Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Daniel Drezner examines how the Trump regime's (nearly) worldwide tariff announcement confirm the complete ignorance and incompetence of everybody involved. Paul Krugman notes…
democracy
Collingwood’s Mystery Councillor
Who is Ian MacCulloch? We were only told by the town that he’s the newly-appointed councillor, chosen this month by council to fill the seat vacated by Brandon Houston, who…
Rule of chaos, not the rule of law
Conservative J. Michael Luttig, a former U.S. Appeals Court Judge appointed by Republican George H.W. Bush Luttig, wrote in the NY Times about Trump's "stunning frontal assault" on the rule…
Impoverishment of thought
In an age of extreme media coverage and immediacy, the associated defeat of intelligence is worrying. Genuine intellectual debate all too often disappears in favour of ersatz ideas dominated by…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- George Monbiot discusses the nihilism behind the new Trump regime which seems positively eager to see the world burn, while Jessica Wildfire writes that…
Chaos — the autocrats’ game plan
Neofascists in the 21st century care nothing about the consequences of tyranny, but they understand how tyrants gain power. They intend to control media, damage the economy, and cripple the…
The threat to democracy
Dan Froomkin is an American journalist worth following. Andrew Coyne is not afraid to speak out, but Froomkin wondered why most people in legacy media don’t appear to believe the…
Trump “metastasizing, mutating, rapidly worsening”
A brilliant essay in The Globe and Mail. Andrew Coyne has spent decades observing and writing about Canada. He has interacted with politicians of all sorts, but none like the…
America’s oligarchy is now fully exposed
Professor Robert Reich discussed the connections between wealth and power. Oligarchs have used their wealth and power to gain control of legacy media and that control is being used to…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Alejandra Gomez and Greisa Martinez Rosas offer a reminder that Donald Trump's attempt to pit immigrants against other workers serves only to distract from…
Why Dems Can’t See Through Fascism
This morning, I awoke to hearing an interview of Senator John Fetterman on the radio. It was this interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/john-fetterman-on-trumps-raw-sewage-and-what/id1050430296?i=1000694829127To be clear, I don’t ...
Why Dems Can’t See Through Fascism
This morning, I awoke to hearing an interview of Senator John Fetterman on the radio. It was this interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/john-fetterman-on-trumps-raw-sewage-and-what/id1050430296?i=1000694829127To be clear, I don’t ...
Last honest election
Who needs competition in politics when rules can be rigged to favour people who make the rules? Real democracy is inconvenient for those who wish to govern.
The current world situation
This is a guest post from a school friend who has very serious concerns with the state of the world.
Canadians will never kiss the gangster ring
Charlie Angus, a longtime Member of Parliament from Northeastern Ontario, published his observations about recent NATO meetings in Brussels. American historian Heather Cox Richardson reinforced some of the concerns expressed…
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana stated the words shown here in his work The Life of Reason. With the rising tide of fascism in the USA and elsewhere, we should be…
Defenders of democracy must speak out
I told Michael James, the writer recently featured here, that I wished more journalists had the strength of character to oppose authoritarianism now threatening democracy. Doing so involves professional risks…
Is democracy doomed in North America?
With the Musk/Trump administration ripping huge holes in America's social safety net, it is frightening to observe how major media properties have sagged onto bended knees to pay homage to…
Michael James update…
Mr. James posted a follow-up to the short essay he recently published on Facebook. His first piece was shared tens of thousands of times, but it attracted many hateful responses.…
Demagoguery
On the information platform Medium, Jack Dallaire describes himself: "Former tech CEO turned journalist-in-training. Psychology degree holder with a mission to uncover how tech giants are shaping a digital dystopia."…