The world’s richest man is not amused. Elon Musk, CEO and biggest shareholder of automaker Tesla, is annoyed at a series of strikes against his company. He calls them “insane.” He has simply encountered a culture which takes workplace democracy seriously. When Tesla set up in Sweden, Musk attempted to
Continue readingTag: Sweden
Views from the Beltline: Precariat jobs could be good jobs
What is a good job? In most people’s minds I assume that would be something that pays well and provides good benefits, steady employment and satisfying work. In the post-war period that described manufacturing jobs. They weren’t good because of the benevolence of the free market. Quite the contrary. They
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Dismissing the low taxes myth with a word
If there’s a common refrain in Conservative election platforms it’s lower taxes. No matter the current tax level, Conservatives believe it must be lower. If this is simply a belief that more money should be spent individually and less collectively, so be it. A reasonable sentiment. But we also constantly
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: World Environment Day
In the universe are billions of galaxies,In our galaxy are billions of planets,But there is Only One Earth. The above truism is from the UN Environment Program’s website for the 2022 World Environment Day campaign. Today, June 5th, is the day. World Environment Day 2022 is being hosted by Sweden,
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: NATO advances
Vladimir Putin. Yet another megalomaniacal psychopath pursuing Lebensraum, a true heir to the Nazis he claims to despise. If he has accomplished anything in his invasion of Ukraine, it is justifying the existence of NATO. Ironically, he claims that it was the advance of NATO, presumably threatening Russian security, that
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: Sweden Killed People
Really shocking news out of Sweden. Eugenicists have been setting policy, and children were being used as bio-weapons. Remember all the right wingers online touting Sweden as an example for the world in (not) responding to the COVID-19 threat? "Potentially life-saving treatment was withheld without medical examination, and without informing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Paul Krugman notes that hostility toward basic public health protection such as masks represents a stark example of conservatives sacrificing human lives to identity politics – though it’s far from the first or the last one. And James Downie writes that the Republicans
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: “Herd Immunity” is Epidemiological Neoliberalism
My name is Isabel Frey, and I’m a Vienna-based millenial, writing on life and politics in times of the coronavirus. I have a background in medical anthropology and sociology, a commitment to social Read more…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Greta and Family Struggled
An amazing journey from a very sick kid, to a world leader: "She has succeeded. Some say that she alone has done more for the climate than politicians and the mass media have in years. But Greta doesn’t agree. “Nothing has changed,” she says. “The emissions continue to increase and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Uh oh! Those perfidious Swedes have clearly joined the anti-Alberta energy ‘misinformation campaign of defamation’!
Why, those perfidious Swedes! First they sent their sneaky little agent Greta Thunberg in a sailboat to Alberta’s shores to stir up our young people — and that’s no mean feat when you consider that we don’t have any shores here in Alberta! Which, as we keep telling the rest
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Geopolitical Sunday: Don’t hold your breath waiting for the state of war to officially end on the Korean Peninsula
If the Korean War formally ends any time soon, North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Why not? Just because he presides over a very large military and leads a country that’s not very nice to it’s own citizens when they step a centimetre
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Well, We Know How They Feel About Trump
Donald Trump has nations a bit on edge, even America’s friends. Take the Swedes for example. Sweden is a country with Cold War memories. During those dark years when the Soviet Union vied with the United States, Sweden constructed 65,000 nuclear bomb shelters. That’s a lot. Today, of course, the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Algae Used for Carbon Capture at Cement Plant
Every year cement production contributes about 5% of the global emissions generated by humans. Any improvement around cement production will have a good impact on lowering carbon entering our atmosphere. In Sweden there’s one company using algae to lower its emissions. The country has carbon emission rates that are likely
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Repeating history—the new need for unionization
For all Donald Trump’s failings, and they are profound and many, he deserves credit for one thing. He acknowledged the anger and despair of those Americans in the Rust Belt states and elsewhere who have seen stable, well-paid manufacturing jobs disappear in the millions. In their place are often low-paid,
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Repeating history—the new need for unionization
For all Donald Trump’s failings, and they are profound and many, he deserves credit for one thing. He acknowledged the anger and despair of those Americans in the Rust Belt states and elsewhere who have seen stable, well-paid manufacturing jobs disappear in the millions. In their place are often low-paid,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: That Didn’t Take Long. Is This Assange’s Reward?
Is Julian Assange getting an early Christmas present? A week after Donald Trump’s election victory and six years after Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, a Swedish prosecutor went to the British capital to visit Assange in the embassy. Assange’s team said he agreed to the interview
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Assange Illegally Detained by UK Police
The London police force has wasted millions of pounds on detaining Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy for years. UN group reportedly backs Julian Assange 'unlawful detention' claim https://t.co/vgeXcKVWHl pic.twitter.com/5ziSJwBdpC — Wired UK (@WiredUK) February 4, 2016 The UN finding in favor of Julian Assange shows what many of us have already known. The UK must […]
Enough of this low tax nonsense
If conservatives believe in low taxes in order to keep government small, so be it, but when they insist that low taxes are necessary for a healthy economy, they are talking rot, parroting a mantra that has been utterly disproved. The low tax theory can in fact be refuted with
Continue readingNews flash—Western nation stands up to Saudis
Western nations may proclaim their virtue but when it comes to Saudi Arabia, they behave like whores. They posture their belief in democracy and human rights but genuflect before a kingdom that manifests contempt for both. The allure of the desert sheiks is twofold: they sell lots of oil and
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Beyond social democracy: new institutions, new subjects
So many of the debates on the contemporary left come back to the legacy of social democracy. The Swedish experience came closest to fulfilling social democratic ideals in the post-war era and so speaks to these debates in a unique way. Earlier this year, I talked to Petter Nilssen of Sweden’s
Continue reading