Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

If Davos Isn’t About Capitalism, What’s Stephen Harper All About?

C’mon people:  even organizers of the planning sessions in Davos agree that ‘capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world around us,’ and yet Stephen Harper stands on a stage and declares war against the evil pensioners.

I’m sorry, but this is shameful.  He can’t stand on Canadian soil and make such a declaration and he’s still pretending that he’s done something special with the Canadian economy.

What’s his track record?

  • Record deficits
  • Structural financial issues
  • Massive handouts to non-Canadian companies
  • Elaborate and expensive advertising campaigns, resulting in billions in taxpayer funds going to Canada’s media monopolies
  • Expensive defense programs that have no lid on them
  • Brutal attacks on democratic institutions in Canada

And now … the war on pensioners.

If you’re a Conservative, can you really be proud of this?  Do you enjoy the idea of pulling the plug on your parents?

Good luck Boomers.  Enjoy your Alpo after all the contributions you’ve made to Canada.

I hope you think twice before you choose Conservatives and pocket-book politics if we ever get a chance to go to the polls again.

Harper’s Message vs Change and Hope

I know.  It’s been nearly 2 months since the Canadian election and 40% of those who voted showed their contempt for Canada by electing a pack of crooks.

I tried very hard to bury these painful thoughts about why so many people would fall for the garbage that Harper spun and I think I’ve finally figured out part of it.

Harper’s message was the complete opposite of Obama’s ‘Change’ and ‘Hope’ themes that got him elected in 2008.

And why would this get him elected?  OK … so I haven’t quite figure that out yet, but let’s remind ourselves that the central messages were ‘Stability’ and ‘Security’.

What the F*@& do those mean?

Are they threats?

Are they promises?

What I do know is that, despite my massive misgivings for Barack Obama, they are the complete opposite of ‘Hope’ and ‘Change’.

What kind of vision does ‘Stability’ offer the people of Canada?

What kind of opportunity does ‘Security’ generate for Canadians?

I wish we had inspected these promises a little more thoroughly in the run-up to the election.

I wish we had all taken a moment to demand something more visceral from our leaders last May.

I wish we hadn’t all thought of ourselves with the smallness of selfishness that comes with the fear and paranoia that are central to these themes.

If we all had, maybe we wouldn’t be where we are today with Herr Harper in control.

Canadian Progressive Media Alternatives

I’m not so sure that the landing of the Huffington Post in Canada is the remedy we ‘progressives’ in this country need.  Last year, Arianna sold out to AOL, making it part of the mainstream.

I’m sure the Canadian version will be equally tame and ‘available’ to the priests of conservatism in this country.  Ultimately, who ever buys ads on the media, owns the media and Stephen Harper has the deepest pockets right now.

Progressives really MUST think in terms of media and the influence that the right has on everyday citizens.  We have to build an effective alternative media network that is financially viable, influential and that ultimately blocks the Conservatives out of the daily reading of all Canadians.

There’s the growing concept of ‘citizen media’, but we need an alternative to the alternative, something that is grass-roots based and respects the opinions of everyone and not just another site or aggregator of broadcasters that could care less about the ideas of … everyone.

We must also avoid linking to and creating content for mainstream media.  It’s essential that we shut them off.  We’re their power base.  Without US, they’re useless.  As a reminder, ‘they’ are Bell, Rogers, Quebecor, Shaw, Cogeco, Canwest in Canada and AOL, Fox, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS etc in the US.  Online versions of ‘them’ are Google, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, Twitter,

But I’m soap-boxing.  Once I get my act together, what I’ll do is start a stump on Wikipedia that provides the same list.

Anyways, until this kind of open media network is built and financially viable, we still have alternatives to the mainstream (albeit ones that are deep-seated in the traditions of talk-down editorial as opposed to speak-up from the masses):

And even more options in North America and the rest of the world:

Think tanks, advocacy groups and social institutions (mostly US):

And then there’s consumption.  What sites or companies, co-ops and other organizations do you shop from that make you feel good?  Are they local?  Fair-trade?  Organic?  All of the above?

So … it’s a good start, but many of you may agree that it’s not comprehensive.  What it all points to is that I’ve been feeling helpless following the election a few weeks ago, but there’s no need for that any more.  We own this country and we deserve to take it back, piece by piece if we have to.

I need some help with this because I think it’s the impetus we all need to gain control of the media landscape of this country.  Do you have links or stories related to progressive media in Canada?  Can you please share your thoughts on who else is doing innovative things here or elsewhere?

Do you have ideas about how we can aggregate all of the above into a truly progressive news feed and source for all Canadians and others who are interested in getting and sharing news without being blocked out or beat up by bossy editors?

Please … really, please … post your thought below.

Resources:

Mozilla Drumbeat:  https://drumbeat.org/en-US/challenges/unlocking-video/full

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_media#See_also

http://www.themediaconsortium.org/our-members/

http://www.nationalnewswatch.com/linkpage.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_activism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_media

http://www.adbusters.org/about/submissions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_press

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_press_%28U.S._political_left%29

http://community-media.ca/community-media-list

Alternet: 8 Progressive Superheroes

It’s fascinating to me that superheroes, literary archetypes and even the odd ‘villian’ consistently portray progressive ideals, but real life people seem to stray from what’s good.  ALL THE TIME.

That said, Alternet has provided us with a good starter list of ‘progressive’ super heroes that we should all cherish and appreciate.

What are some of your progressive fictional characters?  What can we do to better emulate them in our day to day lives?

MayDay 2011: The Last 24 Hours

I doubt I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

There’s still so much that I would love to expose about the lies Stephen Harper has been telling over the last 6 weeks (and decade or so as well), but I won’t.  There are so many projections, ideas, concepts and so on that I’d love to explore, but I’ve run out of time … and energy.

As the last 24 hours tick down, I’d like to thank all of the readers that have put up with my rants and who have contributed to the blog over the course of the election (and prior to this as well as those who might even continue to hang on).

I also want to beg everyone that has the slightest desire to push Canada into a sustainable future to VOTE.  Progressives outweigh conservatives in this country by a margin of at least 2 to 1, and it’s critical that you vote, vote strategically and vote early on because it’s going to be crowded!

Finally, I’d like to apologize to Stephen Harper for many direct and personal attacks and for insinuations that the Conservative Party of Canada is not a viable option in this election.  But hey … as long as you remain the lying politician that you are and members of your cabinet and other MPs remain suspect in their dealings with Canadian funds and the trust of voters, I’ll keep it up and completely retract anything I’ve said if I’m proven wrong.

Until then, I’ll remind all readers why we’re having this election:  YOU CAN’T BE TRUSTED.

In time, I’ll recover from this election and return to writing fiction and discussing my preferences, which are trashing mainstream media and crapping on poor economic policies that we take.

My expectation is that after tomorrow night, the latter will take a backseat because WE WILL WIN.

We will win this election.

We will win Canada back.

We will win the democracy and leadership that we expect from our politicians.

We will win back what we as citizens, taxpayers, children, grandparents, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, uncles, aunts and all other relations deserve to win.

We will win our future.

We will win our internationally credibility.

We will win a clean and safe environment.

WE WILL WIN.

P.S.  My prediction for the election outcome is that we will elect an NDP minority government that’s a coalition with the Liberal Party.  My guess is that we’ll have about 110 NDP seats with 40 Liberal seats.  The Conservatives will be left with about 120 seats, most of which will come from Ontario and Alberta.  30 or so seats will be up for grabs.  The Bloc will be devastated, but might squeak out 15-20 seats.

As the fallout from the election sinks in, Gilles Duceppe, Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff will announce their retirement from their parties.

Elizabeth May will retire if she doesn’t win, but I am confident that the good people in Saanich-Gulf Islands will make the right decision for all of Canada and elect someone that will push for Proportional Representation and democratic reform in Canada.

MayDay 2011: Alice Klein of NOW Toronto Encourages Us to Shake Off Cliches

Alice Klein wrote a piece in NOW Toronto this past week encouraging all of us to accept the fact that in this election, the stakes are extremely high and that the game has definitely changed.

She reminds us that it’s not about voting your passion, but voting for that party that will unseat the Conservative government and push them out of as many ridings as possible.

She’s behind Project Democracy, but there are other projects as well (copied from the Project Democracy site):

  • Avaaz The campaigning community bringing people-powered politics to decision-making worldwide
  • Lead Now Brings generations of Canadians together to take action for our future and hold politicians accountable.
  • Swing 33 Donate strategically in 33 ridings to defeat Harper.
  • Pair Vote – Vote Swapping Support your preferred party while also stopping Harper
  • Catch 22 Campaign A grassroots effort to help defeat the Conservative government in 22 key ridings.
  • The Environment is my Voting Issue Facebook Group An action-oriented Facebook group aimed at holding politicians accountable for their votes on environment issues.
  • Department of Culture A community of Canadian artists, arts professionals and cultural workers concerned about ensuring the social and cultural health and prosperity of our nation in the face of a Federal Government that is aggressively undermining Canadian values.
  • Fair Vote Canada – On August 1, 2000, a group of concerned citizens formed Fair Vote Canada (FVC) with the aim of building a nationwide campaign for voting system reform. We envisioned FVC as a multi-partisan, citizen-based campaign bringing together people from all parts of the country, all walks of life and all points on the political spectrum. Today FVC has members in all provinces and approximately 20 local and regional chapters.

Project Democracy is exciting because it focuses on helping voters get up to date polling data related to their riding.  In many ‘strategic voting’ ridings, the past favours the Liberals, but since the Liberals are sliding in the polls, should we really be electing someone from the past or someone from the future?  I’ve signed up for their email to get riding updates, so I’ll post more information as it comes to my in-basket.

Finally, I can’t repeat this often enough:  you can contact pretty much any riding and help them with calls, even if you’re not from that area.  Human voices are substantially more valuable to campaigners as opposed to those awful ‘robo-calls’ and they remind voters that this is an election about the future of all people in Canada.  Of course, consider your riding and the ridings that are immediately around you as opposed to those that are across the continent!

MayDay 2011: The Conservative Coalition

Stephen Harper has dropped the word ‘coalition’ of late, possibly because he and his handlers have decided to focus on backpeddling following scathing reviews from Canada’s Auditor General insinuating that they broke the law with spending for the G8/G20 summit.

However, Canadians shouldn’t let him drop the word ‘coalition’ because he lives and breathes by it.

His power depends on a coalition.

At the outset of the campaign, Stephen Harper had us believe that the word ‘coalition’ – especially when the opposition is concerned – may as well be the spawn of the Devil or something … gasp … worse:  a Canada without him at the helm.

Of course, this is OK because every time Stephen Harper speaks about the evils of coalitions, he is painting himself into a corner and he won’t be able to get himself out … or blame a low-level staffer for his mistakes.

This is because he represents and leads one of Canada’s most successful coalitions:  the CRAP coalition.

I know this term is used as a derogatory remark about the existing Conservative party and platform, but let’s take a brief look at the history of what is now the Conservative Party of Canada:

  • Progressive Conservatives dominate the scene from Confederation to the end of the Mulroney years
  • Albertans get all snippy about how we Canadians treat ‘their’ oil and form the Reform Party of Canada, a thinly veiled gang of libertarians, Gordon Gecko fanatics and Ayn Rand junkies
  • Other conservative folks decide that there isn’t enough religion in the halls of Canadian government and form the Alliance Party, a thinly-veiled ‘whites only’ group
  • These three parties split the small-c conservative vote and keep the Liberals in power from 1993 (the year Kim Campbell was defeated) to 2006, when Stephen Harper used a coalition to defeat Paul Martin
  • The tables are turned in 2003:  Stephen Harper eventually crams all three parties into one box, forms a coalition of conservative and right-leaning parties and declares that ‘progressive’ isn’t fashionable anymore
  • Voila:  The Conservative Party of Canada is born!

As you can see, ‘coalition’ is the life-blood of the Conservative Party of Canada, but a more important word might be ‘suppression‘.

It’s inevitable that folks from all walks of life – be they Libertarians, Pro-Life, religious fanatics, anti-gay, anti-feminist – will be busting to have a voice in a room where they cannot speak or have an opinion, lest they fragment the voting public that puts Stephen Harper in power.

They’ll also get more and more irritated as ‘socialists’ like Jack Layton get a seat at Stephen Harper’s table while they’re left out in the cold because Jack (and/or Ignatieff) represent Stephen Harper’s SECOND ongoing coalition:  the vacillating support from either the Liberals, NDP or even the Bloc that keeps this very sick patient alive and provides new blood when the Conservative minority is about to go into cardiac arrest because of its own largesse.

I pity the people who are in these and other groups that want to be heard, but who will never be listened to as long as the Conservative Party of Canada has Stephen Harper at the helm swearing that ‘coalitions’ in Canada are an unacceptable form of government.

The real truth to the situation is that a coalition of progressives and centre/left would represent more than 2 out of 3 votes in Canada.  This would push Stephen Harper and his corrupt crew into oblivion.

Today, the left and centre parties will not talk of a coalition, but can we at least try to convince them to create a plan to push the Conservative Party of Canada out of power and avoid damaging their own prospects in the process?

Is that too much to ask?  Maybe Jack Layton and Elizabeth May can take the lead on this since Michael Ignatieff has ruled it out?

Project Censored Top 25 List of 2010

I would add unprecedented G20 arrests in Canada as one of the biggest stories.

That said, here are the 25 stories from Project Censored:



In Guantánamo, the notorious but seldom-discussed thug squad, officially known as the Immediate Reaction Force (IRF), deployed by the US military remains very much active. Inside the walls of Guantánamo, the prisoners know the squad as the Extreme Repression Force. In reality, IRF is an extrajudicial terror squad, the existence of which has been documented [...]



A little more than a year before he was fired on June 23, 2010, for making potentially insubordinate remarks in a Rolling Stone profile, General Stanley McChrystal was appointed by President Barack Obama as commander in charge of the war in Afghanistan. He had been formerly in charge of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) [...]



The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has become history’s first global army. Never before have soldiers from so many states served in the same war theater, much less the same country. At the eighth anniversary of the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan, the world is witness to a twenty-first-century armed conflict waged by the largest [...]



India’s 1.2 billion citizens are to be issued biometric identification cards. The cards will hold the person’s name, age, and birth date, as well as fingerprints or iris scans, though no caste or religious identification. Within the next five years a giant computer will hold the personal details of at least 600 million citizens, making [...]



Speaking in advance of the climate summit in Copenhagen, Rajendra Pachauri, the United Nation’s leading climate scientist, warned that Western society must enact radical changes and reform measures if it is to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told the Observer that Western society [...]



Charter schools continue to stratify students by race, class, and sometimes language, and are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the country. Charter schools are often marketed as incubators of educational innovation, and they form a key feature of the Obama administration’s school reform agenda. [...]



On April 24, 2009, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner hosted meetings with finance ministers from the world’s top economies to discuss increased oversight of the global financial system in the wake of the meltdown. The meetings preceded semi-annual gatherings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington, DC. The April G20 meeting [...]



Chevron’s 2008 annual report to its shareholders is a glossy celebration heralding the company’s most profitable year in its history. Profits of $24 billion catapulted Chevron past General Electric to become the second most profitable corporation in the United States. The oil company’s 2007 revenues were larger than the gross domestic product (GDP) of 150 [...]



Nanotech Particles Pose Serious DNA Risks to Humans and the Environment Personal products you may use daily and think are harmless—cosmetics, suntan lotion, socks, and sports clothes—may all contain atom-sized nanotech particles, some of which have been shown to sicken and kill workers in plants using nanotechnology. Known human health risks include severe and permanent [...]



In October 2009, under great pressure from the United States, the government of Spain decided to limit its own jurisdiction in cases of genocide and crimes against humanity, thus closing one of the last windows of accountability for the most serious crimes committed by the most powerful nations on Earth. Under international law, such crimes [...]

Archive for the Category ‘Top 25 of 2011’


Around midnight on December 2, 1984, the citizens of Bhopal, India, a city of over 500,000 people in central India, were poisoned by approximately forty tons of toxic gases pouring into the night air from a largely abandoned chemical insecticide plant owned by the US-owned Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). The long-predicted gas leak at UCC [...]



Several contentious issues still plague the US government and their version of the events of September 11, 2001. Those in political power along with media elites would like to see the ongoing grassroots debates surrounding unanswered 9/11 questions and discrepancies disappear, despite the mountains of evidence that suggest that American citizens were told little about [...]



President Obama’s decision to increase military spending this year and in the future will result in the greatest administrative military spending since World War II. This decision is being made in spite of continued evidence of extreme waste, fraud, abuse, and corporate welfare in the military budget. At the same time, spending on “non-security” domestic [...]



Cuba was the first to come into Haiti with medical aid when the January 12, 2010, earthquake struck. Among the many donor nations, Cuba and its medical teams have played a major role in treating Haiti’s earthquake victims. Public health experts say the Cubans were the first to set up medical facilities among the debris [...]



The H1N1 virus has spawned widespread panic and fear throughout the world. However, upon closer examination, many of the claims made by the World Health Organization (WHO) seem to be based on weak and incomplete data. The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created and used data to grossly exaggerate the need [...]



In a continuous flow of money, American tax dollars end up paying members of the Taliban and funding a volatile environment in Afghanistan. Private contractors pay insurgents with the hope of attaining the very safety they are contracted to provide. Concurrently, US soldiers pay at checkpoints run by suspected insurgents in order to get safe [...]



The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) has released a study indicating that Israel is practicing both colonialism and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories. The HSRC commissioned an international team of scholars and practitioners of international public law from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the West Bank to conduct the [...]



On World Environment Day, June 5, 2009, Peruvian Amazon Indians were massacred by the government of Alán García in the latest chapter of a long war to take over common lands—a war unleashed by the signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Peru and the United States. Three MI-17 helicopters took off from the [...]



Resource exploitation in Africa is not new, but the scale of agricultural “land grabbing” in African nations is unprecedented, becoming the new colonization of the twenty-first century. State violence against Kenyan indigenous pastoralists and Nigerian civilians in oil-rich regions has heightened, leaving thousands dead as the military burns whole communities to the ground and police [...]



Despite national legislative health reform, health care in the US will remain dismal for many Americans, resulting in continuing deaths and personal tragedies. A recent Harvard research team estimates that 2,266 US military veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance. The figure is more than fourteen times the number of deaths suffered [...]

Archive for the Category ‘Top 25 of 2011’


At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives inside and outside Pakistan. The Blackwater [...]



Agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are holding thousands of US residents in unlisted and unmarked subfield offices and deporting tens of thousands in secret court hearings. “If you don’t have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he’s illegal, we can make him disappear.” Those chilling words were spoken [...]



Following in the steps of its predecessor, the Obama administration is expanding mass government surveillance of personal electronic communications. This surveillance, which includes the monitoring of the Internet as well as private (nongovernmental) computers, is proceeding with the proposal or passage of new laws granting government agencies increasingly wider latitude in their monitoring activities. At [...]



The US military is responsible for the most egregious and widespread pollution of the planet, yet this information and accompanying documentation goes almost entirely unreported. In spite of the evidence, the environmental impact of the US military goes largely unaddressed by environmental organizations and was not the focus of any discussions or proposed restrictions at [...]



Nations have reached their limit in subsidizing the United States’ military adventures. During meetings in June 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, world leaders such as China’s President Hu Jintao, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation took the first formal step to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve [...]

What are yours?

NDP Leadership Change in 2011?

2010 was a shameful year for Canadian economics and democracy:

  • G20 ‘police’ forces stomping on the rights of Canadian protestors.  Byron Sonne and many others remain in prison, despite the lack of real reason or threat.
  • Untendered contracts being awarded for planes we don’t need
  • The introduction of privatization of pension plans and the CPP
  • Ongoing reductions in corporate tax rates while small businesses disappear
  • Support for the destruction of this planet, starting with Alberta and its ongoing effort to hold the less-than-attractive position as the largest industrial project in history

The list goes on.  Add yours if you feel like chiming in.  I think we owe it to ourselves to keep a full and ongoing checklist of Harper’s injustices against Canada.

As Stephen Harper continues his reign over Canada, we will all continue to suffer.

Of course, he’s just doing what comes naturally to him.  However, as we all know, he was only elected by a few people in this country, so he needs help to keep his hold on power.

And he knows exactly how to play each of the leaders of the opposition in order to stay in power.

In 2011, he will turn again to Jack Layton.

Unfortunately, Jack Layton has already returned to the table with Stephen Harper, Jim Flaherty and the rest of the crew and will most likely help them craft a budget that will likely pass in the House of Commons early in 2011.  This action alone will ensure that the Harper Conservatives continue to desecrate this country’s reputation in 2011 and beyond.

However, there is another way.  Jack Layton and the rest of the NDP can begin to oppose the machinations of the Harper regime and reject their cynical and abusive politics.  They can stand up to the bullies in the classroom and actually defend the interests of Canadians.

This future would be a nice future and my prediction would fall flat.  If only that would happen, we’d all be better off.

However, I think Jack will get tricked again into supporting the Conservatives and when he does, I believe that he should be seen as abdicating his right as the leader of the NDP.  Negotiating and planning with potentially like-minded people (the Bloc, the Greens, the Liberals) should be a priority, along with do everything possible to get proportional representation implemented at the Federal level.  Playing nickel and dime games with Diamond Jim is a waste for all Canadians and, more importantly, runs contrary to the essence of the NDP belief structure.

But who would take Jack’s place?  The obvious choice is Thomas Mulcair.  He’s fluent in both languages, comes from Quebec, and he shares the Deputy leadership with Libby Davies.

However, I would suggest another option:  Gary Doer.  That’s right.  Gary Doer.  As the past leader of Manitoba’s provincial government, I believe he was singled out by Stephen Harper to serve his current appointment as Canada’s Ambassador to the United States with the specific intent of keeping him away from Federal NDP leadership.  That said, we don’t have to do what Stevie says and we can always pull him back to save Canada.

Of course, if Gary Doer is not available, we’re going to need some new names that will lift the NDP to a completely different stratosphere than the Liberals and Conservatives if they’re going to generate appeal for a massive chunk of population that is unimpressed with any of this country’s leaders.

Who do you think should be in charge if there’s a change in 2011?  Add your comments below.

The War on the Middle Class: Sen Bernie Sanders

It’s more than 13 minutes long, but worth every second:

The war on the middle class in the US, Canada and elsewhere is being wages every day against us.