WIP

I didn't even get to the part that the destruction of the commons has never been incorporated into GDP and per capita GDP stats that are used as the measures of wealth and poverty. Put it simply: if an itinerate peasant is growing food for his own consumption primarily, and selling any excess to trade for needed products, his per capita GDP is going to be much lower than the 30c an hour labourer working in a sweatshop and forced to buy food with his meagre earnings! Growing your own food...whether as a farmer or even a gardener, doesn't show up as economic activity in a capitalist system....just as a forest has no value until every tree is cut down and harvested for lumber! A few years ago, when the Dickensian virtual slavery conditions that had been deliberately kept out of western consciousness by MSM refusal to acknowledge them, we started getting a glimpse of how bad things actually are for the people who make our cheap clothing when the "if it bleeds, it leads" principle briefly overrode the prevailing directive of "out of sight, out of mind," when Bangladeshi fires at textile mills were killing hundreds, culminating with a factory collapse that killed over 1000. Disasters that were beyond the scale of the worst sweatshop negligence-created disasters in the West....like the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that marked it's 100th anniversary a couple of years ago. That disaster occurred in the Textile District of New York City, making it too close to be ignored. But when it happens on the other side of the world to darker people, there has to be 100 killed to make the news cycle, and over 1000 to make it a major story that will have followup stories. Shortly after the factory collapse disaster, the Guardian and the BBC and maybe a few other national public broadcasters, invested the resources to send correspondents to Bangladesh and actually talk to some locals who were neither businessmen nor politicians. One story that really leaped out at me was from a 30 year old man widowed when his wife was killed in the disaster, leaving him alone to care for their 3 or 4 young children. His story was that both he and his wife came from a small rural settlement northwest of Dacca, and like many young people in the area, felt forced off the land and moving to the cities looking for work because the state deemed that his family and other relatives didn't have legal right to the land that had been farmed for generations. Just like every expulsion from the commons that has provided the desperate cheap labour for a series of industrial revolutions since the first one, peasants can always be forced off lands because there was no such thing as legal titles to land until recent history. So, in the case of this 30 year old widowed emigre to an urban slum, like millions of others forced down this track, his actual quality of life has certainly NOT improved by his move to the city, even though that's what our bullshit economic numbers try to tell us!

I don't think that's likely! Every time the NDP has dreams of deep-sixing the Liberal Party, they try to finish them off by sliding to the middle and taking away the centrist issues. The Conservatives today have brought in so many nutbar teaparty types in Ontario and out West, that they don't have the same option of moving back to the center like past PC governments.

I'll vote for the Green Party unless polling data indicates my NDP incumbent might lose to either a Liberal or a Conservative (not likely). My problem with voting Liberal is you never know what you're going to end up with after the election! They have been successful during the good years in Canada because they promise everything to almost everybody, and then decide whether they're moving left or right after the election. Conservatives...since the Harper makeover, can only move so far to the middle, and the NDP is limited because if they abandon their principles and blame it on hard times, they're toast.....as in the case of Bob Rae a little over 20 years ago here! I can't see how Kathleen Wynne is a plus for the JT Campaign, when his polling numbers were already ahead of Wynne's! She has proven herself to be an excellent political strategist over recent years though. To me, it looks like she plays the same divide and conquer strategy that Bill Davis used to do election-after-election back in the days of the centrist Big Blue Machine here in Ontario. Davis's staff would keep a close eye on who was rising and who was falling among the opposition, and try to help out the third party if they were falling too far behind. Davis never did and never could have expected to win half the votes cast in any election, so keeping the opposition divided was paramount. Which is why I don't understand why Harper is doing his relentless attack on Trudeau! If he does manage to kill off the Liberals, where the hell does he think most of those votes will go? Certainly not to Conservatives!

The death squads in Central America created by the CIA were clear examples of creating terrorism. Not only the so called contras in Nicaragua, but the mercenaries who raided native villages and settlements in El Salvador and Guatemala, were un-uniformed police and soldiers payed for and trained by the CIA with Whitehouse authorization. The US-installed dictators in Guatemala and El Salvador only represented a few large landowners and wealthier citydwellers. They couldn't win the trust of native villagers, so they decided to just massacre them and drive survivors across the Mexican border. And it was all done with satellite and other surveillance intel provided covertly by the Reagan Administration.

I make about 80k per year, and I know for damn sure I can live easier than someone making 40k per year. The higher an income, the more money is available for savings and discretionary spending. People below the poverty line don't have options for either. Right now, I don't think even a household income of 80k would be enough to buy a house in most cities in Canada. Point of fact, since we bought all the globalization laissez-faire bullshit 30 years ago, it's been the incomes over 130k that have been making the biggest increases.

That's right! That's the most shameful part of the Harper legacy.

why would an atheist continue on as minister for a church? Probably for most of the same reasons that a liberal Christian who believes in God, but is not a fundamentalist, still continues as a minister. I don't know if anyone else here reads any of the Patheos religion or atheism bloggers, but I've become a fan recently of a liberal Disciples of Christ minister named Erin Wathen. This recent blog post, I think might explain to many of us who are unchurched and don't believe in supernatural stuff why there still are dedicated liberal Christians, who are going to remain Christians and stand by their churches regardless of your best atheist reasons to leave and turn the church building into a restaurant or a tavern or something: $h*! Jesus Says: 7 Reasons I’m (Still) a Christianmoving towards the conclusion:

And so are those evangelical megachurches that have all the Jesusy rhetoric! If their success was determined by their fundamentalist beliefs and rigid moral rules, then why would they put so much emphasis on identifying the needs of suburbanites with young families and providing the services for them that will keep them coming back....even if they don't believe Adam and Eve were riding dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden?

Which makes it an apples and oranges comparison; because the cost of living varies so greatly around the world.

The experts on this stuff always say the Canadian Dollar tends to be undervalued, compared to major currencies, so it should be expected that our Dollar is going to be lower than the US. When a currency rises too fast, that's the end of "selling so much STUFF abroad."

Real estate in a lot of cities is overinflated because of foreign buyers. Once the bubble breaks, a lot of investors and speculators will head for the exits. Now is a good time to stay put...pay off your mortgage if you got one, and don't buy a newer, more expensive house because you think real estate can only go up. A lot of Americans thought that 10 years ago, and are underwater on their mortgages, if they haven't already been evicted.

Personally, I couldn't give a flying f*** whether the wars are declared or not declared! The wars are still happening and with greater frequency as the years go by. And I believe this primarily because advanced, high tech armies attacking small third world nations have a huge overwhelming advantage that drastically reduces the risks of failure. Remember, half a century ago, the US lost 50,000 soldiers in Vietnam. When they were bombing North Vietnam, they were losing on average - two planes per day during the bombing....nowadays, high tech fighters and bombers only crash due to pilot or mechanical error! It's almost risk free. And what could be more risk free than sending robot drones to bomb targets? Personally, I think there should be a cost for war by both sides! The attacker...even one having overwhelming numbers should face some jeopardy so they don't frivolously mount war and near-war campaigns for frivolous and ultimately commercial objectives....like controlling oil supplies. One thing that is also different from the Vietnam Era, is that we were also regularly reminded that we got enough goddamed nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over. Guess what! The nukes are still there! They didn't go away, and the odds of a full scale civilization-ending nuclear war are likely greater today than they were a half century ago, because it's so easy to lay the groundwork with wars of opportunity. Right now, the US is trying to encircle Russia and China with hostile forces as well as degrading their economic power. Whether Obama and whoever actually runs the US Government think that's a good idea, how smart is it to be pushing at the borders and attempting to destabilize major nuclear powers? That's something even the most hardline warhawks wouldn't have considered 50 years ago. But then again, those Cold War leaders and generals had one big difference from today's generation of mostly chickenhawks: they actually fought in wars and knew the costs of war!

I say it is very worthy! Because the scale and frequency of American military interference in the rest of the world (full spectrum dominance) since the fall of the Soviet Union was even greater than I realized after I read this editorial by Glenn Greenwald last fall: How Many Muslim Countries Has the U.S. Bombed Or Occupied Since 1980? quoting military historian Andrew Bacevich: Greenwald notes that Bacevich's list doesn't include the bombings and occupations done by proxies of US - Israel and Saudi Arabia. I'm not going to declare that resentment of foreign invasions and interference is the only reason for inspiring terrorism, since many Latin Americans I've spoken to...especially from Central American countries, know the game that's been played that led them to flee or want to leave their homelands; but that could change also in the future, as the new world of high tech counter-insurgency controls makes it virtually impossible to overthrow despotic regimes through revolutions and uprisings.

No, they're not! Not that it has anything to do with the thread topic, but the argument of 'rising tide raising all boats' or that crap from Tom Friedmann 'The World is Flat' and other cheerleaders of corporatist globalization has completely unraveled during this century...even prior to that recession that began in 07. In the real world, the numbers of people living on less than a dollar a day is increasing, and the 85 richest people in the world own equal wealth to the poorest half (3.5 billion) of the world population. Thanks be to our capitalist overlords! And you are typing here because evil government payed for the research to create computers and an internet before that evil corporation could help themselves to free technology so that they could make money from it. And in today's example of monopoly capitalism, gouge us for unjustifiable profits as our high speed internet service falls way behind Europe, the Far East and even some third world nations. As more and more professions are outsourced or replaced with automation, you may find yourself competing for those 30c an hour jobs yourself some day! Maybe you'd like to explain to us how as earnings for the highest income demographic has increased way above inflation rates over the last 30 years, those in the middle have stagnated, while those in the working poor have become even poorer! Thanks for reminding me why I haven't bought one of those bullshit "smart" phones yet! I'll agree that consumers should ask themselves whether they really need the products they are bombarded with through advertising and promotion, or if they are responding on impulse because every other idiot walking around (and driving around) has got one these days. Making rational choices before buying isn't rewarded in this day and age....certainly less than it was 40 years ago when there actually was a consumer advocacy movement and critics of the process could make their case in mainstream media.

BTW in case that All Lives Matter red herring shows up again, I'd like them to answer : A Cop Killed A White Teen And The #AllLivesMatter Crowd Said Nothing OK #alllivesmatter, why aren't you covering this one? So far, it's only #blacklivesmatter activists who are talking about the case.

In another lifetime, I would have felt out of place at the Nuremberg rallies!

I know and it's ridiculous because people in hierarchical systems judge their success or lack of success by where they are in the hierarchy/ not by earnings or net worth. And this is the main reason why the research done by the Equality Trust from data gathered all over the world a few years back, shows that quality of life is better in the more equal countries...even if the average GDP numbers are less than some richer..but more unequal nations. Once a certain threshold of income is achieved to cover basic necessities of life, then it's all about where we are compared to those just above and under us in the social pecking order. And it should be noted this is one of the key tools used by rightwingers to maintain their control! While a populist left movement has to try to unite a large group of disparate individuals together to focus on the increasing kicking up of money to the top, the right just has to use race, ethnicity, and fear of being surpassed by those lower on the scale, to keep the majority fighting among themselves and not fighting against them!

And whites are less likely to be targeted specifically by police. I got my taste of profiling about 15 years ago, when I was still doing the long drive to and from work, and for several weeks or months, the usual road I used to get to the QEW and out of town was under construction. Unfortunately, the next best alternative meant driving my rusty old sports sedan through a notorious red light district where the hookers and drug dealers do business at 3 in the morning. Because of the look of my car (which was actually mechanically fit) at 3:00 a.m. through this part of town, I was stopped at least once a week by cops looking for something....anything to make a bust! I can just be thankful that I'm not black and did not meet up with one of the especially corrupt cops who's not above dropping a dimebag or something in the back seat to make his night. But, every time it was the same crap: police car with overhead lights on pulling me over...telling me to put my hands on the steering wheel and remain in the vehicle....then asking for driver's licence, insurance and registration..... doing a quick search of the back seat with his flashlight...telling me to open the glove compartment and a work bag I kept on the right seat...then asking me to pop the trunk...then going back to his cruiser with a disappointed look on his face....then after checking in and running info online telling me to go 20 to 30 minutes later. At no point are you allowed to ask questions...or if you do...they just ignore you and bark orders. It would always be at least 15 to 20 minutes in before I had the chance to mention the construction (which he should have been aware of!) and that I'm trying to get out and on the highway to get home...and this is in Canada, not Baltimore, Chicago, NYC or one of the notorious corrupt podunk towns down south! If you've never been profiled....even if you're white, or are mostly white and pass for an average white guy, you've lived a charmed life! And I don't think you get that opportunity if you're black or aboriginal.

Okay, well how about the top 1% nationally and especially globally! And if we're talking about the people who truly run the political, legal and economic systems we have today, we're talking about the .01% of income levels, since most of that 1% includes highly paid professionals as well as the righthand men of the controllers of vast amounts of capital, like their lawyers, economists, political advisers and lobbyists etc.

What we really need now is spending on improving infrastructure, not tax cuts! Most of the benefits from tax cuts go to those of us who are already older, while the infrastructure spending that is being neglected will be a burden for the coming generations in the next few decades.....along with the costs of lots of old baby boomers!

What did the Harper Government offer us when an at par Cdn Dollar was finishing off the job done to Canadian manufacturing that NAFTA started?

More like he still works for the petro lobby, and expects to be rewarded by them after leaving office.....but definitely won't get as much now as he would have if all of the tarsands schemes worked out as planned.

Either that, or Either that, or we don't take the Silk Purse dept. of Sow's Ear Inc. attempt to turn the story into a smiley face very seriously! Put it simply...our trade deficit is dropping because our over-valued Cdn Dollar is also dropping. No thanks to Harper of course, because the decline and shutting down of manufacturing in Ontario and Quebec wasn't on his radar screen...which only tracked potential profits of tarsands developments and how to get enough pipelines to ship enough bitumen everywhere as fast as possible. It was because of Harper's attempts to turn Canada into the next petrostate complete with the usual over-inflated petro-dollar, that we're not going to thank him because his grand scheme to create a climate nightmare and shift the economic and political power to Alberta has blown up in his face! Also worth noting that those of us who are closer to retirement and living more frugally, are not as badly impacted by higher gasoline prices and prices for imported goods by our falling 75c Dollar. But, a lot of younger people who have higher expectations and are part of the army of consumer drones out there trying to buy new crap, are also not going to reward the Conservatives for a return of manufacturing that pays lower wages than it did previously. So, don't expect the drop in imports and increase in Canadian exports to show up in poll numbers and sign-wavers at Conservative rallies!

I wanted to slot this local story in somewhere without having to start a new thread for it, so I hope this is as close to the right place as possible. To put it simply, if the Conservatives had a hope in hell of winning votes in the NDP stronghold of Hamilton, this band of rabid social conservative supporters just blew it for the CPC: Graphic anti-abortion, anti-Trudeau ads surface at Hamilton homes Looks like everything that can possibly go wrong for the Harper Campaign is landing on them all at once! You can only be lucky for so long.

I already mentioned Unitarian Universalist...I think Quakers....if we got any in Canada, would be a second option. But I'm wondering if this isn't the direction the United Church itself might as well go anyway! They refused to dig in their heels like the Catholic Church and some others a half century ago to resist change. The problem has been for decades that the United seems to be arbitrary in deciding where to plant their flag and unable to provide good clear reasons for where they stand. The UU's are already an atheist church for many.....if you're a liberal towards the left side of the political spectrum. Right wing atheists will have to settle for the tiny atheist-humanist meetup groups and continue spending most of their time bitching about religion and trolling messageboards to attack the beliefs of the Christians and other religious adherents.