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TJP
Galbraith on Goldman Sachs and the Fed
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comIt was clear by 2008 that more remained to be learned about the management of money.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
I am just rereading John Kenneth Galbraith’s 1977 book, Age of Uncertainty which came out of a BBC series of the same name.
While there was much of interest a second time around, a couple of items jumped out at me.
Tyranny. Around the Corner?
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comIf I were an American, I would get out while other countries still might take me.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
18th century British PM William Pitt could have been thinking about the excesses of the G.W. Bush administration when he said:
"Necessity was the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It was the argument of tyrants; it was the creed of slaves."
Grapes of 2011
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comThe Depression and those who carried out its policies failed to see the larger picture.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." said the 18th century political philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797).
Canada Elects
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comIn spite of what you may have heard, Canada is not turning conservative.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
As some of you know, Canada held a national election on May 2. This is a brief note to throw some cold water on those of you who mistakenly believe that Canada is “turning conservative”.
The conservatives only increased their share of the popular by 1.96%, it wasn’t so much that the Conservatives won, but that the Liberals lost.
America, Global Enemy #1
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comAs Americans continue to degrade and destroy the earth, they are destroying it for everyone.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
There are tens of millions of good Americans; people I could like, admire and respect if I knew them personally.
At the same time there are tens of millions of bad Americans who, intentionally or otherwise, are bent towards destroying the world and everyone on it (including, ironically, themselves, but they don’t seem to have that much awareness).
Kremastics
By Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comFor the last half century or more the American people have been damned fools. It may be too late to do anything about it; in fact it almost certainly is too late.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Many, if not most, Americans are in serious denial. The country they know and love is almost finished. As Lincoln famously said: “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” and America has never been so divided.
The Democrats hate and fear the Republicans, and the Republicans hate and fear the Democrats.
A Note on the American Psyche
By Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comIn one of my stories last year I reviewed Shock Doctrine by fellow Canadian Naomi Klein. She recounted in depressing detail the horrors visited on other nations by American policies—almost always on behalf of business.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
With all the negative commentary on my “Shutdown” piece, I would just like to clear the air on what I write and why I write it.
Note: Rather than qualify every statement let me make clear that when I say “Americans”, I mean most or the vast majority of American citizens, but not all.
Shutdown: How Republicans Are Your Friends
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comInstead of gnashing your teeth, see the Republicans instead as tools of American progress and help them along.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
Looked at logically, from Canada or Europe, America looks increasingly like an insane asylum run by the inmates. It could even be argued that it’s an asylum for the criminally insane.
This sounds like a harsh judgment, but the evidence is irrefutable (about which more in a moment). Republicans are not the actual inmates, but it is the inmates themselves who elect Republicans to govern—supposedly in the inmate’s interests.
What`s in it For You?
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comWhat is the reward that all you little people who support the Republican right expect?
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
I, and many of us so-called liberals and lefties, would really like to understand what motivates conservatives, Republicans and Tea Party aficionados. The expanding Republican opposition to their fellow citizens and fellow peoples on the planet is a continuing source of incredulity.
Jumping the New York Times Paywall
Daniel Johnson Salem-News.comWhat Americans don’t seem to understand is that their democracy has been bought—lock, stock and barrel.
(CALGARY, Alberta) - 
In 2005, The New York Times introduced a paywall for articles. I don’t recall how long it lasted, but it was flawed. Readers could access ordinary articles but they would have to pay to read the columnists and some specialized articles. I suspect that management realized how selective readers became and the columnists ended up almost unread.
They’re doing it again. They’ve started first here in Canada and the rest of the world on the 28th of March.
Daniel Johnson - Canada
Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.com
Email: omnisavant@shaw.ca
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, as a teenager, Daniel Johnson aspired to be a writer. Always a voracious reader, he reads more books in a month than many people read in a lifetime. He knew early that in order to be a writer, you have to be a reader.
Another early bit of self-knowledge was that writers need experience. So, in the first seven years after high school he worked at 42 different jobs ranging from management trainee in a bank (four branches in three cities), inside and outside jobs at a railroad (in two cities), then A & W, factories and assembly lines, driving cabs (three different companies), collection agent, a variety of office jobs, John Howard Society, crisis counsellor at an emergency shelter, salesman in a variety of industries (building supplies, used cars, photocopy machines)and on and on. You get the picture.
In 1968, he was between jobs and eligible for unemployment benefits, so he decided to take the winter off and just write. The epiphany there, he said, was that after about two weeks, “I realized I had nothing to say.” So back to regular work.
He has always been concerned about fairness in the world and the plight of the underprivileged/underdog. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that he understood where that motivation came from. Diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) he researched the topic and, among others, read a book Scattered Minds by Dr. Gabor Maté, an ADD person himself. Maté wrote: "[A] feeling of duty toward the whole world is not limited to ADD but is typical of it. No one with ADD is without it."
That explains his motivation. Hard-wired.
As a professional writer he sold his first paid article in 1974 and, while employed at other jobs, started selling a few pieces in assorted places. He created his first journalism gig. In the late 1970s, when the world was recovering from a recession, the Canadian federal government had a job creation program where, if an employer created a new job, the government would pay part of the wage for the first year or two. The local weekly paper was growing, so he approached the publisher and said this was an opportunity for him to hire a new reporter. The publisher had been thinking along those lines but cost was a factor. No longer.
Over the next 15 years, Daniel eked out a living as a writer doing, among other things, national writing and both radio and TV broadcasting for the CBC, Maclean’s (the national newsmagazine) and a host of smaller publications. Interweaved throughout this period was soul-killing corporate and public relations writing.
It was through the 1960s and 1970s that he got his university experience. In his first year at the University of Calgary, he majored in psychology/mathematics; in his second year he switched to physics/mathematics. He then learned of an independent study program at the University of Lethbridge where he attended the next two years, studying philosophy and economics. In the end he attended university over nine years (four full time) but never qualified for a degree because he didn't have the right number of courses in any particular field.
In 1990 he published his first (and so far, only) book: Practical History: A guide to Will and Ariel Durant’s “The Story of Civilization” (Polymath Press, Calgary)
Newly appointed as the Deputy Executive Editor in August 2011, he has been writing exclusively for Salem-News.com since March 2009 and, as of summer 2011, has published more than 160 stories.
He continues to work on a second book which he began in 1998 with the working title Cosmology of the Ants.
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