Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- David Macdonald offers this year's report on CEO compensation in Canada - showing how company men are being handed obscene pay packages while workers on the ground are left to toil away for hundreds of times less. Paul Krugman points out the connection between enhanced worker power and reduced inequality which led to the U.S.' economic success after World War II - even as Donald Trump seeks to drag the country back to a gilded age which was far poorer for all but the wealthiest few. 

- Guglielmo Briscese and Maddalena Grignani study (PDF) the importance of public trust in public institutions - and the potential to substantially increase it by making useful information readily available. Don Moynihan writes that the Trump administration's plans are to make the federal government a toxic employer - and that there's precedent from his first term to see how that will play out. Jason Linkins discusses how the enshittification of the U.S.' civil service will harm the general public. And Jill Lawrence notes that the Republicans' determination to defund the IRS is the ultimate indicator of their phony populism - as the result is both to direct more tax enforcement toward those least able to pay, and to starve the government of resources as the wealthy humb their noses at their tax obligations. 

- Vijay Vaitheeswaran highlights how grid-scale storage is becoming readily affordable and feasible - making renewable energy into by far the most efficient option in places where governments aren't actively distorting power production to favour fossil fuels and other extractive industries. Holly Caggiano, Emily Grubert and Mark Paul discuss the strong U.S. public support to end dirty energy subsidies. And Eric Holthaus makes the case that the most meaningful climate action at the individual level is to opt out of the system that's superheating our planet to the extent possible. 

- Alexa Phillips reports that the fallout from Brexit includes the dumping of garbage ans sewage on UK beaches as the abandonment of EU standards led to a polluter free-for-all. And Walker Bragman points out how the alt-right is already seeking to politicize the avian flu - even as public health authorities shy away from both substantive action and public communication based on the contrived backlash to any and all responses to COVID-19. 

- Julia Metraux interviews Anita Say Chan on how techbros have become the new eugenecists. 

- Finally, The Groundbreaker makes the case for local-level organization as the necessary core of a progressive political movement. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Graham Lawton writes that continued (or worse yet growing) inequality represents an intractable obstacle to ameliorating the climate crisis. Laurence Tubiana discusses the importance of taxing polluters, while Arielle Samuelson and Emily Atkin expose how big oil is trying to bribe its way out of any accountability for the damage it's caused. And the Economist points out that even as the industry at the centre of the climate crisis tries to buy its way out of any responsibility, there's no obvious answer to the question of who will pay for the homes and infrastructure being destroyed by a climate breakdown. 

- Tom Perkins discusses the EPA's tentative steps toward regulating a few "forever chemicals" in drinking water, but notes that there's far more to be done both in cleaning up existing contamination and expanding the range of carcinogens covered. 

- Mike Crawley reports on the grocery oligopolists who are lobbying Doug Ford's government to have somebody else pay for the mess they create with excessive waste. And Milca Meconnen, Tasmin Adel and Kari Guo discuss the dangerous combination of worsening poverty and escalating costs of essentials including food and housing. 

- Finally, Richmond and Richmond note that Britons who narrowly voted for Brexit based on a steaming pile of disinformation have come to deeply regret that decision. And Lisa Young writes that there's every reason to be similarly concerned about Danielle Smith's plans to sever Alberta from any federal plans or funding which don't pass the UCP's ideological vetting process. 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Sara Moniuzsko reports on the World Health Organization's recognition that COVID-19 is still causing nearly 10,000 reported deaths per month (to say nothing of unreported deaths and disabilities). And Michelle Ghoussoub reports on research confirming that access to prescribed opioids results in dramatic reductions in overdoses and deaths. 

- Tim Bousquet discusses the normalization of a lack of housing which has led to the building of "temporary" pallet shelters being treated as progress rather than a sign of desperate need for change. And Drew Anderson highlights how Danielle Smith and the UCP have pushed to set a baseline expectation of increased pollution, sprawls and energy inefficiency just over the holidays.  

- Andrew Coyne writes that surrender to premiers who thumb their nose at the rule of law only encourages them. And Linda McQuaig points out how the Libs have chosen to serve big oil at the expense of any responsible climate policy (with a similar effect of emboldening its climate sabotage). 

- Karin Kirk notes that even at a time of relatively low oil prices, consumers are better served charging an electric vehicle than buying fuel at the pumps. 

- Finally, Jon Stone reports on Sadiq Khan's efforts to break the UK's culture of silence about the immense real costs of succumbing to the implausible promises of Brexit. 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- George Monbiot discusses how everybody is being forced to play COVID roulette due to the choice not to work toward clean and safe air. Sophie Peterson offers a personal perspective on the damage being done by the failure of governments to take long COVID seriously. And Sharon Kirkey reports on the finding by a panel led by Alex Himelfarb that even using conservative assumptions, thousands of deaths in Canada have been caused by COVID disinformation. 

- Linda McQuaig writes that Doug Ford owes Ontarians an explanation for his refusal to fund public services (concurrent with his willingness to throw money at private profiteers). Bea Bruske warns that Canadian workers can't be expected to accept an economic system which is rigged against them by allowing for price increases but not corresponding wage boosts. And Christopher Olk, Colleen Schneider and Jason Hickel discuss how universal public services help to protect people against inflation and deprivation alike - while also helping to rein in windfall corporate profits and concentration of wealth.  

- Unfortunately, Anna Clark points out how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is instead treating its mandate as being the protection of corporate profits rather than the public - including in failing to regulate vital screening tests. And Cory Doctorow is rightly outraged that Moderna is planning to gorge itself on obscene markups being applied to vaccines researched and developed through public resources. 

- Finally, David Wallace-Wells writes about the continued fallout from the Brexit debacle which has seen standards of living plummet - even as the alt-right everywhere continues to push blinkered nationalism with no regard for its obvious self-sabotage which results. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Nick Dunne interviews Colin Furness about the impact the Omicron COVID variant figures to have in schools - and the need to hold off on reopening after a holiday which has included grossly insufficient precautions. Alyson Kruger asks whether people are learning lessons as to how to self-isolate when necessary. And Nick Cohen rightly draws an analogy between the UK Con MPs pushing to slash public health measures and their previous insistence on a hard Brexit as examples of wilful self-destruction in the name of revolution.

- Dawn Bowdish and Chandrima Chakraborty discuss how avoidable vaccine inequity paved the way for the emergence of the Omicron variant. And Jack Healey, Noah Welland and Richard Fausset discuss the increasingly-entrenched antivaxxers who are extending and worsening the pandemic for everybody. 

- Meanwhile, Joel Lexchin and Abhimanyu Sud write that Health Canada's reinforcement of brand-name drugs rather than scientific generic names serves only to make it more expensive to treat medical issues.

- Bruno Latour writes that the pandemic should serve as a warning as to the importance of collective action in the face of an impending climate breakdown. And Nick Boisvert reports on Canada's continued lack of preparation to deal with the extreme weather events and other emergencies caused by a changing climate.

- Finally, Robert Reich argues that we should be wary of the corporate media's insistence on narrowing the set of public policy issues treated as worthy of discussion or above any cost-benefit analysis. And Luke Savage challenges the core centrist philosophy of treating any worthwhile change as being politically impossible.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Smriti Mallapaty reports on new research suggesting that vaccines provide only partial protection against the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. Sarath Peiris asks when Scott Moe and his minions will be held accountable for sacrificing hundreds of lives and thousands of people's health to science denial and wishful thinking. And the Maple examines the failure of both Moe and Jason Kenney to take steps to protect public health in the face of record case and hospitalization counts. 

- Jim Stanford writes about the importance of frontline workers in a pandemic - and the economic forces trapping them in precarity and deprivation. 

- Alec Salloum discusses how the Moe government's changes to Saskatchewan social programs are depriving the people who most need housing and income supports of those basic building blocks of a healthy life. And George Eaton points out how cuts to pandemic supports look to increase poverty and inequality in the UK. 

- Cole Hanson highlights how Canada has chosen to legitimize tax evasion rather than making it a priority to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share. And Adam Ramsey similarly writes about the UK's role in the Pandora Papers and the global system of tax avoidance, while Peter Oborne discusses the partisan connections between tax evasion and big-money donations to the UK Cons. 

- Meanwhile, Umair Haque and Doug Saunders each discuss the self-inflicted damage the UK faces as a result of Brexit. 

- Finally, Magdi Semrau explores how the U.S.' media distorted coverage of withdrawal from Afghanistan in favour of a frame of permanent war with no regard for consequences. And David Pugliese exposes how Canada has trained far-right extremists in the Ukraine. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- The Canadian Press reports on the overwhelming public support for vaccine mandates and other public health rules - as well as the supermajorities recognizing that Jason Kenney and Scott Moe have failed their provinces:

Unsurprisingly given their provinces' struggles with the fourth wave of the pandemic, Kenney and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe ranked the lowest among provincial first ministers for their handling of the health crisis.

Fully 80 per cent of Alberta respondents said they were very or somewhat dissatisfied with Kenney's performance, and 74 per cent of Saskatchewan respondents felt the same about Moe.

- The Associated Press reports on the widespread shortages caused by the UK's ill-advised fixation on Brexit. And Matt Stoller writes about the U.S.' own supply chain failings, while noting that the issue goes far beyond COVID.

- Jeremy Appel offers a reminder as to how Canada lost its domestic vaccine supply to privatization and acquiescence in the business model of big pharma. 

- John Michael McGrath discusses how to empower municipalities now that the Supreme Court has confirmed that there's no Charter-protected right to meaningful elections at their level. And Henry Grabar writes about Paris' success reclaiming public spaces for people rather than cars. 

- Finally, Jeff Keele reports on how seniors with low incomes are being affected by the Libs' failure to account for their circumstances in designing the CERB. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Karl Nerenberg notes that taxes on the wealthy represent an excellent starting point in ensuring that it's possible to pass progressive policy in a minority Parliament. And Katrina Miller, Toby Sanger and Alex Hemingway point out the role the provinces can play in developing a more progressive tax system while funding the services and social investments we need.

- But Michael Roberts warns that there's little indication yet that we'll change course from an economy dangerously reliant on dying resource industries and zombie corporations. 

- Meanwhile David Roberts, points out that Illinois is setting new standards in developing an equitable transition plan to a clean economy.

- Kandist Mallitt calls out the increasing use of violent police force to displace homeless people based on the view they have no place in a commercialized housing market. And Jesse Jenkinson and Stephen Hwang write that we should be making tent encampments unnecessary rather than illegal.

- Finally, Umair Haque discusses Britain's continuing failure to realize that it's shot itself in the foot by pushing through Brexit in the absence of any coherent reason or rational plan.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Katie Raso describes the coronavirus pandemic as the neoliberal Chernobyl, having exposed how we're not only unable to respond to a disaster in progress - though it's worth adding the even more alarming reality that we're even falling short of consensus as to the fact that it's happening. Stephen Maher and Tonda MacCharles each offer their take on the government response after a year. And Aaron Wherry talks to Dan Gardner about how the pandemic demonstrates the danger of prioritizing short-term interests over long-term planning for entirely predictable events.

- Mariano Zafra and Javier Salas offer a look at how air circulation is crucial to limiting the spread of COVID-19. The Globe and Mail's editorial board warns that the virus is currently spreading far more quickly than vaccines can catch up to provide any protection,. And Abby Goudnough writes about the varied steps needed to get staff vaccinated at a single nursing home, while Martin Regg Cohn theorizes that we'll eventually need to make vaccinations mandatory. 

- Julie Ireton discusses how Canada's record of long-term care deaths in the midst of COVID is the worst among wealthy countries. And Karen Howlett focuses on the reality that some of those deaths can be traced to a failure to provide health care resources where they were desperately needed. 

- Meanwhile, Sharon Kirkey reports on Ontario's growing number of severe cases among younger people, while Alexander Quinn takes note of the same danger in Regina.

- Charles Rusnell and Jennie Russell report on Alberta's choice to mislead Cargill workers into thinking their workplace was safe in order to keep meat production going as a COVID outbreak tore through the plant. And Caryn Lieberman reports that public health experts are pulling their children from Ontario schools as the Ford government refuses to either shut them down or invest in making them safer.

- Finally, Umair Haque writes that Britain is destroying itself as a nationalist narrative of trying to hoard the spoils of development gives way to a massive selloff to foreign capital.

Friday Evening Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- George Monbiot writes that the UK Cons are using their own botched Brexit as an excuse to set up a disaster capitalist's paradise.

- Canadians for Tax Fairness discusses how the Libs' inclination to attach draconian penalties to their pandemic income benefit signals the gap in treatment between the wealthy and the rest of us. And the Tax Justice Network takes note of the modest progress that's been made in so much as registering the beneficial ownership of wealth.

- Kim Siever discusses two of the most important problems in relying on billionaires' charity rather than taxes to fund social priorities.

- Alex Bozikovic wonders why Toronto is refusing to take a golden opportunity to build more affordable housing. And Jolson Lim discusses the risk of a wave of homelessness if the protections set up as COVID-19 first spread are allowed to expire.

- Finally, Meagan Day discusses the connection between ending mass incarceration and strengthening the labour movement. Ratna Omidvar and Leslie Seidle offer their take as to the changes needed to support migrant workers, while Kathleen Harris reports on the employer abuse and risk of disease which represent the status quo. And Allison Hurst examines the diminished wages and working conditions for long-term care workers in British Columbia.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Richard Partington discusses the rise of inequality and some of the options to combat it. And PressProgress points out the Parliamentary Budget Officer's conclusion that the NDP's plan for a wealth tax can turn money currently being hoarded by the ultra-rich into tens of billions of dollars in new revenue to help build a stronger Canada.

- Meanwhile, George Monbiot writes that the UK Cons are looking to push through Brexit primarily for the purposes of being able to use the shock to further enrich the wealthy. And Gillian Steward discusses the austerity in store for Alberta as Jason Kenney schemes to break his promise not to cut public services.

- Dana Brown examines the case for a public pharmaceutical manufacturer in the U.S. to ensure needed medications are affordable.

- Finally, Isabella O'Malley reports on the massive oil spill on Grand Bahama caused by Hurricane Dorian.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Justin Fisher laments the fact that we're still talking about first steps toward combating a climate crisis after decades of understanding the problem. Jake Woodier points out that Brexit has been the UK's recent distraction from the most important issue facing humanity. And Joseph Stiglitz is the latest to compare a Green New Deal to avert climate breakdown with the scale and urgency of a wartime mobilization:

When the US was attacked during the second world war no one asked, “Can we afford to fight the war?” It was an existential matter. We could not afford not to fight it. The same goes for the climate crisis. Here, we are already experiencing the direct costs of ignoring the issue – in recent years the country has lost almost 2% of GDP in weather-related disasters, which include floods, hurricanes, and forest fires. The cost to our health from climate-related diseases is just being tabulated, but it, too, will run into the tens of billions of dollars – not to mention the as-yet-uncounted number of lives lost. We will pay for climate breakdown one way or another, so it makes sense to spend money now to reduce emissions rather than wait until later to pay a lot more for the consequences – not just from weather but also from rising sea levels. It’s a cliche, but it’s true: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The war on the climate emergency, if correctly waged, would actually be good for the economy – just as the second world war set the stage for America’s golden economic era , with the fastest rate of growth in its history amidst shared prosperity. The Green New Deal would stimulate demand, ensuring that all available resources were used; and the transition to the green economy would likely usher in a new boom. Trump’s focus on the industries of the past, like coal, is strangling the much more sensible move to wind and solar power. More jobs by far will be created in renewable energy than will be lost in coal.
...
The mobilization efforts of the second world war transformed our society. We went from an agricultural economy and a largely rural society to a manufacturing economy and a largely urban society. The temporary liberation of women as they entered the labor force so the country could meet its war needs had long-term effects. This is the advocates’ ambition, a not unrealistic one, for the Green New Deal.

There is absolutely no reason the innovative and green economy of the 21st century has to follow the economic and social models of the 20th-century manufacturing economy based on fossil fuels, just as there was no reason that that economy had to follow the economic and social models of the agrarian and rural economies of earlier centuries.

- But if we needed a reminder of the ease with which serious dangers to the public get ignored or forgotten, Benjamin Kentish notes that tens of thousands of Britons still live in buildings covered in the same material which caused the spread of the devastating Grenfell Tower fire.

- Rafferty Baker reports on research showing how harm reduction steps are reducing the still-alarming number of deaths caused by opioids. And Barbara Krantz points out that as serious as the opioid crisis is, far more people die due to alcohol - even as Canada's right makes it a core policy to try to push people to drink more.

- Trade Justice Network Canada discusses how the new NAFTA is anything but progressive - no matter what talking points the Trudeau Libs use in trying to push it through.

- And finally, Paul Romer suggests that a tax on targeted advertising could both raise revenue, and reduce the amount of user tracking that contributes to hidden dangers online.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Linda Givetash discusses how the consequences of climate breakdown include impending water shortages in the UK. But rather than recognizing and acting on that danger, Theresa May's Conservatives are looking at Brexit as an excuse to do even less to protect the environment.

- Meanwhile, Grace Blakely highlights how the UK's outsourcing of public services has led to the usual pattern of corporate profits, bailouts and declining working conditions and social supports. And Tria Donaldson discusses how Saskatchewan is suffering as a result of a decade of Sask Party austerity.

- Noah Smith comments on the economic costs (in addition to the well-known social harm) caused by an opioid crisis which has been met with a grossly insufficient policy response.

- Nora Loreto wonders whether the Christchurch massacre - and the role Canadian extremists played in laying the groundwork for it - might represent a tipping point in ensuring a needed crackdown on hate speech and violence. And Jim Waterson reports on Neil Basu's comments about the UK media's responsibility for radicalizing the far right.

- Finally, Rob Larson argues that we shouldn't accept the corporatist argument that freedom should be equated with unfettered greed, rather than the security for all types of people to be able to make choices.

New column day

Here, on the need for progressive leaders to treat consultation processes as a path to goals worth achieving rather than an excuse not to pursue them - particular in the face of right-wing politicians determined to reverse progress at the first opportunity.

For further reading...
- Ian Bailey notes that Quebec and Prince Edward Island represent the next hopes for electoral reform in Canada after the failure of British Columbia's referendum. And Crawford Kilian raises the possibility that a party merger may be the best short-term option in B.C. now that electoral reform has failed - though that would of course only worsen the problem with a limited range of choices.
- Katy Balls discusses how the UK's Brexit referendum may have turned some voters off for life (while also causing massive damage to the citizenry).
- The Globe and Mail has been tracking the massive damage being inflicted by Ontario based on Doug Ford's belief that having won power without a platform, he's entitled to radically alter policies without any regard for anybody but his cronies and donors. And Emma Graney reports on Jason Kenney's choice to pretend Alberta's next election is a formality - and to impose as much shock treatment as he can on the province if proven correct.
- Finally, Harry Cheadle writes about the Republicans' use of lame-duck sessions to undermine democracy where their opponents might otherwise be able to make use of popular mandates for change. And Ari Berman discusses how in addition to undermining specific elected officials, Republicans are also eliminating the availability of referendum processes after deciding they were being used too effectively to pass progressive policies.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Noah Smith writes that for all the recognition of poverty and precarity in the U.S., it may be home to even more material insecurity than normally presumed:

Imagine a 55-year-old single woman with diabetes working a part-time job making close to minimum wage. Thanks to government assistance, her total income is $15,000 a year. But if she loses her job or has a medical emergency — both of which, as Matthew Desmond’s book “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” illustrates, are sadly common — she will probably become homeless. That in turn will make it very hard to get a new job, or to pay for her future health-care needs. In short, her situation is very precarious.

As Maslow would predict, this kind of insecurity causes extreme stress. And this precariousness exists along several dimensions — housing, health care, income, the risk of violence — which makes it hard to capture in a single measure. Still, there are some existing measures that could be used to help create a composite picture of security-based poverty.

For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture tracks food insecurity, a survey-based measure of how worried people are that their food will run out. Economists track income volatility, which measures swings in earnings from year to year. This kind of risk has been on the rise in the U.S...

A reasonable, common-sense definition of poverty should include not just an absolute measure of material deprivation and a relative gauge of a person’s situation compared to the rest of society. It should also strive to measure how secure people feel — in their homes, their health, and their jobs.

This new measure might well show that poverty in the U.S. is worse than the current statistics say. But an accurate view of a problem is the first step toward addressing it. And eliminating poverty should be a priority of any wealthy society.

- Meanwhile, Molly Moss notes that austerity in the UK has disproportionately withdrawn public funding from the struggling northern region.

- In the wake of failed charges in British Columbia, Barrie McKenna points out how Canada continues to be used as a money-laundering haven.

- Bronwen Tucker makes the case for Alberta's oil production cuts to serve as a first step toward our needed transition to clean energy. And Dennis Gruending reviews Tony Clarke's new book offering a road map to get there.

- Finally, Matthew D'Ancona discusses how the UK's Brexit fiasco is the result of bigotry. And Keith Kahn-Harris writes that the essence of white supremacy is a belief in an entitlement to treat others without respect or moral constraints.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Tom Kibasi writes that the UK's best option in light of its impending Brexit is to develop a more active and entrepreneurial state:

So in a sense, Brexit changes everything and changes nothing: it exacerbates the UK longstanding problem with an investment rate that was already far below our international competitors at the time of the referendum. It makes it harder to achieve escape velocity from an economic model that isn’t working to one that does.
 

We know that rather than crowding out investment – as free marketers claim – greater public investment in fact crowds it in. Brexit will therefore make it even more important to get public investment up, not less. And with interest rates close to zero, a programme of quantitative easing that has not been wound down, fiscal policy will be the only option left to lift Britain out of any future recession. It is therefore illogical to say that Brexit must mean more austerity. It must mean the reverse. Paradoxically, the right response to Brexit is to become a more European economy, with a more active and entrepreneurial state. 

- Meanwhile, Brett Christophers examines the large-scale privatization of land in the UK - with roughly half of its remaining commonwealth in land by area, and more than that by value, having been sold off since 1979.

- Callum Burroughs discusses how the oil industry is failing to put its money where its mouth is in developing renewable energy even as it pours tens of millions of dollars into squelching any public policy improvements. And Chantal Hebert points out that the mindless oil industry jingoism being parroted by right-wing parties across much of Canada looks to be political poison for the federal Cons in Quebec.

- Troy Henderson notes that public-sector wage caps and general job precarity serve to drive down wages and working conditions for everybody.

- Taylor Scollon suggests that the disproportionate political influence of big money could be counterbalanced by ensuring that campaigns are financed through public dollars distributed based on voter choice.

- Finally, Brent Patterson is hopeful that Canada will see a wave of progressive millennial activists emerge comparable to the ones which are already reshaping politics in the U.S. and the UK.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading...

- Thomas Torslov, Ludvig Wier and Gabriel Zucman examine the shifting of corporate profits to tax havens - and the false promise that corporate tax cuts will serve any purpose other than to undermine the collection of needed revenue by countries with real economies. And Liz Alderman notes that Portugal's rejection of austerity has led to better economic and social results than the alternative of cuts and suffering.

- Tom Saler writes about new archaeological research tracing inequality dating back thousands of years - and finding it to be a matter of choice rather than inevitability. And Meagan Day points out that inequality (particularly at the very top) continues to get worse by the year.

- Alex Finnis reports on the UK's largest jump in poverty since Margaret Thatcher was in power. Thiemo Fezter studies (PDF) the role the UK Cons' austerity played in fomenting support for the far-right UKIP as well as the disastrous Brexit vote. And Polly Toynbee writes about the added demands being placed on the UK's citizenry to plan for their government's irresponsibility out of already-limited resources:

Eight years of austerity has only cut debt by shifting a financial deficit on to a social deficit everywhere else. Philip Hammond, the chancellor and austerian-in-chief, has said taxes must rise to pay for the NHS, but he will return to his autumn budget besieged by needs in every threadbare service. Austerity was not accompanied by telling the public to expect less of everything for ever.
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 or now, the Brexit crisis distracts from all its other failures. When the former attorney general Dominic Grieve tells Sky News that no deal will cast us into “a state of emergency – basic services we take for granted might not be available”, Cassandra-like, he is ignored as Project Fear mark two. But when Doug Gurr, the head of Amazon UK – no political player – warns of “civil unrest” within two weeks of a no-deal guillotine, we should all sit up and pay attention. He said that to Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, at a meeting with business chiefs last Friday: Amazon is making contingency plans.

Everyone will take fright at the government’s own warnings to businesses and households. John Manzoni, the head of the civil service, told MPs last week that a no-deal break would be “almost unimaginable”, and have “horrendous consequences”. Already the government warns that the M26 in Kent will be a “holding area” for 1,400 trucks to ease gridlock as 10,000 lorries a day are potentially delayed by new EU customs checks. Mazoni warns of the need to stockpile food and medicines: “We have to put contingencies in place.” Stockpiling food – that’s an order to panic! And why not – half our food is imported, of which 80% comes from Europe via Dover.
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Conspiracy theorists claim a “deep state” really controls this country, a civil service and a dark establishment that prevent any radical change. That theory is now being tested to destruction. This has been the worst session of parliament in recent memory: the next may be worse. There is no deep state – nothing out there to save us from self-inflicted disaster. Only we can save us from ourselves.

- Samira Shackle discusses the value of viewing crime primarily as a condition to be treated, rather than an excuse to inflict punishment.

- Finally, Duncan Cameron makes the case for a national public bus service to more than fill the void left by Greyhound's disappearance.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Branko Milanovic reviews Mike Lofgren's The Deep State, and highlights how entrenched wealth and power have hijacked our public institutions for their own benefit:

The deep state includes the old-fashioned military-industrial complex, top of Wall Street and Silicon valley, think tanks and foundations, and the mainstream media, most of them (with the obvious exceptions of Silicon valley and Hollywood) located in Washington, DC and New York. These are people who often seamlessly move between government, its legislative and executive branches, and then when not in power, populate think tanks, sit on the boards of large financial, IT or military-related companies or pen editorials for the mainstream media. They are linked by shared backgrounds, same ideology and even more strongly by shared economic interests. It could be almost said that they are all but one person, so at ease at seemingly very different tasks, Deputy Secretary of Defense, writer of an editorial in the Washington Post, analyst in a top Washington think tank. As Tocqueville wrote of another deep state from two and half centuries ago: “The nobles held identical positions, had the same privileges, the same appearance; there was, in fact, a family likeness between them, and one might almost say they were not different men but essentially the same men everywhere" (The old regime and the French revolution).

There are two very strong points of Lofgren’s book. First, Lofgren is somebody who knows the system from the inside (he worked for almost thirty years in Congress, sat on budget and armed services committees and knows personally a number of key political players). He thus brings to the book a knowledge that a political science professor just simply does not have. Second, Lofgren shows that there are strong links between domestic and foreign policy preferences of the deep state. The rising political power of the rich (documented by Larry Bartels and Martin Gilens) and increasing income inequality (documented by so many that it is superfluous to give citations) are, as Lofgren shows, intrinsically linked to domestic policy choices that reduce taxes on the rich, provide an increasing number of loopholes for the rich, curb social spending, but also (and only apparently contradictorily) increase military spending. Why the latter? Because the beneficiaries from the military spending are precisely the members of the deep state. As Lofgren argues, TARP and military spending are just the two facets of the same coin: the use of government resources for the benefit of the rich.
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What Lofgren argues is that the deep state has effectively kidnapped the government. Its objective is to use this enormous money-churning machine to help its own members. But the deep state was able to kidnap the government because it was able to kidnap the Congress, that is to make sure that majority of the members of Congress vote the way that the deep state wants. They were able to do so thanks to an electoral system where winning is practically synonymous with having access to more money than your opponent. This is why Lofgren in the last chapter, where he discusses the changes that need to be done, puts the reform of electoral funding (“ Eliminate private money from public elections”) as the number 1 priority. It all starts there, and then logically unfolds further.

- Carole Cadwalladr discusses the similar takeover of the UK's democratic state, while Angela Monaghan reports on the increasing concentration of wealth in a small number of billionaires who have been able to use Brexit-related turmoil to their advantage. And Make Votes Matter highlights the strong public desire across all parties for a proportional electoral system which isn't so easily dominated by a couple of groups of insiders.

- Andy Blatchford reports that once again, growth in job numbers isn't being reflected in what Canadian workers are paid. And Jen St. Denis points out the work of the BC Employment Standards Coalition showing how often employers don't bother to pay what they owe.

- Finally, Jaime Watt writes that the reality of constant political campaigning severely limits the time and resources governments dedicate to actual governance.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Owen Jones writes that we should give credit for the failure of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the popular opposition which will be need to push back against Donald Trump, rather than pretending it represents a win for Trump himself:

That Trump has any ownership over TPP is a travesty, and a damning indictment of the Democratic establishment. The new president’s rightwing populism combines xenophobia, protectionism and policies which directly enrich the Donald Trump class. Yes, American workers have suffered years of stagnating or falling wages and the decimation of industries, devastating the communities they sustained. Both Republicans and establishment Democrats are responsible, and never considered the possibility they were creating anger and resentment which one day a vulgar demagogue would exploit.
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Progressives oppose trade deals like TPP because they cost jobs, shift wealth and power to large corporations, drag down workers’ terms and conditions in a race to the bottom and threaten democracy. TPP – like the hopefully fatally wounded Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership – gave multinationals the ability to sue elected governments in secret courts for policies that threaten their profits. Here is an example of capitalism on a collision course with democracy and sovereignty.
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A programme of investing in US infrastructure may provide a much-needed short-term boost to the US economy, but combined with tax cuts for wealthy Americans and big business, Trumpism represents a grave economic danger. As is the style of rightwing populists, scrutiny – let alone dissent – will be portrayed as treachery. All the more reason for US progressives to stand firm.

Nothing that Trump does is motivated by the interests of the average American. A megalomaniac plutocrat like Trump scapegoats foreigners while promoting policies which directly enrich his associates. Don’t fall for a single thing he does. Resist, don’t normalise, isolate him, exploit divisions within the Republicans. Don’t fuel the impression that Trump is anything other than a charlatan who encourages working Americans to blame anyone but the men like him who are responsible for the multiple ills that define this wealthy but unjust society.

- John Christensen, Nick Shaxson and Duncan Wigan discuss (PDF) the "finance curse" facing countries which rely unduly on oversized financial sectors (with damaging consequences for neighbours as well). And Alex Cobham points out that even if Theresa May's first inclination is to barge ahead with a plan to make the UK even more of a tax haven, the EU has no incentive to play along in negotiating Brexit terms.

- Sally Weale writes that the gender pay gap which persists in today's workplaces starts as early as childhood, with girls receiving less allowance and on more strict conditions than boys.

- Lizanne Foster slams Christy Clark for looking out only for number one even as her government has ignored or actively exacerbated the needs of British Columbia's most vulnerable citizens.

- Finally, Tom Parkin takes a look at Guy Caron's campaign to lead the federal NDP - with a particular focus on his work to ensure public policy furthers the cause of equality, rather than being used to favour banks over people.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that to start your 2017.

- Ideas examines how the assumptions underlying far too much economic theory have produced disastrous real-world results. And Harold Meyerson writes that research is proving that skeptics of corporate-driven free trade have been right all along.

- Gary Younge writes that the rise of populist right-wing politicians can be traced largely to the failure of opponents to put forward a strong and substantive alternative. And John Harris traces the Brexit vote and U.S. election results in part to the sense that society has grown too complex to either benefit or be understood by wide swaths of people.

- Owen Jones looks to Austria as an example of how a focus on values over people helped to stop an authoritarian leader. And Michael Sandel discusses the need to provide progressive responses to citizens' real anger:

The populism ascendant today is a rebellion against establishment parties generally, but centre-left parties have suffered the greatest casualties. This is mainly their own fault. In the US, the Democratic party has embraced a technocratic liberalism more congenial to the professional classes than to the blue-collar and middle-class voters who once constituted its base. A similar predicament faces the Labour party.

Before they can hope to win back public support, progressive parties must rethink their mission and purpose. To do so, they should learn from the populist protest that has displaced them, not by emulating its xenophobia and strident nationalism, but by taking seriously the legitimate grievances with which these sentiments are entangled. And that means recognising that the grievances are about social esteem, not just wages and jobs.
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Progressives should reconsider the assumption that social mobility is the answer to inequality. They should reckon directly with inequalities of wealth and power, rather than rest content with efforts to help people ascend a ladder whose rungs are growing further and further apart.
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The problem runs deeper. The relentless emphasis on seeking a fair meritocracy, in which social positions reflect effort and talent, has a morally corrosive effect on the way we interpret our success (or lack thereof). The belief that the system rewards talent and hard work encourages the winners to regard their success as their own doing, a measure of their virtue – and to look down upon the less fortunate.

Those who lose out may complain that the system is rigged or be demoralised by the belief that they alone are responsible for their failure. When combined, these sentiments yield a volatile brew of anger and resentment, which Trump, though a billionaire, understands and exploits. Where Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton speak constantly of opportunity, Trump offers blunt talk of winners and losers. Democrats such as Obama and Clinton have difficulty understanding the hubris a meritocracy can generate and the harsh judgment it renders on those without a college degree. This is why one of the deepest divides in American politics today is between those with and without post-secondary education.

- Paul Krugman rightly notes that institutions and norms aren't of much value in fending off tyranny. And Alana Semuels offers some ideas to stop the trend of short-term corporate thinking.

- Finally, Adnan Al-Daini argues that empathy is the most important value to cultivate in the new year - and offers some suggestions as to how to do so at the individual level.