Like most people, the future I want to see informs my politics and my worldview. However, I’ve also had a hard look at what the coming decades are likely to hold. Trying to plan for what you’d like to happen, without taking into account what is very likely to happen, regardless of whether you want…
Is the Dow Jones decline a blip, or the start of a downward trend?
On Monday, February 5, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1175 points, or 4.6 percent, wiping out the market’s gains for the year. The stock market goes up and down, sometimes it’s just a momentary correction and at other times it sends a signal that the overall economy is about to move. So which one…
What the West really needs is a revolution of the rational middle
For most of my life, I’ve considered myself a “progressive”. Over the last few years I’ve changed that description to “moderate progressive” – something US Senator Bernie Sanders said, during the 2016 election, a person could not be. I do not know if I left the progressive movement or if it left me but at…
Republicans lost on health care for the same reason Democrats lost the election
In the United States there are two major parties, both of which consist of big tent coalitions. The Democrats start from the socialist left and run to moderates who could just as easily be moderate Republicans. Republicans do the same from the right, from the Neo-Nazi alt-right to people who could just as easily be…
If the left wants to win the big fights, we need to step up our game
Photo credit: gabrielsaldana via VisualHunt / CC BY-SA As a dual citizen of the United States and Canada I’ve had the opportunity to participate in and observe both political systems. One of the things that I’ve found as a constant in both countries, and in the UK as well from what I’ve observed, is that…
Brexit is the UK’s Donald Trump
Photo credit: Davide D’Amico via Visualhunt / CC BY-SA The world is shocked and appalled that Donald Trump has become a major party candidate for President of the United States. It is like watching a train wreck in slow motion, but Trumpism isn’t confined to the US. On Thursday, the UK will vote for or…
The side of taxes and deficits that politicians and the press never talk about
We’re in an election cycle, on both sides of the border and budgets, deficits and taxes are all hot topics. We got in the habit, especially after the trickle-down era of the 1980s of looking at everything like it was a spreadsheet. Running government “like a business” became the new norm. However, that was always…
Taking away the hardware would be easy, demilitarizing the police would take some work
This week has been filled with headlines about the events in Ferguson, Missouri. I’m not going to focus here on that event specifically, there are ongoing investigations and debates among the local population and millions of words will be written before it’s all done. Instead, I’m going to focus on the deeper problem and how…
FCC site has crashed just hours ahead of Net Neutrality comment deadline (keep commenting anyway)
Demand Progress (Demandprogress.org) is reporting that the Federal Communications Commission’s comment site has crashed from the influx of traffic. The deadline to submit comments, which the FCC encouraged, is midnight tonight. However, that doesn’t mean that you’ve lost your chance. Demand Progress and their allies at battleforthenet.com are storing comments so that they can be passed along…
Aaron Swartz documentary “the Internet’s Own Boy” is now free to stream or download
For those with short memories, or who were living under a rock at the time hacktavist, writer, organizer and programmer Aaron Swartz died in January, 2013. At the time of his death, which was ruled a suicide though no note was found, was facing “two counts of wire fraud and 11 violations of the Computer…