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By Richard Hughes, on May 6, 2013, at 4:11 pm Richard Hughes-Political Blogger
The state our Canada’s democracy is grim at all levels. Our PM Steve Harper is an overbearing, top down dictator.
He has managed to BS too many Canadians that he is a wonderful manager of the economy. He is not.
Under Harper our sovereignty is being sold down the river to the Chinese and whoever else can prop up his now failing government. The trade deals passed and others still on the table are of benefit to corporate investors and the detriment of the rest of us.
Prime Minister Steve Harper trailing Trudeau in the polls
I (Read more…)
By Liam, on May 1, 2013, at 7:46 am Hello, all you phenomenal followers of Polygonic, who’ve put up with both my obtuse rants and my long, long silences with absolute aplomb. Your stamina and support bends my actual mind.
I wanted to just update you on new projects (and, as the title suggests, new horizons as well… well, they were, at least last year…!)
Rather than blogging about politics lately, which seem to deteriorate into farce with or without me, I’ve been turning my attentions to writing about something I’m feeling more inspired by – travel.
Late last year, I undertook a long overland rail trip (Read more…)
By Liam, on May 1, 2013, at 7:46 am Hello, all you phenomenal followers of Polygonic, who’ve put up with both my obtuse rants and my long, long silences with absolute aplomb. Your stamina and support bends my actual mind.
I wanted to just update you on new projects (and, as the title suggests, new horizons as well… well, they were, at least last year…!)
Rather than blogging about politics lately, which seem to deteriorate into farce with or without me, I’ve been turning my attentions to writing about something I’m feeling more inspired by – travel.
Late last year, I undertook a long overland rail trip (Read more…)
By Adam, on April 24, 2013, at 2:12 pm
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) uses the difference in temperature at different water depths to produce energy, similar to how geothermal works. A green resort in China is going to be powered by the OTEC system and the companies involved in building the power plant are hoping that this will prove the technology works well enough for larger projects.
OTEC uses the natural difference in temperatures between the cool deep water and warm surface water to produce electricity. There are different cycle types of OTEC systems, but the prototype plant is likely to be a closed-cycle system. This sees warm (Read more…) seawater pumped through a heat exchanger to vaporize a fluid with a low boiling point, such as ammonia. This expanding vapor is used to drive a turbine to generate electricity with cold seawater then used to condense the vapor so it can be recycled through the system. . . . → Read More: Things Are Good: 10 MW Ocean Power Plant Planned for China
By Greg Fingas, on April 23, 2013, at 10:35 am I’ve already pointed out the NDP’s opportunity to differentiate itself from the Libs as a truly progressive party. And the Libs’ corporatist votes against democratic decision-making and basic civil liberties will certainly help that cause.
But if it’s possible to draw a clear distinction between Mulcair and Trudeau on basic knowledge of current events, then so much the better: Mulcair told reporters after question period that the ruling did affirm that Page “had the right to demand those documents” (ie. the information from departments) in the first place.
He was referring to paragraph five of the ruling, which stated (Read more…) “neither on the basis of parliamentary privilege nor on the principles of statutory interpretation has Parliament reserved the right for itself to answer Mr. Page’s questions. That task falls upon this court.”
Mulcair told reporters that this effectively destroyed the Senate’s attempt to argue that the PBO’s . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: On distinctions
By Greg Fingas, on April 22, 2013, at 9:56 am Miscellaneous material to start your week.
- Paul Adams rightly points out that there’s no inherent value in centrism merely for the sake of centrism – especially when the spectrum of choices is itself shaped by decades of distorted assumptions: (T)he reality of modern politics is that the muddled middle is no answer at all to the issues facing us. On economic and social policy, what divides Canadians is their attitude towards three decades of market-liberating policies that have weakened our middle class, increased inequality, corroded social programs, undermined the ability of working people to negotiate a living wage, and (Read more…) us all more vulnerable and insecure.
There is certainly a discussion to be had about how quickly and by what means these policies should be moderated, revised or reversed — and issues of priority, pace and technique may divide the Liberals and the NDP.
But first, both parties . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
By The Mound of Sound, on April 19, 2013, at 12:56 pm The timing must be entirely coincidental. Iceland just became the first European country to conclude a free trade agreement with China.
The China-Iceland FTA covers trade in goods and services, investments, and various other areas. Specific provisions on investment, movability of citizens, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical trade barriers, rules of origin, customs procedures, competition policies and intellectual property are also included in the FTA. The parties also made commitments in service trade that are stricter than the WTO commitments.
And, in a remarkable fluke, Iceland’s president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, has also come out proposing that China should have (Read more…) say in developing the far north.
“It is a wrong scenario to think that this will only be of concern to those people living in the Arctic. It will be a concern to every nation,” Grimsson said in an interview. “There is no country that will escape . . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: Iceland Shills for Chinese Voice in Arctic Affairs
By polygonic, on April 18, 2013, at 1:40 pm
Along the base of Emeishan in Sichuan Province, a network of forest trails connect temples, pavilions, and spots of tranquil contemplation (despite the heaving crowds!). This solitary figure continues to stand tall – though the tree has died, it’s a home to lots of other new life.
By The Mound of Sound, on April 14, 2013, at 1:55 pm Since coming into existence in 1776, the United States has enjoyed just 21 “war free” years. The last four of those were under president Jimmy Carter who didn’t see much point in blowing other people, their kids and all their stuff into smithereens just to make a point. No wonder he was so reviled.
Since Bush/Cheney rode into Washington, the United States has become our world’s only true Warfare State. Obama, despite his claims to the contrary, has kept the tradition alive and well.
When Canadians consider our country’s relationships with America, we too readily forget that
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: Why Australia Fears the United States
By Obert Madondo, on April 8, 2013, at 11:35 am By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: We’re invited to join the Hupacasath First Nation’s ongoing fight to delay the ratification of the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) Via WeStandTogetherCanada on YouTube: To learn more about what the Hupacasath First Nation is doing to delay ratification of the China Canada Trade [...]
The post FIPA: The Greatest Threat to Canada’s Future (VIDEO) appeared first on The Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis.
By Jay Cables, on March 31, 2013, at 9:49 pm
By The Mound of Sound, on March 29, 2013, at 11:04 am It’s settled now that Iraq’s oil riches pretty much sealed Saddam Hussein’s fate. The Anglo-American conquest of Iraq was heavily an oil-driven decision. And wasn’t it nice of the Americans to avoid bombing Iraq’s oil infrastructure and to make it the first of the few things they actually secured after they toppled Saddam?
And now, a decade later, Iraq is on the verge of becoming the world’s second-largest oil producer. Oh boy, all those years of war and suffering are finally paying off. Sure, that is if you’re China.
America, with its own homegrown energy bonanza,
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: And How Did That Work Out For You?
By The Mound of Sound, on March 27, 2013, at 11:35 am A team of Ecuadorean politicians is in Beijing. They bring gifts – more than three million hectares of pristine Amazon rainforest that is to be auctioned off to Chinese oil companies.
On Monday morning a group of Ecuadorean politicians pitched bidding contracts to representatives of Chinese oil companies at a Hilton hotel in central Beijing, on the fourth leg of a roadshow to publicise the bidding process. Previous meetings in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and in Houston and Paris were each confronted with protests by indigenous groups.
Attending the roadshow were black-suited representatives from oil companies including China Petrochemical and
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: China Grabs Ecuadorean Amazon for Oil
By Obert Madondo, on March 25, 2013, at 8:04 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: The two giant Chinese pandas, Da Mao, a four-year-old male, and Er Shun, a five-year-old female, jetted into Toronto today to much fanfare. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was on hand to give them the VIP welcome. Did you know that the Conservatives were prepared to keep Canadians [...]
The post Stephen Harper personally asked for the Chinese pandas, memo reveals appeared first on The Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis.
By kevin harding, on March 25, 2013, at 11:00 am The 1921 “Ethnic Outreach” Campaign(Courtesy Past Tense Vancouver)
The complaints are familiar – “Asian immigrants are taking our jobs,” “Asian immigrants are buying our property and keeping us out.”
Instead of being complaints found in the Richmond Review’s letters-to-the-editor section, however, these are the complaints that were found in a Liberal Party advertisement in 1921 that was posted on a Vancouver history site.
Our history – the history of Vancouver, BC, and Canada – especially that of Asian immigration is one fraught with historical wrongs. The Chinese head tax, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Japanese internment (Read more…)
By Anne Cottingham, on March 14, 2013, at 7:50 pm A magnitude 8.0 earthquake shook through Wenchuan County in Sichuan province of the People’s Republic of China on May 12, 2008. Official figures listed 69,197 dead, including 5,335 children, mostly killed as a result of shoddy school construction — a horrible tragedy, particularly due to China’s one-child policy, that caught the attention of a couple of artists, including the now infamous Ai Weiwei.
Ai had courted controversy before by being publicly outspoken about the Beijing Olympics, but his response to the Sichuan earthquake brought him into the sharp focus of the Chinese government. Working with a number of locals (Read more…)
By The Mound of Sound, on March 12, 2013, at 1:23 pm The Chinese keep taking the West by surprise with their technological advancement. We’re pretty sure a fair bit of their knowledge is purloined via the internet. Some, probably, but not all.
And, speaking of the internet, it seems China is poised to rock the world with a “next generation” internet that is expected to be a world-beater.
Just as our conventional internet is nearing it’s 4.3-billion full capacity, China is deploying a system that is supposedly 80,000 trillion trillion times larger.
By The Mound of Sound, on March 11, 2013, at 2:35 pm Shanghai has a water problem. Somehow more than 2,800 dead pigs wound up floating in one of the main rivers that supplies drinking water to the mega-metropolis of 23-million.
Local authorities claim the river water is still safe to drink but they are local authorities and this is China.
Nobody has figured out where the pigs came from yet. How some farmer can conceal the absence of nearly three thousand pigs is a bit tough to understand. Yet the animals show no sign of disease or any other obvious cause of death.
Apparently this is nothing new.
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: When Pigs Float
By The Mound of Sound, on March 9, 2013, at 12:56 pm China may soon become the only nation with the hardware to take down high geo-stationary orbiting satellite systems such as GPS. The U.S. is warning that China is preparing for a third anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test.
There is now speculation that orbiting debris from a 2007 Chinese ASAT test may have struck and disabled a Russian satellite. The concern is that space garbage may strike and cause other satellites to explode adding enormous amounts of space garbage to threaten other satellites creating a “cascade” that quickly renders space unusable.
China has responded to the U.
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: Arms Race Update – China’s Anti-Satellite Weapons Tests to Continue
By The Mound of Sound, on February 21, 2013, at 2:34 pm China does not seem able to come to grips with the pollution that is inexorably poisoning the country. While Beijing talks about green energy, including 5th generation reactor technology, it brings online a new coal-fired power plant almost daily. The country imports truly massive quantities of coal from the Pacific Rim, especially from Australia, with Canada getting its share also. And China is eager to receive regular shipments of Athabasca bitumen to process through its own refineries.
Just how bad is it? Last year it was reported that some 40% of the country’s productive farmland is
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: China’s Water Woes
By Adam, on February 21, 2013, at 9:25 am
The Chinese city of Chengdu will be getting a new neighbour, an entire city purpose built city for people instead of cars. China’s capital city Beijing is known for its smog problems and the Chinese government is under more and more pressure to implement environmentally-friendly policies. Creating sustainable urban centres are a step in the right direction.
Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture say the city will use 48% less energy and 58% less water than a more conventional city of the same size; it will also produce 89% less landfill waste and generate 60% less carbon
. . . → Read More: Things Are Good: China to Build Car-Free City
By The Mound of Sound, on February 19, 2013, at 9:07 am It’s possibly the most successful unit in China’s Peoples Liberation Army. Unit 61398 is believed to have hacked hundreds of terabytes of data from targets in Canada, the U.S. and Britain.
The report, by [U.S. security company] Mandiant, identified the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Shanghai-based Unit 61398 as the most likely perpetrators of the hacking. The company said it believed the unit had carried out “sustained” attacks on a wide range of industries.
“The nature of Unit 61398′s work is considered by China to be a state secret; however, we believe it engages in harmful computer network
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: Unit 61398 – China’s Computer Commandos
By The Mound of Sound, on February 15, 2013, at 10:24 am Prominent Chinese military officers are speaking of an east Asia from which the U.S. has been forced out. And they’re hoping to see that reality within 20-years.
Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu, at the People’s Liberation Army’s National Defence University, told Fairfax Media this week that American strategic influence would be confined ”east of the Pacific midline” as it is displaced by Chinese power throughout East Asia, including Australia. Colonel Liu’s interpretation of one facet of what the new Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, calls ”a new type of great power relationship” adds to the uncertainty and anxiety surrounding China’s
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: The China Dream
By Richard Hughes, on January 31, 2013, at 5:14 pm Richard Hughes-Political Blogger
Here is a thorough analysis and update on the many complexities swirling around energy issues in Canada today.
It was written by Kevin Logan and was featured in the Common Sense Canadian.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford recently took the unprecedented step of holding a “State of the Province” Address. This hauntingly American-style public relations stunt came about as a result of the longstanding work of behind-the-scenes chief architect of Canada as an Energy Superpower, David Emerson.
Here at the Common Sense Canadian we have tracked in some detail the efforts of former Harper Government Trade Minister
. . . → Read More: Cowichan Conversations: Oil, China and Why David Emerson Wants Alberta to Start Paying Taxes
By jtoddring, on January 30, 2013, at 5:59 pm The Blackberry 10 has just been unveiled, and the question returns: Blackberry, iPhone or Google-based Android smart phone? Here are some thoughts, techno-weenie talk aside. We’re talking pure functionality and ethics here, not who has the best gizmo-gadgetry whiz-bang for the buck. Google is a partner in evil, willingly collaborating with the super-creepy NSA’s deeply [...]
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