- Marc Lee reminds us that income disparities are only a small part of the picture of an increasingly unequal economy - with wealth inequality looking far worse:
These numbers are striking, with 58% of wealth in the hands of the top 10%. But we hit a bit of a wall when it comes to looking further up. There does tend to be a bit of fractal pattern that happens with distribution, so if the top 10% get 58% of the wealth, a rough estimate is that the top 1% would get 58% of the income of the top 10%, so about one-third of the total wealth. Meanwhile, the bottom half of households have a teensy 3% of total wealth, with the bottom 10% completely underwater (liabilities greater than assets, or negative net worth).- Dr. Dawg documents the Cons' latest Parliamentary abuses:
Closure is not a new measure, but using it on the very first day of debate, as it was last evening, is uncommon, and using it so routinely is, I believe, unprecedented.- In the department of taking good news where we can get it, at least one Con MP is willing to discuss climate change as a problem. But while Michael Chong deserves full credit for joining the multi-party climate change caucus, it surely speaks volumes that the rest of his party-mates can't be bothered.
Parliamentary committees, too, have been effectively shut down by the ruling Conservatives: in the past, when they were in a minority, the tactic was maximum disruption.
And the war on various independent watchdogs/agencies continues apace. One after another, they have been hobbled or neutered. Dictatorship, after all, doesn’t require independent assessment.
Harper’s Conservatives—elected by only 39% of those who voted—have shown themselves to be literally contemptuous of parliamentary tradition, and the rule of law.
In a nutshell, the Conservatives hate democracy. Canadians are just beginning to realize, I think, how viscerally and deeply this hatred runs.
- Finally, Stephen Maher unloads on Tony Clement and the party that's keeping him in Cabinet:
Clement's defence is that the mayors made the recommendations, which they didn't, and that Baird made the decision, which he didn't.
We need to know why there was no paperwork for the auditor general, because we are up Muskoka River without a paddle if politicians are able to hide their files from the auditor general, the only official with the power to pierce the veil of secrecy in Ottawa.
Clement's explanations are gibberish, and he does not appear to have the judgment necessary for his current job as president of Treasury Board, the minister in charge of enforcing spending rules.
...
Clement owes his seat and his job to Harper, and he seems to do whatever the prime minister asks, cheerfully acting as Harper's smiling spear carrier on ugly files, such as the government's unsuccessful push to shut down Vancouver's Insite program for drug addicts, and the successful push to kill the mandatory long-form census.
Prime ministers need loyal servants, so even though Clement's G8 shenanigans show that he is farcically ill-equipped to carry out his job, Harper is unlikely to move him or to force him to fully account for the rule-breaking porkfest in Muskoka.
Harper is a neo-Nazi and a Reformer. He founded the Northern Foundation. The skinheads organized the N. Foundation for Harper. For Harper's coming out, the media had to be muzzled, which they were and still are. He didn't want his neo Nazi connections to be known to the public. The media are a propaganda machine for Harper.
ReplyDeleteHarper is your typical paranoid fascist dictator. He sent members to storm Guelph University, to stop the students from voting. They even tried to steal the ballot boxes. Scientists are not permitted to publish their results, everything has to go through Harper first.
We were warned about Harper, if he won a majority. He had a many times convicted American felon, working for him. Carson and his ex prostitute girlfriend, were guests in Harper's home. Canadians were receiving robo calls, saying their voting locations had been changed. Those robo calls came from, North Dakota in the good old U.S.A. Hmmmm Then there was the missing fifty million. The contempt of the House. Harper is being investigated for war crimes and crimes against humanity. ICC's Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, suspect Harper in breach of the Geneva Convention. We do remember, Harper prorogued Parliament to dodge the detainee torture question. He was into that, right up over his neck.
Ex BC Premier Gordon Campbell works for Harper. We didn't have a premier for BC. Between Campbell and Harper, they thieved BC blind.
Campbell has the dirtiest, most corrupt and foul, political record in the history of Canada. Harper knows Campbell has no morals or ethics either. Harper rewarded Campbell for doing his dirty work for him. He gave Campbell the appointment of, High Commissioner to England. Campbell's first duty is to con England and the rest of Europe, into the dirty tar sands oil, as clean energy. Harper had already lied to Europe, regarding to toxicity of the dirty oil. We all know P.M. Cameron was in Canada. Harper did some major sucking up to P.M. Cameron. Low and behold, if Cameron is now praising the dirty tar sands oil, and how wonderful Harper is.
There are very few politicians, worth the powder to blow them to hell. They are disgusting, corrupt, evil and sick. And, so was Hitler and Stalin.