Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Tenille Bonogoure writes about the human costs of Canada's choice to respond to a deadly infectious disease with polite deference rather than a determined effort to stamp it out. Matt Rivers notes that Brazil's outright denial has led to even worse, including the emergence of a variant which threatens people around the globe. And Sumathi Reddy points out that while access to a vaccine may slightly alter the calculus involved in personal decision-making, it doesn't affect the ultimate need for people to keep COVID-19 locked down to the greatest extent possible.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board discusses the growing case for capital gains taxes on real estate based on wildly inflated housing prices in Canada's largest cities. 

- The Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations calls out Brian Pallister's utter obeisance to the U.S. conservative group American Legislative Exchange Council in preparing his hidden legislation, while Lucas Edmond calls out Pallister's authoritarian neoliberal education plan in particular. And Jeremy Klaszus and Jeremy Appel uncover the secretive, big-money campaign to reject any housing in Calgary other than developer-friendly suburban sprawl. 

- But lest anybody think it's only the corporate sector looking to rally voters toward alternative choices, Alexander Kaufman notes that municipalities are serving as a focal point for climate organizing in the U.S. And Robert Reich writes that the unionization push at Amazon may represent the start of a new progressive era.

- Finally, Guy Quenneville reports on the findings of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission  on the RCMP's racism and neglect in response to the killing of Colten Boushie. And Joe Friesen reports that even that damning report was based on incomplete information as the RCMP destroyed evidence about its actions.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Thomas Edsall discusses the difficulties in trying to address wealth inequality through a money-infused electoral system:

Five years ago, for example, Adam Bonica, a political scientist at Stanford, published “Why Hasn’t Democracy Slowed Rising Inequality?” Economic theory, he wrote, holds that “inequality should be at least partially self-correcting in a democracy” as “increased inequality leads the median voter to demand more redistribution.”

Starting in the 1970s, this rebalancing mechanism failed to work, and the divide between the rich and the rest of us began to grow, Bonica, Nolan McCarty of Princeton, Keith T. Poole of the University of Georgia, and Howard Rosenthal of N.Y.U. wrote.

They cite five possible explanations.

First, growing bipartisan acceptance of the tenets of free market capitalism. Second, immigration and low turnout among the poor resulting in an increasingly affluent median voter. Third, “rising real income and wealth has made a larger fraction of the population less attracted to turning to government for social insurance.” Fourth, the rich escalated their use of money to influence policy through campaign contributions, lobbying and other mechanisms. And finally, the political process has been distorted by polarization and gerrymandering in ways that “reduce the accountability of elected officials to the majority.”

In the five years since their essay was published, we’ve seen all of this play out; in the case of campaign contributions in particular, the authors provide strong evidence of the expanding clout of the very rich.

- Similarly, Dean Baker points out the connection between "centrist" policies which serve primarily to further enrich the people who already have the most, and public disgust with the parties pushing them. And Matt Egan compares the immediate gains from the Trump tax giveaway to the rich - with shareholders being gifted 30 times as much new money as workers even at a point when businesses are trying to put on a show of sharing benefits to lock in their goodies for the long term.

- Meanwhile, Tom Jacobs theorizes that the progressive movement may be able to win over small-c conservative voters with messages based on nostalgia. And the New Economics Foundation discusses how to frame economic discussions in terms of both populist responses to elite control, and our common interests in shared development.

- Tabatha Southey weighs in on the Parkland school shooting - and the gun lobby's response designed to ensure that the U.S. continues to suffer plenty more similar tragedies in the future.

- Finally, Robert Cribb reports on the underrepresentation of minorities on juries in Ontario. And Lana Payne comments on the need to move beyond empty apologies, and instead start acting on the thoroughly-studied steps which could actually move us toward reconciliation in Canada.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Robert Jago comments on an all-white jury's acquittal of Gerald Stanley for the shooting death of Colten Boushie. Shree Paradkar notes that the issue of non-representative juries is far from a new one. Scott Gilmore recognizes that Boushie's death and its aftermath are just one more story in a far-too-long history of denying fairness and equality to Indigenous peoples, while Doug Cuthand also notes the social factors behind the tragedy. And Kyle Edwards writes that Stanley's verdict will only stoke distrust of the criminal justice system and government generally, while Dr. Dawg argues that it should lead us to push for reconciliation with far greater urgency.

- Sophia Harris writes about the raiding of Sears employees' pensions to enrich executive and shareholders - featuring the farce of the same shareholder whose control sucked the company dry somehow cared about nothing more than it it staying viable.

- John Atcheson points out how the U.S. stands to pay a steep price for an infrastructure scheme designed mostly to enrich wealthy investors. And Drew McMillin notes that Ontario's highways may not be maintained this winter due to the province's reliance on the collapsed Carillion to service them.

- Toby Helm reports on UK Labour's long-overdue push to bring public services back under public ownership. And Rob Merrick reports on Jeremy Corbyn's plans for a renewable energy revolution.

- Finally, Becky Bond, Adam Klug and Emma Rees discuss the hope of building a progressive movement in Canada comparable to the ones which have rallied behind Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders.

On selective interest

Murray Mandryk is once again far too eager to laud Brad Wall to the skies for doing the bare minimum he could to avoid responsibility for the racist sentiment his party has stoked for political gain.

So let's offer a reminder as to how willing Wall was to take action when the desperate social needs of First Nations citizens were identified in the absence of the public-relations conflagration set off by Colten Boushie's murder: 

Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall, who's running for a third stint as the province's premier, said that on-reserve issues are Ottawa's responsibility and duty.

"We hope the federal government moves quickly to address the concerns that have been raised," he said.

But hey: in the aftermath of Boushie's death, it seems like Wall may be willing to dispense one program space in exchange for every dozen bigots who publicly state their approval of the killing of indigenous people. And apparently the only hope for provincial action under Wall is for more of them to dominate the headlines.