHES – Dead Air
Where will everyone go?
ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, with support from the Pulitzer Center, have for the first time modeled how climate refugees might move across international borders. This is what…
Andrew Scheer And My Wonderful Humiliation Party
In my last post I looked at how Andrew Scheer is cracking up with less than a month to go before he is given the bum's rush as Con leader.And…
BREATHING WHILE BROWN IN THE USA, Racism alive and well in USA and Canada
This is a must read. You can’t make this shit up. My take follows. RH Felipe Nystrom is feeling broken. Originally published on Facebook I had to sit on…
A Cascade of Wildly Implausible Coincidences
Attorney General Bill Barr. Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Barr’s dad, Donald. Donald Barr’s novel about 40 year old men having forcing underage girls to have sex with them. Gee, doesn’t that…
Brett Kavanaugh’s 30 Million Dollar Journey to the US Supreme Court
Thirty million dollars buys a lot of very reliable Conservative voting on the US Supreme Court. Jacobin magazine reports that Brett Kavanaugh was funded to the tune of $30 million…
Absolute disregard for transparency and accountability.
Had BC Hydro executives chosen to, the annual report and financials could have been released one to two months ago. Much of the report is boiler plate that is substantially…
The Fiscal Deficit, Modern Monetary Theory and Progressive Economic Policy
Image from Wikimedia Commons Modern Monetary Theory or MMT has crept in from the academic margins to become an influential doctrine in progressive policy circles in the United States. Both…
Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Amanda Follett Hosgood reports on the environmental damage being done to Wet’suwet’en territory as (pointless) pipeline construction is again being given precedence over…
Thoughts about justice inspired by a town council meeting
I’m going over a town council meeting video to write a news story about it as a favor to my dad, the editor of a weekly newspaper. Every time I…
Covid Journal, July 24, 2020
With just a few weeks to go before kids are supposed to go back to school, it’s great to see that our government’s priority is gambling, booze and drugs.
Where Are They Now? Who’s Next?
The Guardian has published a rogues gallery of Trump administration alumni, some familiar, others not; most who were shown the door, some who just up and quit, during the turbulent…
The Next Wave – After Covid-19 is Gone
We’ve heard plenty about a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, perhaps even a third wave. Some suggest that the nature of how the virus spread globally and how easily…
Has Trump’s "Gestapo" Schtick Been a Desperate Attempt to Shore Up His Donor Base?
If so, it doesn’t seem to be working. The Godfathers of big political money seem to be taking a pass on Donald Trump’s campaign this year. Finally, after months of…
The Gods Got Even
Yesterday, Donald Trump sent out a tweet that showed the world in which he lives. Accompanied by a picture of a rambling suburban house, the tweet read, “The Suburban Housewives…