Maryanne’s Tale
CNN and The Washington Post have obtained copies of conversations Mary Trump had with her aunt, retired judge Maryanne Trump Barry. The judge appears to know her brother well: Maryanne…
2020
Whoops! We overshot … again
According to the Global Footprint Network, August 22nd was Earth Overshoot Day. The day “marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds…
August 22: We are approaching the enemy. And he is us.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/20/greenland-ice-sheet-lost-a-record-1m-tonnes-of-ice-per-minute-in-2019 Relax. Real smart premiers like Ford of Ontario and Cheney of Alberta tell us it ain’t happening. And, you know, those oil executives, they know things too. So why…
Healing the world through gardening
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.” – Bill Mollison, permaculture co-originator Many things are required to heal our world. Removing the corporate…
The United States has been collapsing for years. We just weren’t paying attention
Originally published by the Toronto Star By Heather Mallick-Columnist How did the U.S. collapse so quickly? It was eaten away from the inside, going from a democratic world power of…
New Normal Is A Continuation Of The Old War Machine – For The Common Good, Of Course
The Democrats face the same problem as the Republicans – they are corrupt, and owned by Wall St. That includes, of course, the big banks, Big Oil, Big Tech, the…
IDEAS THAT MATTER: The COVID Crisis–Are The Youths Trying to Kill Us?
I have often felt sad over the state of The Youths. What with robots coming for their jobs and Climate Change, their future seems lacking. But by the time its…
IDEAS THAT MATTER: The COVID Crisis–Are The Youths Trying to Kill Us?
I have often felt sad over the state of The Youths. What with robots coming for their jobs and Climate Change, their future seems lacking. But by the time its…
The Penguin Classics Book
Did you know there is a card game played in Japan at the New Year, called uta-garuta, where 100 cards have a full poem on each — traditionally taken from…
The Hermeneutics of Suspicion
The title is a phrase I encountered while reading Mark Thompson’s excellent book on political rhetoric, Enough Said: What’s Wrong With the Language of Politics? Thompson’s book is both about…
Absent watchdogs
Most journalists, particularly ones occupying the BC Press Gallery, have spent little or no time examining Site C, the costliest public project in BC history. In contrast, I remember daily…
We’ve got a goddamn plan!
Chrystia Freeland is going to be a great Finance minister. The first thing she will have to do it get a grip on the pro-Morneau leaks from her department. Like…
For Your Saturday Consideration
With apologies to anyone (well, almost anyone) who suffers from a reading disability, I enjoyed this, and hope you do too: Fox News is right: Any idiot can read off…
Sturgis, the Results Start Coming In
It’s only been a week since the 80th annual Sturgis motorcycle rally wrapped up and, as expected, the Covid-19 pandemic results are beginning to flow in. So far Minnesota, Nebraska…
The Latest in Mod-Cons, a Wildfire Smoke Tracker
California Redwood burning What will they think of next? Canadians now have a website devoted to wildfire smoke. A quick click shows you where the smoke is coming from and…
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Sheila Block writes that Chrystia Freeland and the Libs have a golden opportunity to build a more equitable society in the wake of…
missing nyc: spontaneous political street art in bloom
This story in The New York Times made me miss New York City more than anything has in a very long time. All over the city, artists have created murals…
Covid Journal, August 22, 2020
Nature, food and cures.
Saturday Photo: Goldenrod and Badminton, the Resilience of the Former, the Lure of the Latter
Here you have the remains of a badminton court on which a generation or two of nuns played on summer afternoons. Part of the convent’s grounds was sold to a…
Can We Tough It Out Until 2022? And, If We Do, What’s Next?
It could be two more years before the Covid-19 pandemic is reined in. That’s the latest from the World Health Organization. It probably comes down to the fact that, while…