You Can’t Make This Up. The Land of Netanyahu.
Bibi and Uday I just went to the web site of the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. There’s some brouhaha about supposedly anti-Semitic cartoon posted on social media by Benjamin Netanyahu’s son,…
The Mound of Sound
David Asks the Really Awkward Question
While our prime minister fantasizes that we’re still in the 1980s, David Suzuki poses the RAQ, the Really Awkward Question – how do we square Trudeau’s pursuit of perpetual exponential…
Cathy Chats While Justin Mumbles
Poor Justin. He wants to do the Fossil Fuelers bidding, he really does. Whether it’s walking away from his election promise to clean house at the National Energy Board or…
If We Can’t Save Our Soil, How Can We Save Mankind?
Most of the farmland on Earth is to some degree degraded. Intensive agriculture combined with the lavish application of agri-chemicals – fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides – are largely to blame. Climate…
MythBusting – How Japan is Writing Off Debt.
How a nation handles debt – public and private – is a subject with a rich history. It lies at the very foundation of democracy in ancient Athens. This was…
Hedges: The Great Flood
It’s said there have been about 3,000 religions in the history of mankind and a gutload of them have some scripture based on some Great Flood event. Is America experiencing…
"One Big Lie"
That’s how Harvard prof and Foreign Policy columnist Stephen Walt describes the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine and sabotage the multi-party nuclear agreement with Iran. The latest round in their…
Our Not So Perma-Frost. Say Goodbye.
Throughout the span of human civilization, permafrost has covered about a quarter of Earth’s land surface. A report out of the University of Exeter claims our grandchildren may witness the…
Is Our Time As Top Dog Over?
Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk see it as a mortal threat to mankind. To Vladimir Putin it’s the key to world domination. ‘World Domination’ – are we back to that…
Pipelines to Nowhere
Don’t expect Justin Trudeau to admit it but his government is subsidizing Canada’s foreign-dominated fossil energy giants to the tune of $34-billion a year. That’s not the claim of some…
I Like Ike
He warned us about the emergent military-industrial complex. We didn’t listen. Dwight D. Eisenhower also warned his fellow Americans of what today masquerades as his own Republican Party when he…
Vonnegut Fans: A Five-Pack of New/Old K.V. Stories
Wonderful news. Vonnegut friend, Dan Wakefield, and Vonnegut scholar, Jerome Klinkowitz, were going through the author’s papers and stumbled across five previously unpublished short stories. “Complete Stories” will be published…
Surrounded By the Three Brutes
Angela Merkel appears to be riding for another election victory. Despite voter discontent over Merkel’s refugee policies the German voter seems far more concerned by the Three Brutes – Trump,…
Attacked from Within, Attacked from Without.
After four decades the impacts of neoliberal governance are pretty clear. The message is that neoliberalism fetters or weakens liberal democracy. It surrenders vital aspects of state sovereignty essential to…
Defeat Is Supposed to Be An Orphan
Not in Hillary Clinton’s world. Her defeat at the hands of Donald Trump seemingly has many fathers. In her new memoir Clinton steps up to accept the blame for her…
There’s Your Problem
New Price Coming Soon Back before I cut the cable I would sometimes watch a show called “beach front bargain hunters” or something along those lines. For two or three…
le Carre on the Perilous Future Awaiting Donald Trump
Former spy turned spy novelist extraordinaire, John le Carre, thinks he knows a thing or two about Donald Trump. The 85-year old author says Trump reminds him of his own…
The 3%? Turns Out They’re Rubbish.
We’ve known for years that 97% of scientific reports confirm the theory of anthropogenic climate change. 97% is a pretty powerful consensus but there’s still that contrarian 3%. What about…
Taking Stock of Human Health in the Anthropocene
There are 7.5 billion of us scattered across the globe. We inhabit all manner of places – deserts, swamps, temperate plains, polar regions – some hot, some cold; some wet,…