Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday January 31, 2019

This week, Open Sources Guelph is going to get complicated. In Venezuela, there are some tough decisions about how to handle the tense political situation there. The House of Commons is dealing with some of the same old, same old, but police forces in the country are concerned about a new threat. And finally, we ask the question of our time: do we really need billionaires? 

This Thursday, January 31 at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

Maduro Notes. Things have gone from bad to worse in Venezuela. Already suffering from economic recession, President Nicolás Maduro was elected in a vote that many around the world see as less than legitimate. Then, last week, opposition leader Juan Guaidó basically declared himself president, and was promptly recognized by many world leaders including Canada and the U.S. But the chaos has begotten chaos, and some are wondering if military intervention is coming. Is there salvation for Venezuela?

Attack the Block. Centre Block is closed for long, long term renovations, but the change of venue did not create a change in attitude in the temporarily re-located House of Commons. From the firing of John McCallum, to a security threat in Kingston, to all the back and forth about carbon tax, pipelines,  economic development, and all the typical political posturing, it’s just more of the usual except this time, with a Federal Election just months away. We’ll talk about the start of the winter session.

Sleeper Incel. Last April, Alek Minassian killed 10 and injured 16 others because he was romantically unsuccessful; “the Incel Rebellion has already begun,” he wrote on Facebook. A report by CBC’s The Fifth Estate has tried to raise the alarm that incels, the so-called involuntarily celibates, are becoming more and more of a threat that law enforcement will need to address. Are we taking the threats of incels and toxic masculinity as seriously as we should, and what can we do about it?

Meh-lionaires. A few weeks after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed a 70 per cent marginal tax rate for people who make over $10 million in the U.S., the idea of taxing the rich seems to be carrying more currency. How do we know? The uber rich hanging out in Davos, Switzerland are already trying to throw cold water on the idea. But it seems like it’s too late as people are starting to ask a new fundamental question: How much is enough? If we have a minimum wage, then why don’t we have a maximum one?



Leave a comment

Filed under Show Notes

Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s