Alvin Finkel
@alvinfinkel.bsky.social
Socialist historian; author of Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality; president, Alberta Labour History Institute https://lorimer.ca/adults/product/humans-the-300000-year-struggle-for-equality/
"Can a species that started out so well & stayed cooperative, peaceful and egalitarian for most of its existence be now written off as hopeless and condemned to destroy most of life on this planet?" A question posed in my book, Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality.
See my post, "What Canada Has Done for Alberta," on Change Alberta Facebook for a historical refutation of the manufactured arguments of Alberta separatists (Yes, some ask, "why stay on fascist Facebook?" The answer is I have almost 12,000 followers there who aren't going to migrate with me).
Trump says the only safeguard needed against AI threats is a "STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT." The multiple threats that AI poses to the continuation of human life, to peace, to jobs, and to the environment cannot be tackled by any one person, much less brainless, narcissist, amoral Trump.
How fascist Trump is suppressing reporting of his and his entourage's criminal past and present actions and future plans: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/u...
How Trump Is Wielding Power to Stifle Speech
President Trump has harnessed agencies across the government to curtail press freedoms, a sweeping campaign that free speech advocates say will have lasting effects.
nytimes.com
The Gini coefficient, a measure of distribution of wealth in which 0 means total equality and 1 means one fat pig gets it all, the Geo Factbook for 2025 reports the US Gini at 41.8 vs. 29.9 for Canada. Thanks to fucking Trump, the US Gini, that is inequality, rose 2 full points in 2025 over 2024.
Adding to my last post, with something from my book, Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality, US productivity rose 70% from 1980 to 2015. But income of the bottom 50% of American households didn't rise at all while the top .1 percent got a 322 percent increase.
The UBS Global Wealth Report, 2025 shows average Canadian citizens are 23% wealthier than average US citizens when factoring in public healthcare and social supports. Yes, the US is #2 in the world in terms of average incomes and Canada only #13. Subtracting medical payments changes calculations.
Yes, US 9/11 was a tragedy. But for progressives 9/11 was already a tragic date: the day in 1973 when the US-aided Chilean military overthrew the elected socialist government of Salvador Allende that had nationalized the American-controlled copper industry. US imperialism kills.
Union Bank of Switzerland reports US is 2nd in world on average incomes vs. Canada at 13th. On MEDIAN incomes Canada is 7th and US is 13th. Redistributive policies matter and explain why Canadian poverty rates are lower than US rates.
Canadians are reacting to Donald Trump renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America by renaming the Orange Menace as Shitface Pedophile.
Albertans, make sure to vote in the October 19 referendum--vote to stay in Canada and vote no on Smith's 9 racist and unconstitutional questions. To avoid line-ups that Smith's anti-machine-voting legislation makes inevitable, order a special ballot. www.elections.ab.ca/resources/me...
Special Ballot Requests Now Open for October 19 Referendum - Elections Alberta
EDMONTON, AB – Online applications to Vote by Mail are now open for the October 19, 2026, Referendum. Vote by Mail, also known as a Special Ballot, is available to all eligible Alberta electors. Elec...
elections.ab.ca
Encouragingly, rural Albertans, who could once be relied on to vote for a pile of manure if that's who the Conservatives nominated, are uniting against UCP efforts to impose data centres throughout the province--with no environmental assessment or local input. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alber...
Alberta to host second town hall on AI data centres after jeers, boos at Wednesday event
Residents lined up to voice opposition, express distrust in the government
theglobeandmail.com
The joys of private medical insurance in the US.https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/unitedhealth-s-crisis-deepens-lawsuit-alleges-medicare-fraud-algorithmic-care-denials-and-237-million-insider-sales/ar-AA2a2lTr
ASK NOT FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. IT TOLLS FOR YOU. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/16/u...
Years of Trump Support Came Undone in 15 Minutes in an Airport.
The case represents a new front in President Trump’s mass deportation drive: arrests at airports of people who have active immigration cases and no criminal history.
nytimes.com
I think you'd enjoy my latest book, Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality. It's a positive, socialist vision of human history but with no punches pulled re oppression. Here's the publisher's page that includes 4 chapters of the book: lorimer.ca/adults/produ...
lorimer.ca
Francesca Hong's near-win as Dem candidate for Wisconsin governor, which the bourgeois media use to show "limits" to US socialist growth is is another demonstration of the impressive spread of progressive thinking. Given generations of propaganda vs. egalitarianism in the US, it's a hopeful sign.
"On thornier issues such as loss of jobs from AI, autonomous weapons and government surveillance, Zuckerberg mostly brushed them aside." In short, the billionaires, who call for unregulated AI, meaning they alone will call the shots, refuse to address the issues of interest to the rest of us.
Tobias Lutke's call for extra votes for the wealthy to allow them to preserve their wealth demonstrates the filthy rich in Canada, as in the US, and likely everywhere else, disdain democracy. Like the Nazis, who came to power because of industrial support, today's capitalists are not democrats.
As an historian of social welfare globally, I know that in many countries guaranteed health care, higher minimum wages, and the right to join unions were granted, often by conservative governments, as a way to fend off communism. Only in the US are such measures claimed to constitute communism.
My debate with Danielle Smith in Alberta Views magazine in 2018. She was just a far right radio personality at the time but she revealed her corporate shill ideology that she disguised in the 2023 provincial election. Her main mentor, as she admits, is Ayn Rand! albertaviews.ca/rightful-rol...
Dialogue: The Rightful Role of Government
Danielle Smith and Alvin Finkel differ (respectively) on the role of government.
albertaviews.ca
Trump's decision to impose brutal tariffs on Canada is a distraction from his defeat in Iran which, in turn, resulted from his effort to distract Americans from his suppression of the parts of the Epstein files that reveal his pedophilia. He wants Americans to focus on imaginary external enemies.
I think you'd enjoy my latest book, Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality. It's a positive, socialist vision of human history but with no punches pulled re oppression. Here's the publisher's page that includes 2 chapters of the book: lorimer.ca/adults/produ...
lorimer.ca
Lopsided distribution of wealth in the US: US is #2 globally in AVERAGE WEALTH per capita, Canada a mere #13. But in MEDIAN WEALTH per capita, Canada rises to #7 and the US falls to a lowly #28. Why? Because the ultra-wealthy in the US distort the average & medians reveal distribution of wealth.
Trump claims Biden let the population explode. But official figures for US population increase show that the rate of increase from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2024 are almost exactly the same as the increase from July 1, 2016 to July 1, 2020. A little less in the latter! No increase from Trump to Biden.
Shallow stuff in NY Times re "who was George Washington?" He was a slaver & land speculator in the Ohio Valley. French and Indigenous people whipped his ass there (1754). In 1764, broke, Britain signed the Niagara Treaty with Pontiac, ceding the Valley. The pissed land speculator led a revolution.
Most Americans don't know that Washington & Jefferson were huge land speculators in the Ohio Valley who turned vs. Britain when it ended a war with Pontiac & 18 First Nations he lead by ceding them the Valley. Land speculators were livid. The US revolution was a disaster for Indigenous peoples.
A precedent for Trump's use of presidency to make a fortune: Geo Washington used his presidency to nullify the Niagara Treaty between Indigenous people in the Ohio Valley & Britain to reserve the full Valley for Indigenous people. Washington, a huge speculator in the Valley, then made a killing.
A Globe story today says AHS is opposing Athana Mentzelopoulos from using 425 of 450 documents she wants to use in her court case, claiming they are "confidential." So much for Danielle Smith's claim she wants authorities to get to the bottom of the accusations re corrupt contract practices.
The UFC cage with mindless male violence within is a potent symbol of mainstream American history that Trump represents. But there is also a history of resistance to capitalist greed, racism, misogyny, violence, and mindless environmental destruction. That needs to become the new mainstream.
