Trump is no Substitute for Unions
The major reason Donald Trump was elected to the job he is manifestly unfit for was his appeal to electors in the Rust Belt states. These states had seen a…
United States
Britain has bullied Iran for centuries
Britain’s imperial designs on Iran go back at least to the Great Game with Russia over control of trade routes through central Asia in the 19th century. Indeed, Iran’s southern…
Metric for Americans
American exceptionalism often means things like calling football soccer while the rest of the world calls it football . Yes, us northern neighbours do the same thing but it’s still…
How much crap should Iran be expected to take from the U.S.?
Iran under the Ayatollahs is hardly a model nation. Domestically, it is repressive and, due largely to sanctions imposed by the United States, impoverished. Its foreign policy is aggressive. It…
The Democrats Reinvigorate Their Party and American Democracy
While there is much to despair about American democracy these days, there are also rays of hope, at least in the Democratic Party. If I had been an American during…
Putin Fails Liberal Democracy 101
Vladimir Putin is perhaps first among the anti-democratic strongmen that have emerged to soil the world. At the recent G20 summit he couldn’t resist taking a shot at liberal democracy,…
Is Anglosphere Democracy Becoming an International Joke?
Not long ago, if one were asked to name the world’s two leading democracies, the answer would probably have been the United States and the United Kingdom—the United States largely…
Did the Chinese learn their trade antics from the U.S.?
The China/U.S. trade war heats up. The rest of us get dragged along willy-nilly. Nonetheless, there is a lot of sympathy for the American case. The Chinese have hardly walked…
Speaking The Truth
CBC and other media need to recognize the following as true if we’re going to advance as a society. It’s likely to make them, and you, uncomfortable. Growth isn’t automatic…
$33USD/Hour To Match Wall St
If you’re working in a more just world, or if CEOs were less greedy, the minimum wage in the USA would be very different. People would be insulted by the…
WikiLeaks: US Shows Hand
As many journalists and others have been saying for a decade, the US was seeking Assange to charge him with an anti-Constitutional law that threatens investigative journalists around the world.…
The Court Of Public Opinion
Was there ever a question that Chicago PD was not good? Smollett, the actor, has had charges dropped. This is following when he was attacked by 2 men. Later the…
Has anyone thought about the impact regime change in Venezuela will have on Alberta’s oilpatch? It won’t be pretty!
In the stampede by Canadian politicians of all ideological stripes to support Venezuela’s self-declared “interim president,” has anyone given even a nanosecond’s thought to the impact the handover of the…
Is American Democracy Fucked ?
So is the American political system completely dysfunctional. I suppose the easy answer is to say they elected Trump so case closed, but of course it is much more complicated…
The Declaration of Dependence
Photo Credit: Journal of the American Revolution Faded cursive writing on a wrinkled, water-damaged sheet ofpaper is all that remains of an important counter-point to theDeclaration of Independence. The document…
Meme Monday #2
Two memes I found that put anew twist on the legend of KingArthur. There is a high level ofdiscontent with American-styledemocracy and the number ofmonarchists in the USA issurprisingly high…
UCP leader discovers there’s no affliction more persistent than an outbreak political theatrics in India
Jason Kenney’s mid-September sojourn to India with a couple of his United Conservative Party sidekicks was pure political theatre, likely aimed as much at the Alberta Opposition leader’s real main…
Emperor Pedro II’s 1876 Visit to Canada
Emperor Pedro II Brazil was once an empire. And interms of economic, military, and socialdevelopment it ranks as a golden age ofthat country. Embodying this period ofprogress was Emperor Pedro…
Ford and Trump and Moe Peas In a Rotten Pod
That movie about the incapable political leadership from the future is actually already here, it won’t take 500 more years. Ontario has their Harper-style Fake News now too https://twitter.com/OntarioNew…/status/1026965194243751936 Some…
What’s the appropriate response to Riyadh’s diplomatic hysterics? How about reopening our embassy in Tehran?
Is there an appropriate response by Canada to the bizarre events of the last few hours on the diplomatic circuit? It’s not just that Canada’s ambassador has been kicked out…