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. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Uday Rana reports on new polling showing that a supermajority of Canadians will never trust the U.S. the same way again. And John Paul Tasker examines the ways the break from reliance on the U.S. is playing out in practice. 

- But Desmond Cole and Martin Lukacs discuss how Pierre Poilievre is trying to import as much of the Trump regime's anti-immigrant violence as people can be forced to consume. And Muhad Hemmadi reports on Mark Carney's echoing of the U.S.' blind faith in AI as a substitute for real development, while Dale Smith discusses how the Libs' online surveillance legislation reads as little more than a gift to a Trump-style militarized state. 

- Linda McQuaig writes that any forward-looking plan for national projects should be starting with a massive commitment to clean energy. And Darius Snieckus and Natasha Bulowski report on the Canadian Climate Institute's estimate showing that Alberta's oil and gas sector alone is blocking any prospect of reaching our climate commitments in both the short and medium term. 

- Kevin Crowley, David Wethe and Dave Merrill report on the groundwater pollution and resulting geological instability being inflicted by the oil industry in Texas (with the full support of petropoliticians). Olivia Lee reports that a project in Brighton is showing how toxic runoff can be cleaned up - while highlighting the absolute failure to make that a priority elsewhere. And Gary Fuller reports on new research showing that air pollution affects people's sleep among other profound effects. 

- Finally, Emily Atkin discusses how Charlie Kirk's hate (like much of the fascist right's noise machine) has been funded by fossil fuel tycoons. Adam Serwer notes that the definition of free speech in the U.S. is now limited to parroting administration talking points, while Moira Donegan wonders who's next to be silenced after even the most mainstream of comedians are being yanked off the air for daring to incorporate the U.S.' president in their material. And David Moscrop writes about the need for universal condemnation of political censorship. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Jessica Wildfire discusses the importance of not letting the Trump regime and its corporate backers take away people's righteous anger, while Ava Kofman highlights how Trump's administration is deliberately using over-the-top evil as a means of domination. And Jonathan Last comments on the proliferation of secret police violently carrying out illegal orders, while Gregory Magarian examines some of the less direct (but still dangerous) tactics being used to stifle free speech. 

- Anna Merlan points out the absurdity of the claim that Elon Musk is anything but fully entangled in the Trump regime even as far too much of the American media buys into a laughable PR tour. And Scott Waldman reports that Musk has torqued his AI chatbot to spout climate denialist talking point in addition to doing massive amounts of environmental damage itself.

- Madeleine Cuff discusses the looming prospect that we may see warming of 2 degrees Celsius before the end of the decade. David Chandler et al. examine the likelihood that the Antarctic ice sheet could unleash a gigantic sea level rise. Tess McClure reports on the recognition that insect populations are dwindling in large areas as part of a climate-related ecological collapse. And EHN reports on a study connecting rising temperatures to increased cancer and death rates among women in the Middle East and North Africa. 

- Ratwat Deonandan discusses the foolishness of RFK Jr.'s cancellation of funding for Moderna's flu vaccine in particular. And Katie Herchenroeder reports on the Trump regime's cuts to research which was on the verge of breakthroughs in developing an HIV vaccine. 

- Finally, Katherine Scott examines how racialized workers are continuing to face disproportionate barriers as employment structures have change in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Michael Harriot writes that the U.S. is past the point of being able to talk about mere threats to democracy, and needs instead to start from the reality that it's operating under a fascist regime. Hamilton Nolan warns that the most comfortable and privileged people aren't about to lead the resistance. Jill Lawrence talks to Phil Satre about the long-standing recognition among his business and social peers that Donald Trump is incapable of dealing with people in good faith. And Daniel Schuman discusses the Trump regime's plans to effectively eliminate the legislative branch of government, while Bo Erickson reports on the choice of compliant Republicans to eliminate their own authority to reverse Trump's tariff madness. 

- Courtney Kube, Gordon Lubold and Carol Lee report on Trump's steps to take military control of the Panama Canal, while Robald Diebert writes that Justin Trudeau's initial attempt at accommodation is giving Trump what he wants in putting Canada under the control of a police state. And the National Review weighs on why Trump's attempts to take Canada by force are utterly reckless, while David Moscrop discusses why that doesn't mean he'll abandon them anytime soon. 

- Robert Reich writes about the need for a renewed free speech movement which takes up the mantle of civil rights. And Christopher Holcroft writes about the need to push back against the Trump regime's propaganda machine machine in Canada, while the Canadian Press reports on new Manitoba legislation aimed at holding parties responsible for election disinformation. 

- Finally, Steve Lambert reports on another new Manitoba bill to treat people with communicable diseases as patients rather than prisoners. And in a particularly noteworthy advancement worth emulating elsewhere, Carol Sanders reports on the Kinew government's introduction of legislation ensuring an active focus on the psychological well-being of workers. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Robert Rohde surveys yet another month of record-high temperatures from July 2024. And Richard Heinberg examines what a real energy transition would look like - including a meaningful effort to stop using energy unnecessarily as well as a shit to clean energy sources. 

- Jim Stanford points out that price controls can be one mechanism to ensure that corporate profiteering doesn't cut into the affordability of basic necessities. 

- But Jason Hickel writes about the main barrier to that effort, as our key economic decisions are made by capitalists acting unilaterally to keep up their resource profits rather than by any government or other structure with any meaningful capacity to determine and act in the public interest. And Prem Sikka likewise discusses how wealthy individuals and corporations have hijacked any democracy. 

- Linda McQuaig notes that Doug Ford is going far out of his way to ensure Ontarians don't know how factory farms are abusing animals. Jake Johnson discusses how the meat industry is yet another sector where corporate collusion and price-fixing are increasing the cost of living for consumers. And Sara Moniuszko and Meg Oliver report on new research showing that the majority of baby food sold in the U.S. falls short of WHO health standard. 

- Scott Martin discusses how Ford (and other premiers focused on harm maximization as policy) can only be seen as choosing a legacy of social murder. And David Climenhaga notes that Danielle Smith is adding gross cronyism to the mix, as anybody seeking addiction services in Alberta is required to disclose sensitive personal health information to a politically-connected provider. 

- Finally, Matt Motta and Kathryn Haglin find that the benefits of Alaska's basic income include greater use of primary and preventative health services. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jason Warick reports on how the lack of enforcement of public health rules has emboldened anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers to impose their disregard for community safety on the people around them. Guy Quenneville highlights the Moe government's decision to do absolutely nothing in the face of a COVID-19 surge hitting Saskatoon (despite the efforts of the people who best understand the crisis). Mia Rabson reports on the deployment of military personnel to coronavirus hot zones - as well as Theresa Tam's recognition that any responsible government would a long way from talking about any return to "normal". Joe Roberts calls for the Libs to invoke the Emergencies Act rather than sacrificing lives to provincial callousness and incompetence. And Canada News Central writes that the governments responsible for ineffective pandemic responses deserve to be wiped out at the polls - while Nova Scotia continues to demonstrate that there's an alternative to letting short-sighted corporate interests and anti-science wingnuts dictate public policy.

- John Paul Tasker reviews the history behind Canada's lack of domestic vaccine production capacity - which is particularly unconscionable when the publicly-owned Connaught Labs was once one of the world's leaders. And John Queally reports on Bill Gates' insistence on prioritizing big pharma's monopoly rights over the availability of vaccines worldwide, while Devi Sridhar observes that global vaccination is a must for any country to be safe from COVID-19.

- Paul Waldman writes that George Orwell underestimated the amount of hate which would underlie a turn toward fascism, as the Republicans essentially offer nothing else 24 hours a day. Alex Pareene discusses the Republicans' choice to legalize running over protestors with cars. And Eric Levitz comments that those provisions are just part of a general conservative attempt to stifle speech through both individual violence, and the power of the state.

- Finally, Kenan Malik writes that the U.S.' general philosophy of policing involves controlling the poor rather than protecting the public.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Thomas Walkom writes about the Libs' dangerous efforts to turn the page on COVID-19 as Canada's primary political concern.

- Murray Mandryk highlights how Scott Moe's budget accomplishes nothing either to address our immediate crisis, or to chart a long-term course for Saskatchewan. And Sareth Pereis writes that a budget intended to paper over severe social, health and economic challenges until after election day only ensures that we'll face far more pain in the future.

- Robyn Urback rightly slams large grocery chains for trying to take back pay increases from their workers while a pandemic continues to put them at risk every day. And Rosa Marchitelli exposes how Colliers is among the employers engaged in systematic wage and time theft from employees - but faces none of the consequences common when the shoe is alleged to be on the other foot. 

- Bryan Labby reports on new polling showing that Albertans are increasingly willing to pay a sales tax in order to properly fund public services. 

- Jennifer Koshan, Lisa Silver, and Jonnette Watson Hamilton challenge the Jason Kenney UCP's attack on peaceful expression and assembly. And Brandi Morin reports on the racial targeting underlying Bill 1.

- Finally, Owen Jones discusses how the toppling of statues is forcing the UK to confront its own ongoing racism.

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Brink Lindsey discusses what the coronavirus pandemic has revealed about the failings of both libertarian philosophy, and the public sector apparatus left after decades of neoliberal neglect.

- Paul Krugman writes that the U.S. is failing the marshmallow test when it comes to maintaining protections against the spread of COVID-19. Alexis Madrigal and Robinson Meyer warn about the apparent plan to give up on fighting against the pandemic. Marc Santora warns that far too many governments are choosing to declare business at usual in the face of a continued threat - even where the coronavirus is already far from under control. And Laurie Monsebraaten and Kristen Rushowy report on the impossible demands Ontario is making of child care centres in throwing them open without warning, consultation or funding, while Bruce Arthur writes about the risk that creates for parents.

- Meanwhile, Kate Kelland reports on new research suggesting that widespread mask use could prevent a severe second wave.

- Jennifer Koshan, Lisa Silver, and Jonnette Watson Hamilton rightly criticize the UCP's attempt to legislate the principle that pipelines trump the freedoms of expression and assembly. And Brandi Morin and Anya Zoledziowski highlight the response by Indigenous communities who haven't been consulted about numerous new laws prioritizing tar sands development over human and environmental health.

- Finally, Yellowstone to Yukon notes that UCP's closure of parks and recreational facilities looks to be connected directly to its desire to ramp up coal mining for little apparent purpose other than to spew as much carbon pollution as possible. And that comes as new research shows that it won't cost the U.S. a dime to transition to 90% clean energy by 2035, including by phasing out coal power entirely.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Yaryna Serkez highlights how COVID-19 has both exploited and exacerbated the U.S.' existing inequalities. And Alexander Panetta writes about the perpetuation of racial inequality in the U.S. for upwards of five decades after civil rights legislation was supposed to establish a nominally equal footing.

- Cornel West discusses the militarized boot crushing the neck of U.S. democracy. And Poppy Noor examines how the U.S. has treated the media as a target in order to try to suppress reporting on both police violence and the strong public response.

- Meanwhile, Tom Nolan points out how militarized police forces result in the labeling of peaceful activists as an enemy to be combated. And Sandy Hudson discusses how the defunding and demilitarization of police would save the lives of Black and Indigenous people in Canada.

- Steven Chase and Robert Fife report on the Trudeau Libs' choice to fund the Saudi purchase of armoured vehicles - signalling the emptiness of their two main excuses for proceeding with arming the Saudis, including both the supposed sanctity of contract and the desire to have other countries pay for our exported products.

- Eleonore Fournier-Tombs writes about the need to rethink our expectations for care work as we reshape our economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

- Finally, PressProgress exposes James Pattinson's laughable claim that he's powerless to change the slashing of hazard pay for workers at Save-on-Foods.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Fernando Arce discusses how Doug Ford's attacks on labour create public health risks. And Amanda Mull writes about the futility of telling workers with no safety net to stay home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, while Donald McNeil Jr. points out the obvious dangers of gagging the scientific community in the face of an impending pandemic.

- Evan Smith highlights how any blather about a "free speech crisis" generally represents nothing but a right-wing attempt to protect bigotry from criticism while stifling any other points of view.

- Shiri Pasternak and Irina Ceric write that court injunctions all too often serve only to privilege smash-and-grab business tactics over the public good. And Doug Nesbitt points out that while Jason Kenney and his fellow petropoliticians lean heavily on talking points about jobs, they have no interest in actually fostering sustainable employment.

- James Bruggers reports on the Trump administration's choice to ignore all scientific evidence and facilitate pollution in order to goose short-term profits for big corporations.

- Finally, Agence France-Presse reports on Luxembourg's decision to make all transit free to users. And Lauren O'Neil points out that Toronto (and other Canadian cities) could easily afford the same if we chose to plan our communities around people rather than cars.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Kate Aronoff asks how much destruction is needed before we'll start taking climate change seriously - though the answer at this point looks to be that no amount of damage will be enough to move a substantial number of politicians off their insistence on putting fossil fuel extraction ahead of human well-being.

- Andrew Leach highlights the contrast between the real problems with Alberta's oil sector, and the Conservative talking points insisting that a dirty and costly industry will boom again if only people clap louder for it.

- David Climenhaga discusses how Jason Kenney has laid the groundwork to slash and privatize Alberta's health and education systems to fund corporate tax giveaways. Ricardo Tranjan maps out the per-student cuts faced by Ontario's schools under Doug Ford. And PressProgress notes that Brian Pallister's self-proclaimed achievements include saddling Manitoba with Canada's second-worst ER wait times even while slashing the number of emergency rooms accessible in the first place.

- Finally, P.E. Moskowitz writes about the far right's attempt to squelch all views other than their own in the name of "free speech".

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Tom Parkin talks to Toby Sanger about the utter failure of corporate tax cuts to produce anything other than concentrated wealth and increased inequality.

- Steven Greenhouse offers suggestions both as to how governments can level the playing field between workers and employers to reduce inequality, and how workers can have a voice even before those structural fixes are made.

- Alan Freeman examines the dangers associated with the Boeing 737 Max as a prime example of the consequences of deregulation.

- Robert Benzie reports that groups helping people with disabilities in Ontario are the latest to find out that Doug Ford isn't prepared to provide the funding needed to perform their work. And the Canadian Press reports that the same municipal cuts which were hastily reversed due to their devastating effect on communities are now set to be imposed again beginning in 2020.

- Martin Regg Cohn points out the absurdity of Ford ordering gas stations to display political propaganda.

- Finally, James Cairns writes about the selective nature of right-wing "free speech" messaging - which is in fact designed to do nothing but silence anybody other than their own reactionary movement.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Tracy Smith-Carrier comments on the importance of addressing poverty as an issue of human rights rather than charity:

It is not a matter of being down on your luck or misfortunate, as if people are somehow fated to live a life of poverty. It is the building blocks of society that reproduce poverty. Work conditions, unequal social relationships and the economy are all part of the problem: Some groups have historically been subject to racism, discrimination and inferior treatment while others have been accorded wealth and privilege.

For example, dynamics in the economy and labour market cause poverty. How many jobs are available, the nature and quality of those jobs, the availability of child care, the accessibility of advanced education and training, the affordability of housing, the extension of appropriate accommodations in the workplace, the accessibility of transportation systems, the ability for certain groups to climb the social ladder, the extension of income-security programs to buffer people in times of crisis: These are all factors that influence people’s slide into poverty and their ability to move out of it.

The decisions people make are ultimately shaped by these larger systemic forces. People might reduce their hours of work as they cannot find quality child care, or they might be reluctant to pursue post-secondary education with the prospect of crushing debt. These decisions are ultimately shaped by a lack of opportunities, not by personal deficiency. And then there is the psychological toll poverty takes: Mental-health issues can develop in the face of lingering unemployment.
...
Charity – the primary solution in place to address poverty through breakfast programs, soup kitchens, food banks, community gardens, and the like – can only provide some measure of emergency relief. It cannot eradicate poverty. No one gets out of poverty by using charitable programs. The fundamental problem – a lack of financial resources – remains unchanged.

It is time to shift away from the charitable model to a rights-based approach, guaranteeing people the right to food. People must have access to an adequate income that allows them to obtain their own food, and do so “in normal and socially acceptable ways,” ensuring personal dignity and choice. The perpetuation of food banks ensures the charitable-food model is preserved, and people remain hungry.

- David Leonhard argues that our current mean of measuring the economy tend to focus on the concentration of wealth rather than economic security for most people.

- Jedediah Purdy points out how the U.S. has turned the principle of freedom of speech into a mechanism to ensure most people are drowned out by the privileged few who can afford to dominate the media. And Adam Federman reports on the private surveillance of environmental activists in Canada as a similar example of money infringing on basic freedoms.

- Michael Harris offers a reminder that Canada is far better off holding off on any NAFTA deal than signing onto Donald Trump's plan to further enrich the American corporate class. And Janyce McGregor reports that like so many corporate trade deals, the CETA has fallen far short of its supposed economic promise.

- Finally, Colleen Flood, Bryan Thomas, Asad Ali Moten and Patrick Fafard examine some of the options available to establish a national universal pharmacare system.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Brian Nolan examines the relationship between inequality and median incomes in developed countries, and concludes that there's little basis to view inequality as an inevitable outcome of international forces:

Globalisation and technological change are often portrayed as exogenous forces sweeping across the rich countries, inexorably driving up inequality and forcing workers to accept wage stagnation (and often less security) if they are to hold on to their jobs. Instead, the variation in country experiences shows how much institutions and policy responses matter to how these forces – themselves subject to human agency rather than God-given – play out in the job market and affect household disposable incomes. Wage-setting institutions clearly have a critical influence. The Belgian combination of wages indexed to inflation, collective agreements covering most workers, and a high minimum wage underpinned significant wage growth across the distribution. In Australia, the extension of collectively negotiated employment terms and conditions over much of the work force, together with a very high minimum wage, play a key role. By contrast, the remarkably poor earnings performance of the UK over the last decade is in a context where wage bargaining has become individualised.

Broader welfare state institutions also play a critical role in levels and patterns of employment. Countries with reasonably strong income growth over recent decades have generally combined some increase in real wages with a rise in the overall employment rate and especially female employment. Recent UK and much longer US experience shows, however, that rising female employment when combined with very weak real wages still equates to stagnating living standards. The welfare state is also key to whether the costs associated with increasing women’s employment are borne by the families themselves or socially, with implications for their welfare generally missed by current metrics. Furthermore, countries have made very different choices with respect to the regulation of employment contracts and conditions, offsetting or accelerating the effects of forces making work more precarious.

Country contexts really matter, and policy responses must be framed in light of the institutional point of departure and distinctive challenges each country faces. Promoting economic growth and ensuring that its benefits are transmitted to middle and lower income households need equal attention; redistribution can be strengthened, while wages generated in the market remain fundamental. The current political salience of inequality and stagnation provides a window of opportunity for a fundamental reassessment of how growth and prosperity are being pursued; the US experience should not however dominate in the search for explanations and effective responses. 

- And Salvatore Morelli studies (PDF) the shape of income concentration around financial crises, concluding that market shocks don't have any lasting effect in equalizing income unless paired with meaningful public policy changes.

- John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto point out how privatization and financialization set Puerto Rico up for the humanitarian disaster resulting from Hurricane Maria.

- Alexi White warns that the Doug Ford PCs are likely just getting started in slashing programs needed to support the most vulnerable people in Ontario. And Alissa Tedesco, Jon Herriot and Katie Boone discuss how Ford's attacks against basic social benefits will endanger the health of the public at large, while Farrah Merali notes that the PCs' threats to safe injection sites similarly stand to end lives to accomplish nothing more than political posturing. 

- Finally, Zack Beauchamp reports on new research which examines terminations arising out of public commentary at U.S. universities, and finds both that any concern about speech is overblown, and that it's left-wing speech that's actually more likely to result in reprisals.

Monday Morning Links

Assorted content to start your week.

- Robert Reich examines how a concerted attack on organized labour has pushed the vast majority of American workers into living paycheque-to-paycheque (or worse) while income and wealth have become increasingly concentrated at the top end of the spectrum:

Almost 80% of Americans say they live from paycheck to paycheck, many not knowing how big their next one will be.

Blanketing all of this are stagnant wages and vanishing job benefits. The typical American worker now earns around $44,500 a year, not much more than what the typical worker earned in 40 years ago, adjusted for inflation. Although the US economy continues to grow, most of the gains have been going to a relatively few top executives of large companies, financiers, and inventors and owners of digital devices.
...
(T)he share of total income going to the richest 10 percent of Americans over the last century is almost exactly inversely related to the share of the nation’s workers who are unionized. (See chart below). When it comes to dividing up the pie, most American workers today have little or no say. The pie is growing but they’re getting only the crumbs.

Over the same period time, antitrust enforcement has gone into remission. The US government has essentially given a green light to companies seeking to gain monopoly power over digital platforms and networks (Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook); wanting to merge into giant oligopolies (pharmaceuticals, health insurers, airlines, seed producers, food processors, military contractors, Wall Street banks, internet service providers); or intent on creating local monopolies (food distributors, waste disposal companies, hospitals).

This means workers are spending more on such goods and services than they would were these markets more competitive. It’s exactly as if their paychecks were cut. Concentrated economic power has also given corporations more ability to hold down wages, because workers have less choice of whom to work for. And it has let companies impose on workers provisions that further weaken their bargaining power, such as anti-poaching and mandatory arbitration agreements.
...
The combination of high corporate profits and growing corporate political power has created a vicious cycle: higher profits have generated more political influence, which has altered the rules of the game through legislative, congressional, and judicial action – enabling corporations to extract even more profit. The biggest losers, from whom most profits have been extracted, have been average workers. 

- William Davies points out how the trumped-up complaints about campus free speech peddled by the right serve primarily to distract from the takeover of most other spaces by the corporate sector. And Nora Loreto comments on the deliberate choice by right-wing pundits to stoke fear and hatred in the wake of the Toronto Danforth shooting.

- Robert Booth exposes how a UK right-wing "think tank" has been actively selling both research outcomes, and access to the Con government. 

- Alan Freeman points out the fiscal price of mindless populism. And Tom Parkin highlights the need for a plan for citizens to organize against the authoritarian tendencies of the likes of Doug Ford.

- Finally, Edward Keenan calls out Ford's choice to gratuitously undermine municipal democracy for the sole purpose of wreaking vengeance against perceived political opponents.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- George Monbiot discusses the dangers of treating our natural environment solely as something to be priced and commodified.

- The Mound of Sound comments on Stephen Leahy's work in crunching the numbers on the climate change impact of a Trans Mountain expansion. And Matt Scuffham and Rod Nickel report on Bill Morneau's apparent plan to divert Canada Pension Plan funds into forcing through a pipeline which can't find private investors.

- Nora Loreto writes about Canada's criminalization of dissent on the left. And Nathan Robinson argues that the right's perpetual persecution complex serves mostly to distract from the suppression of anti-establishment speech:

I want to suggest a hypothesis that may sound outlandish: What if the whole narrative is backwards? What if people who think they are voicing suppressed dangerous ideas are actually the ones suppressing the truly dangerous ideas? What if this effort to condemn the irrational excesses of political correctness is in part a way of avoiding having to engage with its arguments and listen carefully to its advocates? What if people who seem to be “challenging” a dissent-stifling power structure are actually defending one? Now, I’m not saying this is the case; I’m just asking some questions. But let’s, for a moment, because we are rational and skeptical, consider the possibility that the conservative narrative is totally upside-down. Let’s picture a topsy-turvy world in which Donald Trump is the president and left ideas are actually marginal. 
...
...I’m just asking us to imagine a strange world in which the interests of the wealthy mattered far more than the interests of the poor, and in which the good people got left behind while the bad people were honored and celebrated. But let’s stick with the idea, just a moment longer. In this kind of world, what would we make of people like the members of the “Intellectual Dark Web,” who insist that their ideas pose a challenge to the mainstream consensus? Well, first we’d have to look at the ideas themselves. But if those ideas turned out to coincide remarkably well with the interests of those who are already wealthy and powerful, and if those ideas seemed to downplay, deny, and evade all of the contrary evidence, we might begin to suspect that these Dissident Intellectuals should not, in fact, rightfully be considered dissidents. In this kind of world, the real dissidents would be the ones whose names we didn’t know, the ones who were trying to dredge up the truths nobody wanted to listen to, rather than the people whose faces and opinions were constantly in the newspapers. The dangerous ideas would be the ones that weren’t spoken from the White House and on cable news, because they actually indicted those institutions rather than benefiting them.

- And finally, Rinaldo Wolcott and Naomi Klein discuss how Ontarians can prevent Trumpism from spreading into their provincial government by voting for the change they actually want.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Joel French discusses the need for Alberta to implement a more thorough and progressive tax system in order to ensure it has the revenue to support its residents. 

- Meagan Day highlights how Bernie Sanders' new labour bill would empower workers and enhance workplace democracy:

The bipartisan neoliberal attack on unions, which began in earnest in the 1970s, has been enormously effective in undermining the power of the United States labor movement. As a result, the percentage of US workers who currently belong to a union is about 10 percent, down from its peak of nearly 28 percent in 1970.

Again this problem is fundamentally political, stemming from the balance of power in our society and not from a natural or inevitable economic process. The solution, too, has to be political — and it’s in that spirit that Bernie Sanders has introduced a new bill called the Workplace Democracy Act, which aims to clear obstacles to the labor movement’s growth, and ultimately increase collective worker control over the economy. The chances of such a bill passing in a GOP-controlled legislature (or even in a Democrat-controlled legislature; a weaker bill was opposed by moderate Democrats during the Obama administration) are basically nil, but Sanders’s bill is a strong political move anyway. It signals an uncompromising commitment to unions and invites other politicians to support an ambitious vision of a revitalized movement for worker power — or oppose that vision at their own risk.

The Workplace Democracy Act makes three crucial interventions. First, it would overturn a provision in the 1947 Taft-Hartley law that replaced card check — a system where employers have to recognize a union if more than 50 percent of employees in a particular bargaining unit say they want one — with an elaborate secret-ballot election process overseen by the National Labor Relations Board...A national card check system would allow workers to unionize by simple majority, avoiding the messy electioneering process that’s tilted in favor of employers, who inevitably have more resources.

Second, Sanders’s bill would repeal so-called “right to work.” Also a legacy of the Taft-Hartley Act, right to work prevents unions from negotiating contracts with employers that require all employees to join or pay a bargaining fee to the union...

Third, according to some reports, Sanders will seek to increase financial penalties on employers who fire workers for union organizing, a practice that is illegal but ubiquitous, due in part to the lack of consequences. The Center for Economic and Policy Research estimates that “one-in-five union organizers or activists can expect to be fired as a result of their activities in a union election campaign.” The share of union drives that saw illegal firings of workplace activists rose steadily from the the mid-seventies to the mid-2000s. The paper’s authors note that employers “are unlikely to fire workers randomly, or simply for expressing pro-union views. Employers maximize the return to illegal firing by focusing on union activists.” The result is a climate of fear and a chilling effect on union activism, especially organic leadership among the rank-and-file, who are the least likely to take risks regarding their job security. Corporations are not currently forced to pay penalties when they’re caught retaliating against labor activists — all they need to do is make up lost income, which is not sufficient to distance them from the practice.

- Paul Barrett writes that contrary to the trumped-up complaints of the bigoted right, the only real threat to free speech on campus is the precarious work environment which prevents far too many part-time instructions from speaking up. And PressProgress notes that right-wing astroturf operations are still flouting Canada's income tax laws by pretending not to be involved in political activity.

- Finally, Robert Bea notes that Canada's environmental assessment process has approved BP to conduct offshore drilling based on the same assertions which were rejected by Australia. And Rob Antle reports on Husky's attempt to suppress information about a near-miss incident off of the coast of Newfoundland.

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Benjamin Austin, Edward Glaeser and Lawrence Summers make the case for economic policy focused on reducing regional disparities. And Chad Shearer and Isha Shah highlight how inclusion is a necessary element of sustainable economic development:

(B)etter performance on one measure [out of growth, prosperity and inclusion] is associated with better performance on the other two measures in all three time periods. Gains in one category, like growth, are typically accompanied by gains in others, like prosperity and inclusion, and vice versa. For example, Table 1 shows that over the one year from 2015 to 2016, each one-unit increase in metro areas’ composite growth score was associated with a nearly half-unit increase in composite prosperity scores, on average. This relationship is moderately strong: growth scores explain about one-quarter of the variance in prosperity scores. The magnitude and strength of this relationship is relatively consistent over each of the time periods.

Growth and prosperity’s relationship to inclusion, however, grows larger and stronger with time. Table 1 shows that over the one-year period, each one-unit increase in metro areas’ composite growth score was associated with less than a quarter-unit increase in their composite inclusion scores. This relationship is tenuous: composite growth scores explain just 8.9 percent of the variance in their inclusion scores over a year. But the magnitude and strength of this relationship are greater over the five-year period and even greater over 10 years. Prosperity and inclusion, similarly, show little relationship over a one-year period, but exhibit an even stronger relationship over 10 years than prosperity and growth.
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(P)rogress on inclusion seems to stand out even despite the unevenness noted above. Of the 38 metro areas that achieved above-average performance on growth from 2006 to 2016, 28 also achieved above-average performance on inclusion. Twenty-five (25) of the 38 also performed above average on prosperity. Of the 45 metro areas that achieved above-average performance on prosperity during that period, 32 also achieved above-average performance on inclusion. Twenty-five (25) of the 45 also performed above average on growth.

This admittedly wonkish analysis thus points to a simple insight that should guide regional economic development efforts: although it may be elusive from year to year, in the long run, inclusion may provide the key to true economic success.

- Meanwhile, Naomi Jagoda and Niv Elis write that the Trump Republicans have realized they can't claim with a straight face that their tax scam helped anybody other than the wealthiest Americans.

- The Chicago Sun-Times examines the disastrous results of privatized custodial work in public schools. And the Canadian Press reports on the Parliamentary Budget Office's conclusion that the Trudeau Libs' capital-focused infrastructure scheme is already delivering far less than promised.

- Michelle Chen discusses how co-operatives are more productive than corporations designed solely to exploit workers and consumers in the name of shareholders.

- Finally, Doug Saunders rightly argues that the only speech crisis on campuses is the disproportionate attention being paid to people laughably claiming that their already-privileged positions should be granted even more deference.

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- May Boeve and Michael Brune comment on the danger that political- and court-based attacks on U.S. unions could substantially weaken the progressive movement as a whole. But Jane McAlevey writes that West Virginia's successful teachers' strike may provide an important reminder that the power of collective action can operate in the face of laws intended to isolate workers.  

- James Wilt notes that Canada's plans to transition communities away from reliance on diesel fuel fall far short of what's needed - resulting in dirty fuels continuing to be subsidized in the absence of alternatives. Andrew Ward points out the trillions of dollars being bet by the oil industry on an insufficient response to climate change. And George Monbiot writes about the facts of environmental destruction which are far too often ignored in policy discussions.

- Warren Bell discusses how a switch to a proportional electoral system in British Columbia could shift politics from a combat model to one based on cooperation.

- Meanwhile, Elvy Del Bianco, John Kay, Mary Childs, Ben Hyman and Marc Lee offer some suggestions to build B.C.'s cooperative economy.

- Finally, Tressie McMillan Cottom rightly argues that the real threat to freedom of speech and thought comes from harassment rooted in racism and sexism, not from overwrought complaints about political correctness.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Matt Bruenig examines the multi-million-dollar increase in the household wealth of the U.S.' top 1% over the past decade. And Ian Welsh discusses how the extreme concentration of wealth bleeds into political choices:

The corruption of vast inequality is that it makes some people powerful enough to overthrow democracy: in general (Citizen’s United) and in particular cases.

Most rich people are not good people. It is well established now, in the academic literature, that rich people have an empathy deficit, that they give less as a percentage of their wealth and income, and that (to put it unscientifically) they tend to become assholes. They don’t need to care what other people think, or about their welfare.

But even when they do try to do good, well, they don’t need to go through normal democratic processes: they just buy the results.
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Money is power. When the government relies on rich individuals and corporations to do what should be done by government it takes longer and produces less welfare than it should, and it leads to capture by the rich of government.

A 90%+ top marginal tax rate and punitive capital and estate taxes aren’t necessary because “government needs the money”, they are necessary so that the rich don’t become so rich they buy the State.

And that includes the ones who try to do some good...

- Richard Partington writes about new OECD research on the threats to the UK's economy posed by household debt and stagnant wages. And Linda Nazareth discusses how retirement security is declining between generations in Canada.

- Makda Ghebreslassie points out that food banks and other band-aid solutions do nothing to address underlying insecurity and social deprivation.

- Andre Picard wonders whether Canada has forgotten the hard-learned lessons of the tainted blood scandal - particularly as to the dangers of cost-cutting and profit motives when health is at stake.

- Finally, amidst so many real problems in our midst, Michael Coren comments on the right's attempt to fabricate a campus free speech crisis which ultimately means little more than trying to ensure that only reactionary voices get heard.