Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, January 15, 2016

Why Rapper Killer Mike's Endorsement of Bernie Sanders Spells Trouble for Hillary Clinton

Polls are ever-changing, but Americans will never long for a king or queen. When Run the Jewels rapper Killer Mike tweeted "I cannot support another Clinton or bush ever," he echoed the sentiments of Americans throughout the country tired of entrenched political factions in Washington. As for why political dynasties are ruinous to any democracy, the Atlanta rapper says, "I am beginning to see American political families like monarchs and I have no affection for monarchs." This sentiment, in addition to the reasons Killer Mike has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, can't be accurately assessed by opinion polls or political wonks.

Did Canada sell out its labour market in the TPP talks?

Canada is not an economic giant. Former Australian PM Kevin Rudd told a policy crowd in Ottawa last week that Canada (like Australia) best occupies the “creative middle power space” in world affairs.

Canada’s GDP is less than half the size of Germany’s. By any stretch of the imagination, our economy is small when compared to the giants we’re playing with in the global sandbox. Strategic involvement in selective trade deals can benefit us; our products need markets and our people need products at reasonable costs. But signing trade deals where the benefits for Canada are opaque — or, at best, unconvincing to ordinary citizens — is not a good idea.

Decent work is getting harder to find in the non-profit sector

With the federal election demanding so much of our time and energy this fall, many Ontarians may be unaware that the Ontario Ministry of Labour solicited input from the community and business sectors in order to update policy.  Honourable John Murray and Labour lawyer Michael Mitchel were appointed to conduct the Changing Workplaces Review which will release its findings in early 2016. 
Peter Clutterbuck, Senior Community Planning Consultant for the Social Planning Network of Ontario and Dr. Joey Edwardh, Executive Director of Community Development Halton represented the Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO). Their September 10 presentation focused on the challenge of finding decent work within Ontario's non-profit community.

The tawdry fall of the Postmedia newspaper empire

“I’m not going to lose my job over a fart joke,” Dan Murphy recalls Wayne Moriarty, editor-in-chief of The Province newspaper, saying.

It was the morning of Friday, June 22, 2012. Murphy, The Province’s long-time staff cartoonist, was meeting with Moriarty in the editor’s office on the fifth floor of the paper’s headquarters on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. The discussion between Murphy and Moriarty was heated; after all, Moriarty was informing Murphy that an animation the cartoonist had produced was being pulled off the web.

Ten thousand troops to flood Britain's streets in fight against terrorism

In a landmark move, the PM announced a 10,000-strong fighting force to support cops in the face of Islamic terrorism

Ten thousand troops could flood Britain’s streets to fight terrorists as David Cameron abolishes the “divide” between the Army and police.

In a landmark move, the PM announced a 10,000-strong fighting force to support cops in the face of Islamic terrorism .

Donald Trump’s Recipe for More Tamir Rices

As of today, Tamir Rice has been dead for a year. Of all the public horrors that police have perpetrated upon unarmed black people in the past few years, many of which we’ve witnessed on video, I feel a particular kinship to Tamir’s case because I was also once a 12-year-old black boy horsing around in a park in Cleveland. No, I didn’t have an unloaded airsoft gun like Tamir did, but that isn’t why he’s dead. He’s dead because a jumpy cop with a terrible track record, Officer Timothy Loehmann, fatally shot him. Within two seconds of the car stopping in front of the boy. Without ascertaining whether his weapon was real or even issuing a warning.

What You Need To Know About GMO Salmon

By now, you've probably heard about the latest GMO product that will be coming to a store near you (in about two years)... salmon. The FDA has just approved the sale of this salmon as food, so what do you need to know about it?

My gut reaction to the first genetically modified animal produced for consumption was like many peoples'; a bit of disgust with whole lot of 'why'!?. Before I wrote this piece though, I wanted to be able to give you all the relevant information about the 'frankensalmon' so you can form your own opinion about it. Here are what I consider to be the main things that you should understand about this new product:

Canada votes no on UN resolution condemning racism and neo-Nazism. Again.

On November 19, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly approved a resolution on measures against the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that facilitate the escalation of modern forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
A total of 126 member-states of the UN voted in favour of Resolution A/C.3/70/L.59/Rev.1 (eight pages). Four countries -- Canada, Palau, the U.S. and Ukraine -- voted against it. Another 53 countries, including all the member-countries of the European Union, cast abstention ballots. Also abstaining were Australia, Japan and New Zealand. The full voting record is here.

What You Need to Know About the Ongoing Lockdown in Brussels

Brussels remains under lockdown for the third straight day as authorities continue to hunt down suspects in connection with the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris. As of Monday morning, a spokesman for the chief Belgian prosecutor said 21 people have been arrested in a series of anti-terror raids since Sunday.

But police officers are still searching for the primary target of these raids—Salah Abdeslam, the 26-year-old suspect believed to have taken part in the Paris attacks. Officials say Abdeslam's brother detonated himself in the Paris attacks.

Analysts Accuse CENTCOM of Covering Up Cooked ISIS Intelligence

Allegations are mounting that senior intelligence officials at Central Command not only skewed findings on the ISIS war to please D.C., but tried to hide what they did.

In July, a group of intelligence analysts at the U.S. military’s Central Command accused their bosses of distorting and selectively editing intelligence reports about the fight against ISIS in order to portray that campaign as more successful than it really was. As a result of those complaints, the Pentagon’s inspector general opened an investigation.