Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Charlie Angus discusses the realities of being next door to a gangster regime. And Navigator Research finds that a majority of Americans recognize that they live in an authoritarian state rather than a democracy. 

- Norm Berlatsky discusses how even the eventual departure of Donald Trump from power is far from enough to salvage a functional political system. And Hamilton Nolan examines how the uber-rich are already distorting U.S. politics, while noting that there's alarming potential for matters to get far worse. 

- An anonymous writer offers a grim look at the abuse and objectification which awaits teenaged girls online. But lest we be too quick to accept age restrictions as an answer, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O'Flaherty warns of the problems with banning large classes of users rather than making social media platforms safe for everybody. 

- Finally, Rebecca Solnit writes about the decades of activism which have finally led to the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and other abusers in Jeffrey Epstein's network. 

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Adam Serwer offers a hopeful take on how Minnesota is proving MAGA social theory wrong, showing that the vast majority of people are caring and supportive rather than willing to accept or encourage the dehumanization of immigrants. Eric Blanc interviews Aru Shiney-Sjay about the successful citizen organization in opposition to ICE. And Brian Beutler writes that Alex Pretti offered a shining example of positive masculinity - in contrast to the violent, bigoted goon squad which murdered him. 

- But Ta-Nehisi Coates highlights how the attempt to retroactively turn Pretti and Karen Good into "others" unworthy of life represents just one more front in the Republicans' deadly culture war. And Jake Spring reports on the Trump regime's censorship of basic factual information at national parks and monuments in an attempt to whitewash American history. 

- Charlie Angus points out the need to move on from any dependence on the U.S. as it once again seeks to impose intolerable burdens in exchange for a temporary retrieve from arbitrary abuse. Stephen Maher offers a warning about Steve Bannon's plans to stoke separatism and subjugate Canada if given the change, while Stewart Prest discusses the need for a firm response. And Don Braid discusses how the desire of Alberta separatists to tie themselves to the Trump regime looks like it will help limit the risk of voters getting bamboozled.

- Finally, George Monbiot examines a UK national security report showing how ecosystem collapse represents a serious risk to security and prosperity. And Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility calls out the Trump administration for trashing the Clean Air Act. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jonathan Watts highlights how the global right is pushing extremes in both climate damage and reactonary politics. Jamelle Bouie discusses how the Trump regime is looking to destroy any principle of deliberative government. Robert Reich notes that Disney's about-face in returning Jimmy Kimmel to the airwaves shows that people do have some power to keep corporations from collaboration with fascists - but Luke Savage writes that we can't count on corporate self-interest to protect democracy and human rights. 

- Meanwhile, Hamilton Nolan rightly argues that there's nothing an individual can buy for a billion dollars that should be available for individual purchase in the first place - making the accumulation of further wealth little more than a direct assault on society as a whole. And Jean-Paul Bureaud calls out Canada's provinces other than Quebec for failing to create financial fraud compensation funds to protect individuals from corporate malfeasance. 

- Charlie Angus discusses the meaning of "elbows up" as a statement of collective determination and defence (which isn't about to end no matter how much MAGA complains that other countries should bow to its king). 

- Finally, there's plenty of good news as to new medical breakthroughs to the extent they reach people - with Kat Lay reporting on the potential for an HIV vaccine to end the global epidemic, Amber Carlson reporting on a more stable rabies vaccine which could reduce a death toll of tens of thousands of people each year, and James Gallagher reporting on the first successful treatment for Huntington's disease through gene therapy. But Olivia Bowden writes about the Libs' stalled implementation of pharmacare, particularly as Mark Carney has chosen not to bother following through with ensuring people have the medicine they need. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Charlie Angus discusses how MAGA is recognizing the effects of Canada's resistance - so long as our leaders don't sell us out. 

- But Martin Lukacs and Nikolas Barry-Shaw warn that there's little reason for confidence Mark Carney plans to treat the U.S.' threats as anything but an excuse to impose a corporate agenda. And David Macdonald predicts the scale of public-sector job cuts we can anticipate based on Carney's plans to waste any available fiscal capacity on military spending and tax cuts.

- Scott Forbes discusses how Canada has become a petrocracy, where the plans of oil barons to extract resources and leave the public with the bill are consistently put first over social well-being. And Chris Severson-Baker highlights how the UCP's obsession with dirty energy pipelines which will never be economically viable is resulting in Alberta missing out on far better opportunities. 

- Finally, Adam Barnett reports on a new study showing how Alex Jones and other denialists are drowning out needed information about climate catastrophes as they occur. And Brian Beutler highlights the dangers of allowing fascists to exploit liberal principles to demand the respect they deny to their perceived out-groups while disseminating their propaganda.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Carole Cadwalladr highlights the Elon Musk-led coup against democratic governance in the U.S., while Sarah Kendzior discusses how Musk and the rest of his toxic techbros are best described as strip-mining the future of humanity. Brian Barrett points out the obvious dangers of treating the civil service underpinning a functional society as a startup where "breaking things" is the primary objective. And Jonathan Martin notes that many American lives are at risk (along with far more from people in affected countries) due to the Trump administration's obliteration of USAID. 

- Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jacob Lew and Janet Yellenall offer their warning that American democracy is in grave danger. Brian Beutler writes that U.S. Democrats have just enough levarage to face the choice between either standing up for representative institutions by insisting that government funding be conditioned on their effectiveness, or enabling Trump to take unfettered control. Jared Yates Sexton writes that it will ultimately take concerted collective action to win the existential fight against a Trump autocracy. And Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor points out how the fascist right's attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion have gained ground primarily because of policies which have fallen far short of their billing. 

- Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood offers a reminder of the need for Canada to fight back against economic warfare (among other attacks) from Trump. Dan Gardner writes about what might happen as historic alliances crumble - though I'd question his doomerist assumptions that Canada willl inevitably give in to Trump's demands and other countries will have no interest in developing alternative alliances. Charlie Angus points out that boycotts are already having a massive impact on U.S. tourism and other industries, while Anthony Rosborough discusses how a strengthened right to repair can help us break free of corporate shackles which could all too easily be commandeered by the Trump regime. And Steven High argues that we need to work on reversing the deindustrialization of Canada, while Ricardo Tranjan makes the case that we need a stronger safety net (similar to what we had with the CERB just a few years ago) to ensure people aren't cowed into submission by a risk of deep poverty. 

- Finally, David Moscrop argues that Ontario voters shouldn't reward Doug Ford for his combination of blatant corruption and implausible posturing against a regime for whom he's long proclaimed his unwavering support. And Carolina Aragao notes that Ford's track record also includes the lowest levels of well-being of any province. 

On disruption

There's little doubt that Chrystia Freeland's resignation from the federal cabinet (with associated spillover effects) has managed to earn the notice of even those largely disconnected from politics. And while the most common reaction seems to have been to wait for something more to happen internally among the Libs, a few commentators including Karl Nerenberg, Steve Burgess, and Aaron Wherry have offered some view as to what might come next.

But it's worth discussing the reality that both the stakes involved and the range of potential outcomes extend far beyond the realm of Liberal personality politics.  

Keep in mind that the last two Canadian federal elections have involved a consistent state of stalemate. The Libs lost their majority in 2019, but maintained enough seats to stay in power with other parties' support; the Cons perceived possibilities of taking power, but instead plateaued in terms of both vote share and seats. And a two-year stint of minority government led only to a virtually identical result in 2021, as Libs focused on holding power, Cons determined to seize it through reflexive criticism, and an NDP looking to secure benefits through legislative concessions in a minority Parliament all ended up stuck roughly where they started. 

After three more years of the same dynamic in Parliament, however, the positioning of the national parties has stabilized at a rather different level - with the NDP nearly catching up to a sinking Lib vote share. And Trudeau's past ability to hold the line in close two-party races in the past offers no reason to think he can suddenly overcome the weight of baked-in public disapproval and massive support deficits - particularly without some plan to do anything differently other than cribbing from Doug Ford's Book of Temporary Giveaways. (On that front, the familiar calls for every other party to sacrifice their own interests to rally behind a Prime Minister who's hemorrhaging support in his own caucus are particularly laughable.)

But there are opportunities to shift the foundations of the parties' current positions. And while Trudeau may be able to influence which ones are able to proceed, there's potential for a shift to happen without his acquiescence. 

From the Libs' standpoint, a leadership race would shift the party from being focused on defending (or seeking to topple) a single insular leader, to having multiple leadership candidates pursuing a broad-based outreach program with an obvious incentive to bring in new members and supporters. And if it's true that Trudeau lacks a path to build support at this stage, a leadership race would quickly sort out who's capable of offering greater growth potential. 

Of course, the downside for the Libs is that the leadership voters' assessment might not match that of the general public. But the fact that's the worst possible outcome of electing a new leader only serves to demonstrate how little there is to gain sticking with the status quo: the worst-case scenario in trying someone new is the same electoral wipeout that looks unavoidable under Trudeau. 

Meanwhile, the NDP has an opportunity to take on a new role which might lead to much greater heights than its current position holding the balance of power in Parliament. 

If Trudeau does announce his departure, a caretaker Lib government wouldn't likely be in any position to meet any demands for improved legislation. Which means that the NDP would need to treat its legislative accomplishments as having been locked in for the next campaign, and turn toward another primary focus of activity and engagement while the Libs are focused on their leadership election. 

On that front, Charlie Angus has already received plenty of well-deserved attention for his challenges to the impending Trump regime (and its bootlickers among the Poilievre Cons). 

But when Trump actually takes power and begins his campaign of state repression against both political opponents and members of out-groups, many people will have reason to look for a resistance party in Canada. And the NDP should generally have a clear path to establish itself as both the Parliamentary voice and the organizing hub for people on both sides of the border who have reason to fear the worst of Trump and his government. 

Importantly, that opening will arise no matter what Trudeau decides to do. If he stays in place, his choice to bend the knee at Mar-a-Lago - together with Freeland's declaration that he's failing to react to the Trump threat - will make it difficult for him to try to claim the title for himself. And while leadership contestants may look to take anti-Trump rhetorical positions, the fact that they'll be focused primarily on their own vote counts would limit their effectiveness in achieving substantive results. 

In the end, there can't be any serious doubt among Canadian progressives that something needs to change before a federal election in 2025. And the best-case scenario would see two reinvigorated and viable challengers to Poilievre's assumed ascension to power. 

Update: So much for that idea.  

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Oliver Milman examines how insurance rates in the U.S. are pricing in climate risks - and pushing insurance out of reach for people facing the most severe effects of the climate breakdown. And Devi Sridhar reports on new research tracking the longer-term damage caused by climate disasters. 

- Anjali Appadurai writes that Canada has chosen to obstruct international efforts to reduce carbon pollution. But Megan Gordon points out that Canada has the ability to join a global surge in clean energy if it's willing to act in the interests of workers rather than oil tycoons. Bjorn Bremer, Jane Gingrich and Hanna Schwander write that it's not too late to turn the tide against the climate crisis. And Becky Robertson points out how non-car-centric infrastructure is both popular and effective where it's implemented - no matter how determined right-wing demagogues are to destroy it.   

- Charlie Angus offers a compelling take on the lamentable state of democracy in Canada, based particularly on a Con party which refuses to take a break from inane talking points regardless of the real issues at stake: 

- Michael Harris points out just a few of the glaring questions which Pierre Poilievre has brazenly ignored while seeking power. Max Fawcett offers a reminder that the corporate-funded branding of right-wing parties as fiscally responsible bears no relationship to reality. And David Baxter reports on the justified frustration of Indigenous leaders that the Cons chose to block legislation to ensure that First Nations have safe drinking water.  

- Meanwhile, Adam Serwer discusses how Donald Trump's supporters have taking to embracing outright villainy. Steve Schmidt notes that the plutocrats who control an increasingly-large share of the U.S.' press and access-based talking heads are both genuflecting before Trump rather than acting like an independent media. Paul Farhi and John Volk examine how Trump's electoral victory was based largely on running up the score in news deserts. And Marcy Wheeler points out the embarrassing lack of context and background being presented in stories seeking to treat a pardon arising out of the politically-driven prosecution of Hunter Biden as a far larger scandal than an entire regime built around corruption.

- Finally, Anelyse Weiler and Tayler Zavitz discuss how the agricultural lobby is pushing draconian ag-gag laws in Canada - and how their implementation creates avoidable health risks for animals and people alike. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Sueellen Campbell highlights how record-breaking temperatures are being covered around the globe, while Sarah Collins discusses new research showing that the northern hemisphere's summer of 2023 was the hottest in millenia. And Qi Zhao et al. examine the growing death toll from heatwaves around the world even before the unprecedented warming of the last few years. 

- Michael Mann and Katharine Hayhoe make the case that the antidote to doom is doing. But Natalie Alcoba reports on the torrent of threats and abuse directed at Charlie Angus for proposing even the most modest limits on climate-destroying propaganda. And Drew Anderson reports that the UCP's reality denialism extends to an outright refusal to accept direct evidence that their ban on renewables was entirely the result of a political order, while Neel Dhanesha takes a look at the "news mirages" being set up by dirty energy operators to substitute fossil fuel PR for any actual reporting which might expose their pollution or corruption. 

- Hazel Sheffield reports on new research showing that UK corporations hiked their prices far beyond the rate of any cost increases to goose their profits at public expense. 

- Finally, Kate Dubinski discusses a study confirming that the costs of homelessness impose an even greater burden on an already-overwhelmed health care sector. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- William Becker rightly argues that the U.S.' practice of prioritizing fossil fuel donor profits over the health of the public and the planet represents the biggest energy scam in its history. Norm Farrell discusses how Canada is similarly one of the world's biggest climate laggards, due largely to the subsidies and carveouts handed to the oil sector. And Jeffrey Simon reports on the nascent efforts to ensure that fossil fuel companies pay at least part of the cost of the harms they've inflicted - with particular reference to the effect of the 2021 heat dome on an Oregon county. 

- Meanwhile, Anders Wijkman discusses the need to stop emphasizing material consumption if we're ever going to rein in the climate crisis (among other environmental catastrophes in progress).

- Asher McShane reports on the need to prioritize sustainability over cheapness in food production. But Martin Lukacs examines how Canadian food policy continues to be dictated by a few giant grocery corporations whose owners have seeded the Libs and Cons alike with massive donations. 

- Allison Jones reports on Ontario's need for tens of thousands of additional health care workers over the next few years - even as the Ford PCs' top priority is to conceal the problem. 

- Finally, Charlie Angus calls out Pierre Poilievre's politics of intimidation, including both his choice to ally himself with the likes of Alex Jones and the Diagolon extremists, and his choice to build a violent rag machine for his own purposes. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Meghan Bartels interviews Maria Van Kerkhove about the continuing and emerging threats in the fifth year of a pandemic which most of the powers that be have long since disappeared from any discussion. And Andrew Nikiforuk talks to Ziyad Al-Aly about the unconscionable lack of attention to long COVID even as it disables immense swaths of people. 

- Malcolm McCulloch writes about his new research suggesting that we may have blown past the 1.5 degree climate target a decade ago while continuing to see global warming escalate. Environmental Defence and Keepers of the Water call out the failure of provincial and federal governments alike to hold the oil sector responsible for the harm caused by toxic tailings. And David Thurton reports on Charlie Angus' push to at least limit misleading advertising by fossil fuel companies, while Rick Knight points out the gap between (propaganda-based) perception and reality as to the effects of carbon pricing. 

- The Circle Economy Foundation's latest report highlights how we're consuming more and more unsustainable quantities of natural resources - while actually reducing how much secondary material gets repurposed. 

- David Zipper discusses how vehicular bloat is making the infrastructure intended to favour private vehicles obsolete. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow writes about Apple's practice of thumbing its nose at regulators - along with the prospect that its malicious compliance with new anti-monopoly rules may not go unchallenged. 

[Edit: corrected name.]

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Bruce Arthur discusses how last week's rallies for bigotry are reflective of a broader social illness which is being encouraged by right-wing parties and politicians. And Charlie Angus writes about his experience on the receiving end of violent authoritarian rhetoric and personal threats.  

- John Lorinc points out that the corruption behind Doug Ford's plans to turn Ontario Place into a spa (and ultimately a casino) includes massive public costs for water and wastewater infrastructure to pump money into the pockets of Ford's buddies. And Lulu Ramadan reports on Boeing's attempts to escape any responsibility to clean up the Duwamish River in Seattle after consistently claiming it as a free dumping ground for chemicals. 

- Taylor Noakes discusses CAPP's utterly misleading spin which claims the oil sector will cut emissions while ignoring its plans to release the tar sands carbon bomb. And the Mercator Research Institute studies how solar energy and storage are both plummeting in price, making a clean energy supply more affordable than dirty fossil fuels even if we weren't going to account for the environmental costs of carbon dumping. 

- Cory Doctorow examines how Apple has blocked users from repairing their devices in order to ensure a continued market based on mandated obsolescence. 

- Finally, Kevin Drum highlights the drastic difference in pay and benefits between unionized and non-unionized workforces in the U.S.' private sector. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Will Stone writes about the role viral reservoirs may be playing in both prolonging individual long COVID symptoms, and allowing for the development of new variants. Simran Purewal, Kaylee Byers, Kayli Jamieson and Neda Zolfaghari highlight the need for people talking about the effects of long COVID to be believed rather than dismissed. But Apoorva Mandavilli reports on the CDC's choice to simply stop observing the effects of an ongoing pandemic.

- Meanwhile, Pete Evans reports on the latest push by employers to take away the benefits of remote work in order to force daily commutes and constant control on workers. David Macdonald discusses how public sector strikes have represented primarily an attempt to defend real wages from the effects of inflation, while Mitchell Thompson reminds us that Danielle Smith has made clear that the infliction of pain is the point in dealing with education and health care workers. And Paige Oamek talks to some of the younger workers organizing to ensure they're not at the mercy of callous employers.

- Eva Wiseman writes about the folly of trying to match even the most banal forms of consumption by the obscenely wealthy. And Paul Waldman discusses why the right to repair movement may be the unifying point for all kinds of people with a healthy skepticism of corporate control over our lives.

- Tom Perkins reports on research showing that toxic "forever chemicals" are included in the pesticides sprayed on crops.

- Charlie Angus writes that the push toward a clean energy economy has passed the point of theoretical transition to reach the development of large-scale employment. And Brian Potter discusses how nuclear power has done nothing but become more costly with time - making it absolutely useless in the context of plummeting prices for renewables and storage. 

- Finaly, Linda McQuaig writes that Doug Ford's to turn the public Ontario Place into a for-profit spa may eclipse the Highway 407 debacle as the most appalling handover of public assets for private profit in Ontario's history.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Dhruv Khullar interviews Ashish Jha about what's to come in the COVID-19 pandemic - including the desperate need for mitigation measures to reduce an unsustainable amount of spread. And Alexander Quon reports on the increase in COVID deaths in Saskatchewan from 2021 to 2022 even as the Moe government tries to pretend there's nothing left to see here. 

- Meanwhile, Greg Iacurci discusses how even the limited support working-class Americans received during the pandemic has changed their view of what's possible. 

- But Phillip Inman writes that central banks are fixated on suppressing wages even if the result is to collapse economic development altogether. And Heather Wright reports on the reality that increasing food prices aren't resulting in better returns for the farmers who produce it. 

- Amanda Follett Hosgood points out the disaster capitalism that's seeing the pandemic turned into a land grab and opportunity to push through environmentally devastating projects. 

- Finally, Supriya Dwivedi writes about the need for our political leaders to value a democratic electoral system, rather than looking to torque it beyond repair for personal gain. And Charlie Angus writes about the challenges of seeking to represent people who have removed themselves from any sense of shared reality. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Noushin Ziafati reports on the continuing challenges facing people suffering from long COVID - particularly as governments attempt to pretend the pandemic which infected them never happened. And Eric Topol writes about the continued denialism in the U.S. as another wave is cresting. 

- Nancy Olivieri, Michael Hurley and Natalie Mehra call out the Ford government's quiet privatization of health care. Marc Spooner warns that the Moe government is laying the groundwork to turn Saskatchewan's universities into subcontractors for corporate employers. And Kathryn Joyce points out the concerted attack on public education in the U.S. centered on a single conservative Christian private college. 

- Jen St. Denis writes about the causes of B.C.'s deadly heat dome last summer - and the steps needed to prepare for more to come. And Matt Elliott discusses the folly in Doug Ford's plans to add still more lanes of traffic which only stand to increase gridlock and sprawl. 

- Dru Oja Jay interviews Seth Klein about the needed fight to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. Kate Aronoff calls out the fossil fuel sector for its greed and arrogance in response to Russia's attack on Ukraine, while Katherine Fung reports that the Koch empire continues to stand out in its corporate villainy by acquiescing in Vladimir Putin's war. And Charlie Angus writes that we can't afford to keep clinging to the laughable theory that it's possible to avert a climate breakdown while subsidizing the increased production and export of dirty oil and gas. 

- Finally, Giulia Gipponi and Steve Machin study labour market inequality in the UK, and find that the middle class of workers has seen effectively no increase in income over the past four decades. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- C Raina MacIntyre offers five reasons to keep wearing a mask even after mandates are removed - and the arguments are even more compelling in areas where waves of infections are still in progress. And Elizabeth Yuko reports on the victims of long COVID who have lost their homes as well as their health, while Mark Melnychuk reports that Scott Moe has predictably declared that homeless people in Saskatchewan are on their own once they become ill. 

- Justin Marchand and Ene Underwood ask how it's at all fair for people who own homes in established neighbourhoods to have the ability to deny access to housing to others. 

- Katharina Pistor examines how Vladimir Putin and the surrounding Russian oligarchy are the direct result of an ill-advised choice to prioritize privatization and wealth accumulation over the development of a functional society. 

- Charlie Angus discusses how the #FluTruxKlan and the ecosystem of disinformation behind it highlight the difficulty in trying to reach people who have disconnected fully from reality. 

- Finally, M. Chamoun et al. study the respective costs of drugs under public and private plans, finding that patients pay significantly more under the latter.  

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Martin Birt writes that we can never again ignore the importance and value of the people performing essential work. And Jennifer Keesmat argues that the patterns of life made necessary by the coronavirus point the way toward a far greater focus on building liveable neighbourhoods.

- John Stapleton highlights how many provinces are using the CERB and other COVID-19 benefits to reduce their own contribution to public health and welfare.

- Jonathan Freedland points out how authoritarians around the globe are using the coronavirus as an excuse to tighten their stranglehold on power.

- Christian Favreau discusses how the NDP has served as the effective opposition (in multiple sense of the word) to ensure people haven't been left behind in coronavirus relief measures. And Premila D'Sa reports on Charlie Angus' justified criticism of the Libs handing control over the distribution of vital public health supplies to Amazon.

- Scott Larson reports on how COVID-19 is exposing and exacerbating racism in Saskatchewan.

- Finally, Max Fawcett writes that Norway's disinvestment from the oil sands is just the latest indication that it's long past time for Alberta to stop denying both the climate crisis and its impact on investment decisions.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Nathan Robinson discusses how the language of "meritocracy" is used to entrench structural inequality:

The inequality goes so much deeper than that, though. It’s not just donations that put the wealthy ahead. Children of the top 1% (and the top 5%, and the top 20%) have spent their entire lives accumulating advantages over their counterparts at the bottom. Even in first grade the differences can be stark: compare the learning environment at one of Detroit’s crumbling public elementary schools to that at a private elementary school that costs tens of thousands of dollars a year. There are high schools, such as Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, that have billion-dollar endowments. Around the country, the level of education you receive depend on how much money your parents have.

Even if we equalized public school funding, and abolished private schools, some children would be far more equal than others. Two and a half million children in the United States go through homelessness every year in this country. The chaotic living situation that comes with poverty makes it much, much harder to succeed. This means that even those who go through Singer’s “front door” have not “gotten in on their own”. They’ve gotten in partly because they’ve had the good fortune to have a home life conducive to their success.

People often speak about “equality of opportunity” as the American aspiration. But having anything close to equal opportunity would require a radical re-engineering of society from top to bottom. As long as there are large wealth inequalities, there will be colossal differences in the opportunities that children have. No matter what admissions criteria are set, wealthy children will have the advantage. If admissions officers focus on test scores, parents will pay for extra tutoring and test prep courses. If officers focus instead on “holistic” qualities, pare. It’s simple: wealth always confers greater capacity to give your children the edge over other people’s children. If we wanted anything resembling a “meritocracy”, we would probably have to start by instituting full egalitarian communism.
...
There’s something perverse about the whole competitive college system. But we can imagine a different world. If everyone was guaranteed free, high-quality public university education, and a public school education matched the quality of a private school education, there wouldn’t be anything to compete for.

- Nick French similarly writes that an expensive and exclusive university system serves mostly to create social immobility. Jamiles Lartey points out that there are plenty of legal mechanisms used to give children from rich families unfair advantages beyond the illegal ones exposed this week. Patti Bacchus focuses in on the problems with exclusive private schools in particular. Matt Kwong contrasts the right's trumped-up complaints about affirmative action against the actual factors which prevent fair access to post-secondary education. And Clare Lombardo notes that it's particularly pernicious that accessibility standards for students with disabilities are being illegally exploited for cash.

- Franklin Foer discusses the broader battle - and lack of success - against political and economic systems based on corruption. And Charlie Angus points out how the SNC-Lavalin scandal pulls back the curtain on Ottawa's similarly compromised power culture, while David Pugliese reports on the illegal outing of an attempt to find out about defence industry abuses as an example of the steps governments willingly take to undermine reporting of corporate wrongdoing.

- Finally, Matthew Taylor, Arthur Neslen and Libby Brooks report on the massive climate strikes taking place today involving students from around the globe. Matt Ford notes that an emerging generation is rightly seeing the threat of impending climate breakdown as its motivating cause. And Abraham Gutman writes that a people-driven Green New Deal may be the source of hope needed to end multiple forms of despair - including the addictions crisis created by the pharmaceutical industry.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- David Moscrop discusses the need for a more meaningful definition of "progress" which doesn't hand-wave away the long-term harms and risks created by the single-minded pursuit of immediate gains in top-end wealth.

- Rajeev Syal reports that the UK Cons pushed through public-sector austerity with full knowledge of the increased poverty that would result. CBC reports on at least one private-sector employer, Quebec's Simons, which is recognizing the benefits of paying employees more than the bare minimum. And Mike Crawley notes that Doug Ford's list of attacks on workers includes delaying even a modest level of pay transparency.

- Meanwhile, Kwame McKenzie discusses the predictable public health costs of Ford's minimum wage freeze. And as a memo to the Saskatchewan Party: those problems with leaving the return on work at $14 per hour are all the worse when the minimum wage is nearly three dollars less.

- Brent Patterson criticizes the Libs' attempt to reframe the Trans-Pacific Partnership as "progressive", rather than a massive giveaway of wealth and power to the corporate sector. And David Schneiderman argues that the only truly progressive response to anti-social investment pacts is to decline to sign them.

- Finally, Ryan Maloney reports on Charlie Angus' plan to extricate Canada from any deal to contribute military weaponry to Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses. And Michael Harris writes about the costs of failing to stand up for human rights.

Friday Evening Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- A new IMF working paper confirms the connection between employment deregulation and workers' share of income. And Jennefer Laidley points out the all-too-imminent danger that the Ontario PCs are about to undo what little belated progress had been made in making social assistance more effective, while Teviah Moro notes that social housing is bearing the brunt of cuts linked to Doug Ford's denial-based climate change policy. 

- Dean Beeby reports on a new survey showing that Canada Revenue Agency employees are as concerned as the general public about a tax system that favours the rich over everybody else. And Alex Hemingway offers this year's customary rebuttal of the Fraser Institute's oft-debunked spin on taxes.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board recognizes that Doug Ford's attack on harm reduction in the name of nonexistent controversy about its impact on health outcomes will lead only to preventable deaths. And the Stoney Creek News explores the public health harms which can be expected to result from artificial reductions in alcohol prices.

- Lucius Couloute examines the close link between past incarceration and present-day homelessness in the U.S.

- Finally, Charlie Angus calls out John Baird for using his former role in government as an excuse to make money for his Saudi-connected employer. But it's worth being surprised that any former member of Stephen Harper's cabinet is managing to be an even more unprincipled shill after leaving that role.

Leadership 2017 Reference Page (Now Unpinned)

A one-stop source for general links on the 2017 NDP leadership campaign, to be updated as the race progresses. Please feel free to add additional suggestions in comments. (And note that new posts will appear below this one.)

General Information
NDP Constitution (PDF)
Leadership Rules (PDF) - Voting Process
NDP Leadership 2017
Leadership Debates: Ottawa (March 12) - Montreal (March 26) - Sudbury (May 28) - St. John's (June 11) - Saskatoon (July 11) - Victoria (August 2) - Montreal (August 27) - Vancouver (September 10)
Leadership Showcase: Hamilton (September 17)

Candidate Information

Candidate	Website	Twitter	Profile	Platform	Ranking
Charlie Angus	CharlieAngusNDP.ca	@CharlieAngusNDP	Profile	Analysis	2
Niki Ashton	NikiAshton2017.ca	@NikiAshton	Profile	Analysis	4
Guy Caron	GuyCaron.ca	@GuyCaronNPD	Profile	Analysis	3
Jagmeet Singh	JagmeetSingh.ca	@theJagmeetSingh	Profile	Analysis	1

Other Resources
Wikipedia
National Post Leadership Tracker
CPAC In Focus
IPolitics Inside the NDP Leadership Race
Chatelaine Cheat Sheet
NDP McGill Blog
NDPLeaderVote
Karl Nerenberg Candidate Profiles
Ishmael Daro Candidate Interviews
National Observer Candidate Interviews 
Toronto Star Profiles (Alex Ballingall)
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