Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Yanis Varoufakis rightly argues that the EU (and the international community generally) should be treating the U.S.' draconian sanctions against ICC judges as fully disqualifying it from being treated as anything but a bad actor. And James Ball writes about the challenges facing the war on disinformation as the few people who once worked on countering propaganda are likewise being treated as persona non grata, while Charles Ornstein discusses the Trump regime's intimidation tactics toward working reporters (including treating basic requests for comment as evidence of hostility). 

- Connie Loizis reports on the development of a private security state under the not-at-all-telling branding of Sauron. And Arian Campo-Flores discusses how the wealthy are buying privacy which has been made unavailable to anybody else. 

- Elizabeth Todd-Breland opines that there's no room for dispute that corporations need to pay more taxes to support a functional society. And Richard Partington writes about the need for UK Labour (and other governments) to recognize the human toll of increased automation. 

- Finally, Tina Swanson offers a handy categorization of climate policies based on their level of utility - with the corporate right's preferred delay tactics of nuclear reactors and carbon capture and storage serving as representative examples of what not to bank on. Marc Lee discusses what we've learned about Mark Carney's agenda, including his his prioritizing dirty energy over any considerations of well-being or long-term prosperity. And David Roberts interviews Saul Griffith about the success of Australia's rooftop solar program. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Joe Vipond and Steve Bentley write about the need to treat the climate breakdown in progress as a serious problem requiring immediate action rather than a game. David Thurton reports on the Libs' inexplicable choice to eliminate the federal government's ability to carry out environmental assessments based on carbon pollution with multi-jurisdictional impacts. And Steve Hanley points out that the fossil fuel sector's response to the development of satellites capable of tracking methane releases has been to direct its "innovation" toward new steps to conceal its continued emissions. 

- Mark Olaide and Nick Bowlin expose how Oklahoma courts and regulators alike went out of their way to prevent the oil industry from paying the cost of its contamination of a family farm. And Drew Anderson reports on the UCP's choice to ban new renewable energy for threatening the hegemony of the fossil fuel sector. 

- Meanwhile, Justine Calma discusses how environmental journalists face disproportionate and increasing threats of violence for daring to expose the reality of corporate malfeasance. 

- Adam King discusses how Canada's latest income survey shows a deteriorating standard of living for the working class - driven largely by the withdrawal of supports in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. 

- Finally, Alex Hemingway points out that it will be impossible to meaningfully alleviate Canada's housing crisis without massive investment in public and not-for-profit homes. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Zak Vescera reports on the CCPA's new research showing how an increasing number of jobs in British Columbia are precarious - with already-disadvantaged workers especially likely to be affected. Don Pittis points out the Bank of Canada's continued attempts to hold wages below the rate of inflation, while offering much-needed space for Kaylie Tiessen to point out how that focus results in its being a soldier for capital in an ongoing class war. And Nick French writes that the essence of socialism is rooted in justice for workers pursuing what's rightfully theirs.

- Andrew Petter and Jim Rutkowski write about the value of progressive populism as a tool to make the case for an egalitarian society.  And Rowan Burdge, Jen Kostuchuk and Ismail Askin point out the importance of ensuring that social justice is embodied in any climate plan in order to ensure people see the benefits of a clean energy transition. 

- Meanwhile, Roberto Burgos discusses how the latest IPCC report is both alarming in its expectations, and unduly optimistic in its assumption that we'll manage a full transition away from carbon pollution.

- Finally, David Beers discusses the need to value journalism as a public good - particularly as the Cons and their provincial cousins attempt to stifle any reporting or commentary other than from their own side's propagandists.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Stephanie Desmon interviews Ziyad Al-Aly about the danger COVID-19 poses for the heart - even for people with mild cases which have otherwise seemingly run their course. Megan Ogilvie, May Warren and Kenyon Wallace report on new research showing the avoidable risk that unvaccinated people create for people who have had their . And Justin Chandler talks to three Ontario medical officers of health about the need for masks - with all recognizing the continued importance of wearing masks even if their political circumstances have made orders difficult to pursue. 

- In the context of Elon Musk's imminent takeover of Twitter in the name of "free speech", Robert Reich warns that any talk of freedom by billionaires (or their media mouthpieces) inevitably means they're looking for a way to exert even more control through their wealth. And Alex Pareene writes that the alt-right is dedicated to trying to undermine the very idea of journalism in the sense of discovering and reporting truth - particularly as that tends to prove inconvenient for the movement's funders looking to protect wealth gathered through exploitative means. 

- Meanwhile, David Moscrop writes that progressives can't afford to cede the notion of populism to the fascists using it to posture as defenders of the working class.  

- Andrew Jackson discusses the damage done by decades of neoliberalism while reviewing Gary Gerstle's The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order. 

- Finally, Jen St. Denis rightly asks why we aren't building affordable homes when that would require nothing more than following the precedent set in the 1970s. And Chris Ballard questions why the Ford PCs are going out of their way to make Ontario homes less energy-efficient. 

Sunday Morning Links

Assorted content for your Sunday reading.

- Lest anybody think the Harper Cons' combination of dishonesty and secrecy is limited to political payoffs, Blacklock's reveals (PDF) that they subsidized the shipment of corporate jobs out of Canada - and didn't deign to inform the public that the program existed until seven years after the fact.

- And APTN reports on the Cons' suppression of tens of thousands of pages of documents detailing the causes and effects of underfunding of First Nations child welfare.

- But then, both stories also serve as important examples of the value of detailed research into government activity. And Nicky Woolf credits the Guardian for taking up that cause around the globe - making it an increasingly valuable journalistic resource even in the U.S.:

Figures given exclusively to The Atlantic show that -- according to internal analytics -- June 10, the day after Snowden revealed his identity on The Guardian's website, was the biggest traffic day in their history, with an astonishing 6.97 million unique browsers. Within a week of publishing the NSA files, The Guardian website has seen a 41 percent increase in U.S. desktop unique visitors (IP addresses loading the desktop site) and a 66 percent rise in mobile traffic. On June 10, for the first time in the paper's history, their U.S. traffic was higher than their UK traffic.
...
The Guardian also has a reputation for solid investigative journalism. The NSA story isn't their first rodeo. They were one of three publications to work closely with WikiLeaks to process the mountains of data leaed by Bradley Manning in 2010. When Rupert Murdoch's vast tabloid the News of the World was finally caught phone-hacking, it was The Guardian that brought it down, doggedly fighting for the story for two years against a storm of legal threats and denials from News International. Before that, the paper was known for having faced down a storm of litigation to prove that the former MP Jonathan Aitken had lied before a court, giving them probably their best-known front page, featuring the headline "He Lied And Lied And Lied".

I ask Gibson what's coming up for Guardian US, when the Snowden dust finally settles. "We will add commentators, we will add reporting, we will add verticals, we will continue to grow, and we'll work with commercial partners and do tech and business and all the things that we want to be," she says. The publication is doubling down on its investigative presence in the States as well: Investigative journalist Paul Lewis is joining the paper's Washington bureau from the London office this month, and Nick Davies, the reporter whose two years of digging brought about the phone-hacking scandal, is joining the New York team later in the year.

- John Ahni Schertow offers a look at the process being used to push a nuclear waste depository on the community of Pinehouse - and the rightful response from community members.

- Finally, Kathleen Rodgers and Darcy Ingram criticize the Cons' lack of interest in any youth involvement in politics other than as paid flacks and trained seals.