Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Linda Solomon Wood writes that Canadians need to be wary of fake news being propagated in our midst:

(W)e face a continuous, deliberate, planned assault on the truth. Not just on the facts themselves, but on truth as an idea. On truth as a value worth defending. And for those who believe in that value, for those who believe the pursuit of truth is in any way sacred, this is war. “Fake news” is a tactic, not a strategy. The strategy is to:

• undermine our trust in democratic institutions
  
• undermine our trust in sources of information
  
• and undermine our trust in each other
  
• and to put whole nations under its spell.
  

Fake news is the tool of choice for authoritarians. Authoritarianism and hate have something in common: a simple, dramatic story. The truth will always be messier. To prevail, truth needs space and focused attention. And this work, this war, needs skilled storytellers, thousands and thousands of trained journalists, who are experienced and compassionate, and people like you, who will subscribe to and pay for real news. We need journalists more than ever to tell good, honest stories that let us better know each other. It will take thousands of journalists empowered by millions of readers. It will take a tsunami of truth.

- Bob Mackin examines yet another astroturf arrangement being set up by the B.C. Libs' big-money backers. And David Climenhaga notes that it's hard to tell outside agitation from homegrown right-wingers when it comes to yet another tiresome spiel about Alberta separatism.

- Tom Parkin writes that there's nothing new in the Libs' attacks on labour rights - and that the latest attempt to squelch the right to strike doesn't figure to end any better than the Cons' versions.

- Alex Paterson discusses the economic and human costs of poverty in Canada. And Roderick Benns points out the positive effects of a basic income in reducing stress and anxiety.

- Finally, Lisa Girion exposes the link between baby powder and asbestos - and how decades of children were put at risk by a corporate actor with no regard for legal obligations or public interests.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Yes, the fraudulent collaboration between the Harper Cons and Sun TV should offer nothing but reason for suspicion about both portions of the right-wing noise machine - and Dr. Dawg, Heather Mallick, Simon Houpt and the Star have all had plenty to say. But let's add a third major problem to the dishonesty on both sides: shouldn't a government supposedly committed to efficiency (and preparing to take an axe to numerous departments as a result) expect its civil servants to have something better to do than to act as props for a photo op?

- I'll have to take issue with Dan Gardner's column on OAS by offering a reminder that the "but retirements are getting longer!" doesn't exactly apply across the board:

(T)hose working but in low income will lose a hefty portion of the OAS/GIS benefits that would otherwise have been paid to them.

It is all too often forgotten that, notwithstanding rising longevity, many of those in lower income groups still die relatively young.

...(T)here is a big difference of probability of survival to age 75 by income group, and also by aboriginal status.

So for Gardner or anybody else who's actually concerned about ensuring parity in retirement time, the answer is to make sure that OAS and other benefits are available to lower-income seniors at a low enough age to allow for a reasonably comparable period of retirement - while withdrawing the Cons' handouts to the wealthy from people who don't need them.

- Meanwhile, David Climenhaga notes that the Cons' attacks on pensions shouldn't come as any surprise. And Stephen Maher comments on the Cons' starve-the-public strategy:

Reagan put it this way in 1982: "There were always those who told us that taxes couldn't be cut until spending was reduced. Well, you know, we can lecture our children about extravagance until we run out of voice and breath. Or we can cure their extravagance by simply reducing their allowance."

It's known as "starving the beast." Rather than doing the politically painful work of cutting spending, you cut taxes and increase public debt to the point where it is necessary to cut spending to keep the repo men at bay.

Unlike Reagan, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has never publicly discussed his "starve the beast" plan, but it's pretty clear that that's what he's doing.
...
Last month, (Harper) told Calgary radio host Dave Rutherford to expect "fairly aggressive action" to "position this country for growth over the next generation."

That sounds like more radical surgery than the inefficiencies he blandly discussed during the campaign.

It may mean cuts to Employment Insurance and equalization.

Having starved the beast, Harper may now be ready to climb into the cage and take on the weakened creature more forcefully.

- Finally, Carol Goar theorizes that the Cons should work with the public on contentious issues rather than ramming through zero-consultation bills without debate.

And I'd agree entirely from the perspective of providing remotely responsive and competent government. But I suspect the fact that the Cons have so resolutely refused to allow any meaningful discussion speaks volumes about the outcome they'd expect if they had to defend their ideological positions by doing anything more than repeating talking points - making a concerted effort to shut out the public an inevitable part of their plans to trash Canada beyond recognition.