The World’s "Most Complex Bilateral Relationship" Under Strain
Beijing locks horns with Washington this week at a gaudy Palm Beach golf resort in Florida as Xi Jinping comes calling on Donald Trump at TrumpWorld, a.k.a. Mar a Lago.…
The Mound of Sound
LA Times Editorial, Part III, "Trump’s Authoritarian Vision"
The third and latest installment of the Los Angeles Times four-part editorial on Donald Trump focuses on their president’s “authoritarian vision.” He swooped into politics, he declared, to subvert the…
If Hillary was President, Trump Would be Blaming Her for This
Just days after DJ Trump announced that America was taking Bashar Assad off the hook, that regime change was no longer a matter of Washington’s concern, Syrian government jets launched…
Monbiot – Speaking Truth to Power
It’s hard not to respect the Guardian’s enviro-scribe and social commentator, George Monbiot, although he can play hell with one’s blood pressure. His latest missive concerns how Trump and Brexit…
Ralph’s Orphans
Think of it as Alberta’s self-inflicted wound or Ralph Klein’s lasting legacy. Ralph’s Orphans are the 79 thousand abandoned oil wells that now litter the province and represent a multi-billion…
What Goes Up…
Is Canada headed for a major airline disaster? Apparently the odds of a major aviation accident in our country are worsening. Cuts to Transport Canada have been eating away at…
Who is Bugging Ottawa?
Somebody has Parliament Hill under surveillance. Nobody knows who it is. CBC Ottawa has discovered that there’s an IMSI at work. The devices, sometimes known by the brand name of…
If You Were a Gambling Man
What are the odds? What are the odds that Donald Trump will be impeached or that he’ll serve his full first term or that he might be re-elected to a…
Why Trump Lies
The Los Angeles Times doesn’t think much of America’s newly minted president. Just two months into Trump’s first and only term, the paper is publishing a four-part editorial. The second…
Let’s Give Trump a Break
Maybe it’s not all bad. Maybe he’s doing about as well as could have been expected. Trump is no Barack Obama. He’s not even up to George w. Bush snuff.…
Lockheed’s Never Ready Warplane
There has been a spate of feel good stories about the F-35 over the past few months. Stories about how the warplane was already in combat service with the Israeli…
What’s Lurking in the Shadows of Washington?
We’ve been having a discussion in the previous post about this thing – or supposed thing – the “Deep State.” It’s become the favourite whipping boy of the politically engaged,…
Why Trump’s Days Are Numbered.
I’ve spent the past couple of days in online searches of people I’d never heard of before and a couple that I had. What they have in common is that…
The Death Throes of a Newspaper (or Two)
Vancouver’s two venerable dailies, the Vancouver Sun and the Province, are succumbing to a potentially terminal case of Paul Godfrey’s PostMedia-itis. The Tyee’s founding editor and now journo prof, David…
Truth to Power
With Donald Trump blowing up Obama’s climate change agenda and our own leader, Trudeau, saying all the right things and then doing all the wrong things, it’s about time for…
Wall, Wall, Who Gets the Wall?
Trump’s interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has stumbled across a problem with the Cheeto Benito’s plan to wall off Mexico from the United State – a wall works two ways. “The…
Apropos of Absolutely Nothing at All
A musical interlude with Vlad “The Impaler” Putin
Well This Is Awkward
House and Senate Republicans created a stir with their support for a law that would allow internet providers to sell sell subscribers’ internet data including their browsing history. That got…
That Could Touch a Nerve
There was a quiet and barely noticed event at last year’s Republican convention when Donald Trump was officially chosen as the party’s presidential candidate. It involved one plank of the…
USA Today Links Trump, Trump Jr. and the Trump Organization to Shady Russians and Their Money
USA Today + investigative reporting – who’d a thunk it? In any case McNews Inc. has been reviewing records, connecting the dots, and links America’s president, DJT Jr. and the…