Biden-led U.S. to power global economy
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Covid shrunk the global economy by 3.3 percent in 2020, the worst downturn since 1980. Almost 100 million people slipped into severe poverty.…
Bill Longstaff
Billionaires 1, Unions 0
The richest man in the world wins again. Earlier this week, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, voted overwhelmingly against joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.…
Alberta government fails school curriculum
To comment on the new school curriculum proposed by Alberta’s Department of Education, I’ll do something it apparently didn’t. I’ll rely on experts. Specifically, four professors who teach in the…
Biden admin getting it right on taxes
For some time, corporations have had things their way. With globalization, which was largely designed by and for them, they were able to slip the leashes that nation states had…
Kim struts his stuff
Nuclear technology does more than make powerful weapons. It also makes for powerful politics. It allows Kim Jong-un, ruler of a sordid little dictatorship, possibly the most backward nation on…
Alberta—big winner of Covid relief
The Covid pandemic has, among other things, reminded us that we are indeed “all in it together,” requiring government leadership and assistance unprecedented in recent history. According to a report…
Mr. Kenney, take back control of the damn tax!
It’s encouraging to hear someone in the upper reaches of the Canadian establishment recognize reality. Ruling on the appeal by Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan against the federal carbon tax, the…
“U.S. democracy is in urgent need of repair”—Freedom House
“After experiencing a gradual decline in respect for political rights and civil liberties over the past decade, the United States is now facing an acute crisis for democracy.” So says…
Conservatives stumble over the big issue
Hanging over our heads is one overwhelming issue. It’s not the pandemic, and it’s not the economic disruption caused by the pandemic. It’s our rape of the planet, the most…
2020—A happy year?
2020 would seem to have been a tough year for happiness. But not for the Finns. Or for most of the rest of us for that matter. The World Happiness…
We are all in this together … including the billionaires
We are all in this together. An expression we hear a a lot these days. And rightly so, as we depend on government to relieve the millions of people and…
Make America fair again?
The United States is the most unequal of the advanced countries. By far. And it’s getting worse. The ratio of the average income of the richest 10 percent to the…
Joe Biden—union man
During Joe Biden’s election campaign, he promised he would be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” This may be the most important promise he made, at least on the…
Lula—Brazil’s Biden?
Brazil and the United States have at least one thing in common in their recent political histories. Both had popular progressive presidents replaced by fascists: Donald Trump replacing Barack Obama…
The royal soap opera takes centre stage
My goodness, why do we fuss over these silly people. Two over-privileged royals whine on TV about not being treated royally enough and the nation is all atwitter. The most…
Shannon Phillips and the Lethbridge cops
Women in politics are routinely subjected to hate mail from assorted misogynists. Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips is no exception. According to her constituency assistant, “We used to say that if…
All hands on deck to rig the oil market
The oil industry and the free market are not well acquainted. The price of oil has long been manipulated more by cartels than by free markets. Since the 1970s, the…
Curing the planet’s humanity problem
The planet Earth has a problem—a bad case of advanced-stage humanity. It is much more virulent and far more dangerous than a mere coronavirus, which threatens only a few species.…
Sovereign killers and the “Khashoggi ban”
So, according to U.S. intelligence, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman whacked journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Confirmation of something we already knew. The crown prince is a cold-blooded killer. Regardless…
Sensible Alberta voice appointed to Net-Zero Advisory Body
I was pleased to hear that the Pembina Institute’s executive-director, Linda Coady, has been appointed to the federal government’s new Net-Zero Advisory Body. The body is an independent group of…