On the Canucks Riot, Protest, and Division : Politics, Re-Spun

On the Canucks Riot, Protest, and Division : Politics, Re-Spun

And more.

Good lord, someone's actually pointing out the class dimension inherent in the Vancouver riot, and drawing the connection between that and the corporatist power structure's nasty little game of Divide-and-Conquer.

Not to mention the malignant influence of Don Cherry. You know, that guy who has a national platform on the "left-wing" CBC.

[drops teacup]

How unseemly.

The Sixth Estate » When You Don’t Know Your History, You’re Bound to Make Up S@@t

The Sixth Estate » When You Don’t Know Your History, You’re Bound to Make Up S@@t

And again.

Either the Vancouver Police and the corporate media are taking stupid pills, or they're serving some agenda.

Now let's think about this: who benefits from mischaracterizing the riots as the work of anarchists and political activists?

Whose interests are served by the blanket demonization of activism per se?

Conversely, whose interests would be harmed by acknowledging the connections among NHL product, overwrought ersatz nationalism, unfettered testosterone, economic privation and too much cheap alcohol?

Hmmm ...

Porcupine blog: Explaining Conservative Support Among “Ordinary People”.

Porcupine blog: Explaining Conservative Support Among “Ordinary People”.

I can't believe I haven't seen this until now.

@thekeenanwire, #TOpoli and that whole 'deserve' thing, redux

Go and read this piece from Ed Keenan in The Grid.

He's right of course, and you don't need a master's degree in public administration to know that public services cost money. And you don't need cheap childish gimmicks, either.

The troublesome part is that something so blindingly self-evident seemed to elude a majority of Toronto voters last fall. They were all too willing to buy into Rob Ford's bullshit about mountains of wasted cash and municipal inefficiencies and gravy trains, and worst of all, the idea that under David Miller, things were just so irredeemably awful that the only thing to do was to blow everything up.

On The Road To Metropolis « All Fired Up In The Big Smoke

@cityslikr's pal Urban Sophisticat on the Six Sigma sickness currently afflicting our municipal leadership. Read it now.

On The Road To Metropolis « All Fired Up In The Big Smoke

Opposing the #HarperRegime: thinking strategically over the next four years

Sorry, dear friends. This is going to be one of those times when I try to get cerebral, but not too cerebral, and end up sounding like a wanker. Business as usual, in other words.

In the context of last week's Twitter exchange with @thekeenanwire over the question of what we deserve, I admitted that I hadn't thought through all the implications of what I was saying or where I was going. To the extent that we could arrive at common ground in 140-character bursts, we managed to agree that "need" was probably a better word than "deserve" when we're talking about a police force, or a society, or a government. At least that's the impression I was left with; if I'm wrong, Ed, please feel free to correct me.

Sleaze, slush funds and the Auditor-General's report: This is supposed to make a difference?

With the release of Sheila Fraser's report detailing a record of malfeasance and misdirection regarding G8/G20 spending, a whole raft of familiar patterns re-emerges.

Sleaze, slush funds, money earmarked for border infrastructure spent in Huntsville (which, one hates to point out, is nowhere near the border). No transparency. No accountability. Blaming public servants. A fig for the public trust.