Courage and Cowardice In The Age of Fear
If you want to keep the plebs in line, nothing works as well as a double-serving of fear. Fear is the weapon of choice of every despot throughout history. The…
The Mound of Sound
Straight Out of The Fossil Fueler Playbook – Let’s Socialize the Environmental Damage
When Big Fossil has squeezed out the last bit of profit, they often just leave the taxpayer holding the bag for the clean up. The treasure is shifted out of…
A Welcome (and Badly Needed) Eye Opener
Is the crisis of “fake news” just a symptom of neoliberalism’s looming collapse? An excellent essay by Evgeny Morosov in The Guardian looks behind the fake news phenomenon and its…
It’s Time to Call the "Two State" Option What It Is – a Convenient Ruse
Much as we might wish otherwise, this “two state” ruse can’t go on forever. With every theft of land from the Palestinian territory, Israel is serving notice that it has…
Isn’t That Biting the Hand that Feeds You? Trump Accepts Russia Hacked the Election.
Donald Trump’s designated chief of staff, Reince Priebus, says the Giant Orange Bloat accepts that the Russians hacked the election, the vote that he supposedly won, and that Trump may…
When Democracy Fails
There are few better object lessons on how democracy fails than Britain in the throes of the Brexit resolution. No one, not even the prime minister, has a clue what…
The March of the Ichthyes
Okay, they’re ichthyes, fish, and they don’t march, they swim. And swimming they are in the same direction, away from the equator. We’ve been seeing signs of this aquatic exodus…
Remember Who Did the Heavy Lifting Last Time
As liberal democracy gives way to authoritarianism from the United States to Hungary, Poland, Turkey and even into Britain and France, it is helpful to remember the turbulent 50s and…
Emperor Trump Fiddles While the World Burns
New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof, shows how Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the reality of climate change is a death sentence in distant corners of the world.
This Could End With a Bullet
Former CIA director James Woolsey bailed out on Donald Trump yesterday. Former CIA Director James Woolsey, a veteran of four presidential administrations and one of the nation’s leading intelligence experts,…
In Chicago, They Kill With Guns. In Vancouver, It’s Fentanyl.
Chicago logged a record 762 murders in 2016, most of them by hand guns. Vancouver, while much smaller than the Windy City, saw hundreds of deaths from fentanyl overdose including…
Headed for the White House – the Most Caustic Prick on the Planet.
Joe Biden spoke for a good many people around the world when he urged Donald Trump to “grow up.” “Grow up, time to be an adult, you’re president.“Biden said it…
And Rightly So –
Water service to the 5.5 million residents of Damascus, Syria has been disrupted causing the UN to warn, quite correctly, that targeting water sources constitutes a war crime. UN observers…
Pot, Kettle, Putin, Trump – Hmmm
America’s national intelligence wizards will be spending the day describing to Congress how the Russians hacked America’s November election to usher Trump into the White House. According to Lindsey Graham,…
Don’t We Get a Say In This?
Did you get the memo? I didn’t. That’s why it came as a surprise to hear the Dauphin proclaim Canada the world’s first “postnational” country. He did it in a…
An Expert on Nuclear Nonproliferation Takes the Measure of Donald Trump
Avner Cohen is a professor of nuclear nonprolifteration studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. Nuclear weapons and policy are his thing. When it comes to…
Agenda for 2017 – Defend Democracy
Washington Post columnist, E.J. Dionne, writes that progressives will have their hands full in 2017 but no challenge is greater than defending democracy, in the US and abroad. There should…
Canada – a "Haven for Corrupt Capital."
Income, Me? No, I Don’t Have Any Income. Last year when Trudeau announced Canada would be opening new visa offices in China I suggested it would be better if he…
Happy New Year, Everyone
Just in the nick of time I stumbled across what I’d been looking for, something to inspire and lift spirits for New Year Eve. It came in the form of…
How Ottawa Ruined Vancouver
The federal government utterly ruined Vancouver. That’s the conclusion of three former British Columbia politicians who, together, represent the breadth of mainstream politics – a Liberal, a New Democrat, and…