Today’s News: Weekend updates
Conservative leadership update: Maybe Poilievre has hired a new PR firm not staffed by 12-year-olds. He released a video today that conservatives actually liked. As for me, it worried me…
Ukraine
The Ukraine war—a boon for the Prairies
War mostly bings death, destruction and suffering, but it also brings profits for some. In the case of the current war in the Ukraine, much profit will be brought to…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sarah Bartsch et al. study the costs and benefits of face mask use, and conclude that even without factoring in improvements to public…
Ukraine—a hard power lesson for Iran … and others
In December, 1991, as the Soviet Union crumbled into dust, Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence. Thus was created something of a nuclear problem. The new country was the world’s third…
Nuclear War Not Humanity’s Only Option
Aside from the insane invasion of democratic Ukraine by the Russians, there’s another pending catastrophe in store for humanity anywhere between this afternoon and the next 5000 years. Destruction from…
Chilling Words
Ever since Putin started massing troops along Ukraine’s eastern border, I’ve been wondering exactly what Russia’s objectives really were. Put aside the propaganda from Russia about Ukraine posing some kind…
Is the UCP suggesting it’s time to show Russia a thing or two by halting the TMX pipeline expansion?
Will members of all Canadian political parties soon demand that we halt the TMX pipeline expansion project? I ask because, with the current great power tension in Ukraine likely to…
There are better ways for Alberta’s only New Democrat to spend her time than calling for more Canadian troops on Russia’s doorstep
Last week, Heather McPherson, New Democrat Member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona, was sounding as belligerent as any Alberta Conservative on the topic of what she termed “Russia’s aggression against…
How Does a Lawyer Justify Participating in a Legal Fraud?
I understand that in a system that abides by due process all those accused of a crime are entitled to legal counsel, regardless of how depraved they may be. I…
The Quality and the Rabble in American Government
The health of democracy, indeed government generally, often rests more with the quality of a country’s civil servants than with the quality of its politicians and their associates. Rarely have…
Was the Russian Embassy’s press secretary expelled from Canada for telling the embarrassing truth? Sure sounds that way!
PHOTOS: Kirill Kalinin, former First Secretary and Press Secretary of the Russian Embassy in Canada. Below: Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, and the Russian Embassy in Ottawa. Was Kirill Kalinin…
Trudeau in India, Part II: Canadian governments, and not just Liberals, have a history of playing footsie with bad actors
PHOTOS: A screenshot of what looks like a video of the controversial snapshot of Jaspal Atwal and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, grabbed from Twitter. The ownership of the photo is attributed…
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…
Chrystia Freeland should not be punished for her grandfather’s sins, but for misleading Canadians about them
PHOTOS: Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland during her visit to Edmonton in the midst of the 2015 federal election. Below: Former Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion and Prime Minister Justin…
Canada had better plan for an unprecedented refugee crisis as U.S. lurches toward ‘ethnic cleansing’
PHOTOS: Austrian police and Syrian refugees crowd a train platform in Vienna on Sept. 4, 2015 (photo by Josh Zakary). Below: U.S. President Donald Trump (photo by Gage Skidmore) and…
If Donald Trump won’t knuckle under, could he face an American ‘Colour Revolution’?
PHOTOS: One of many anti-Trump rallies in the United States in the past few days (from Facebook). Below: U.S. President Elect Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, U.S. Senator…
Stop Giving Trump Chances To Be Civil
He won’t. We already gave him two. His whole campaign: many of us wrote him off as a lark. I imagined only 30-35 million people would vote for such a…
Making sense of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
What has become clear is that Canadian and American media are manufacturing consent, and presenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine outside of its historical context. The act of invasion is…