Archive for January 2018

Sunday Bloody Sunday with the Ontario Progressive Conservatives

Jan 29th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 2018. 5 PM ET. [UPDATED JAN 30]. It may still be, as some wise observers have suggested, that the Ontario Progressive Conservatives – now disentangled from the wobbly leadership of Patrick Brown – will go on to handily win a majority government in the June 7 provincial election. (As some […]



Who will benefit most from Patrick Brown’s sudden downfall as Ontario Progressive Conservative leader?

Jan 26th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

TORONTO BEACHES, JANUARY 26, 2018, 2:30 AM ET. [UPDATED 1:40, 5:20, 7:00 PM, JAN 27, 12:30PM]. What are we mere voters in Ontario provincial elections to make of such headlines as : “Two women accuse Patrick Brown of sexual misconduct” ; and “Tories looking for new leader after Patrick Brown sex scandal”? For starters, following […]



“And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north” : Democracy in US & Canada 2018

Jan 21st, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

I.  LIVING NEXT DOOR TO INCREASINGLY JUST PLAIN CRAZY ELEPHANT [UPDATED JAN 23]. Is anyone surprised that there is a US federal government “shutdown” on the anniversary of Donald Trump’s first year in office? If you actually are interested, try : “On Trump’s First Anniversary, a Government Shutdown” by John Cassidy in The New Yorker […]



How Warren, Olbermann, Floethe, and Cox can help us understand Wolff’s crazy new book on the Trump White House

Jan 7th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA. JANUARY 7, 2018. 1:30 AM. Sometimes it is hard to resist the pure soap opera that American politics has become in the age of Donald Trump, even if you live far away in the northern woods. Two contributions to the latest bout of near-serious madness induced by the publication of Michael Wolff’s […]



Seven steps to heaven on the Toronto jazz scene in January 2018 …

Jan 3rd, 2018 | By | Category: Entertainment

[UPDATED JANUARY 10]. What are some options for dropping by the Rex Jazz & Blues bar in Toronto in the first month of this perhaps fateful year 2018? Which of the scheduled groups would you most like to hear? Those asking these poignant questions also promised that if we did go to any of these […]