My latest: character matters
When does a politician’s character get revealed? Because, as Ken Dryden once memorably said about hockey, character doesn’t get built by the political life. It gets revealed. Our history is…
2022
Plague Update: Omicron Isn’t One-And-Done
Why is it important to avoid infection? Infection offers less protection from future infections than the average person supposes in their minds. Multiple people are dying daily in Saskatchewan from…
The ‘terrorist’ smear: a settler-colonial ploy
Palestinian youth advance towards Israeli soldiers during clashes outside Ofer Military Prison, West Bank, 2012. Photo courtesy ActiveStills Collective/LensCulture. The Israel-Palestine conflict is one of the longest lasting disputes in…
Me, Me, And Me
Here in Ontario, the 2022 June election will likely see another Doug Ford majority, in part achieved by cynically buying the electorate with cash gifts that I have written about…
Bigger Egos Than Brains
America’s technocrats are in in a snit. Paul Krugman writes: The sultans of Silicon Valley are in a political snit, with some billionaires suddenly turning against Democrats. It’s not just…
Greenhouse Gas Emissions of American Diet Almost Halved
A simple diet change reduced diet-related greenhouse gas emissions of American adults between 2003 and 2018. The carobon footprint of their diets fell from 4 kilograms of CO2 equivalent to…
Bhutila Karpoche: To truly fix what’s broken, Ontario needs an NDP government
Bhutila Karpoche, New Democrat MPP for Parkdale-High Park, marches in a minimum wage demonstration, October 2018. Photo by Bhutila Karpoche/Facebook. The following article was submitted by Bhutila Karpoche, who has…
Be Careful What You Wish For.
We are often berated by people who favour proportional representation as opposed to the first-past-the-post voting we use today. They think proportional representation would be better. Well, they are wrong.…
Today’s News: Hard to believe, isn’t it, but Doug Ford seems to be winning
I still find it hard to believe that a lot of people in Ontario are still intending to vote for Ford and the Conservative party, in spite of his awful…
British elites made a killing off Afghanistan’s destruction
As Afghanistan’s proud people now struggle to emerge from the crater that NATO allies bombed them into, glazed and jaded eyes in Britain gaze past them. The invasion and occupation…
Understanding the crypto crash
When it peaked in November, the cryptocurrency, or crypto, market was valued at approximately $3.1 trillion USD. As of this week the valuation of the crypto market has more than…
How Marxists View the Middle Ages
Class societies didn’t begin with capitalism: the ancient and medieval worlds had their own systems of exploitation. Marxist historians have set out to explain how those systems worked — and…
Guest Post by Brad Lafortune: Edmonton’s proposed encampment strategy violates human rights
The reality about human rights is that while they may be enshrined in international and federal laws, they are negotiated and often ignored every day in our streets and communities,…
PEF AT THE CEA 2022
Once again , PEF will be at the Canadian Economics Association (CEA) annual conference! We now have the official schedule for the 2022 CEA meetings to be held at Carleton…
Monday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to start your week. – The Associated Press reports on Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s warning that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. Mary Papenfuss discusses how people living…
Plague Update: BoJo Caught Lying To Parliament, Again
https://t.co/s05SEJNIvH — Saskboy from Saskatchewan (@saskboy) May 23, 2022 This is not Boris Johnson’s first rodeo. His party excused him before, will they again protect him and MET police too?…
On Optional Grade 13 – aka Breaking the 34-Credit Threshold
When Conservatives Mike Harris and Ernie Eves decided to get rid of grade 13 and the OAC year – Ontario Academic Credit – in 2003, I was opposed to the…
The Lighter Side Of Dementia?
In which Rudy Giuliani amply illustrates the old adage that it takes one to know one. May the farce be with him. Marching behind Mayor Adams is @RudyGiuliani who gets…
rtod: nope, i ain’t gonna kill nobody
Revolutionary thought of the day: I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and…
Something Wicked
Trumpism is destroying democracy in the United States. Michael Harris writes: Who could have imagined a traditional political party like the GOP standing for the Big Lie that Joe Biden…