Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Jonathan Watts reports on the Earth Commission's work showing how any path to avert climate breakdown needs to break down the concentration of wealth and power. And the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research notes that while the poorest people bear the most immediate existential risk from the climate crisis, wealthier people face substantial economic risks from climate impacts. 

- John O'Donnell reports on the Tax Justice Network's observation that the destructive extraction and burning of fossil fuels is largely financed through tax havens in order to further extract immediate wealth at public expense. And Jeremy Appel reports on Carbon Capture Canada's continued efforts to delay any transition to a cleaner energy supply. 

- Julia Simone-Rutgers reports on the Manitoba PCs' delayed public disclosure of the safety issues which caused the shutdown of Imperial Oil's main pipeline into the province - with a lack of regulatory capacity serving as a major factor in the lack of a response in the public interest. And Matt Simmons reports on the latest environmental violations by Coastal GasLink - even as the total fine amount for repeated violations  pales in comparison to the amount of public subsidies poured into the pipeline. 

- Bronwyn Bragg and Jennifer Hyndman report on the Alberta meat industry's exploitation of temporary foreign workers. Cas Mudde and Gabriela Greilinger call out the dishonesty of hard-right parties seeking to present a facade of concern for workers over policies intended to further entrench the control of capitalists. And Sophie Binet writes that France's recent elections provide an example as to how the promise to focus on local economic development can help win voters over to the left - though it should be noted that Emmanuel Macron's subsequent decision to appoint a hard-right prime minister also offers a cautionary tale as to how the corporate centre will favour the alt-right after running against it. 

- Finally, John Michael McGrath discusses how the Ford PCs are rejecting any options to build housing with any meaningful density (with the effect of favouring developer-friendly sprawl which does nothing to alleviate the housing crisis). 

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your long weekend reading.

- Cole Stangler interviews Raquel Garrido about the political critique behind Jean-Luc Melenchon's emerging presidential campaign - and it sounds equally applicable in Canada:

One of the reasons why the current regime is lacking consent in French society is because the process for electing officials allows them to behave inconsistently with their campaign promises. The main cultural characteristic of the current political class is impunity. They do whatever they want because they are absolutely unaccountable.

That culture of impunity starts with the president himself. We’re the only self-identified democratic country where you have one man who has such concentrated power — elections of hundreds and hundreds of people in different institutions and he actually decides what the parliament will be talking about, the parliamentary agenda. The president behaves in such an unaccountable fashion that it actually spreads like a cascade across the entire political class.

Most elected officials in France today lack legitimacy, are elected with very low turnouts. There’s a deep sense of disgust among citizens with this political class. That creates chaos and instability.
...
There are other big themes of the campaign — wealth redistribution and social justice — which are classic proposals in a situation of great inequality. Then you have climate change and protecting the only ecosystem which allows life for human beings. But before we address those issues, we need to gain the power to actually have an impact. 

- And in a prime example of Canada's culture of impunity, Chantal Hebert writes about the Trudeau Libs' cynical political choices around marijuana legalization - and how those fit with Trudeau's repudiated promise of electoral reform.

- Jon Stone reports on UK Labour's plans to ensure that public money doesn't subsidize bad corporate behaviour (including a refusal to recognize collective bargaining). And Larry Bartels studies (PDF) the gap between the policies which would result from an accurate representation of U.S. citizens' preferences, and those which are in fact seen due to the influence of wealth in politics.

- Sara Mojtehedzadeh writes about the Ontario miners who were used as guinea pigs for untested - and ultimately harmful - powders intended to serve as substitutes for reasonable health and safety precautions.

- Finally, Henry Farrell examines the circumstances in which economists have - and haven't - been able to move the needle on public policy. And George Monbiot discusses Kate Raworth's doughnut model as a means of conceptualizing the desirability and sustainability of our economic choices.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Yesterday's Alberta election certainly proved somewhat of a shocker - producing about the best possible result short of a minority scenario that would have allowed the NDP to exercise the balance of power, as the slightly-less-right party won even as its most notorious ideologue went down in flames. But I'd still think it's a wide open question as to whether the PCs will actually govern consistently with the wishes of the progressive voters who offered strategic support (as suggested by Sheila Pratt), or whether they'll instead veer right in order to win back some of the mass of Wildrose voters - meaning that even a majority government provides virtually no certainty as to what comes next.

- Keith Beardsley points out a massive opening for the NDP to make ethics and accountability into a decisive issue in the next federal election, while Lawrence Martin has some suggestions as to reach that result. Meanwhile, a new CROP poll shows the NDP with a commanding lead in Quebec.

- Brian Topp is back writing for the Globe and Mail online after the NDP's leadership campaign - and his take on the first phase of France's presidential election is well worth a read.

- Finally, Stephen Gordon breaks down the types of taxes collected by the OECD countries.