Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Noushin Ziafati reports on the continuing challenges facing people suffering from long COVID - particularly as governments attempt to pretend the pandemic which infected them never happened. And Eric Topol writes about the continued denialism in the U.S. as another wave is cresting. 

- Nancy Olivieri, Michael Hurley and Natalie Mehra call out the Ford government's quiet privatization of health care. Marc Spooner warns that the Moe government is laying the groundwork to turn Saskatchewan's universities into subcontractors for corporate employers. And Kathryn Joyce points out the concerted attack on public education in the U.S. centered on a single conservative Christian private college. 

- Jen St. Denis writes about the causes of B.C.'s deadly heat dome last summer - and the steps needed to prepare for more to come. And Matt Elliott discusses the folly in Doug Ford's plans to add still more lanes of traffic which only stand to increase gridlock and sprawl. 

- Dru Oja Jay interviews Seth Klein about the needed fight to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. Kate Aronoff calls out the fossil fuel sector for its greed and arrogance in response to Russia's attack on Ukraine, while Katherine Fung reports that the Koch empire continues to stand out in its corporate villainy by acquiescing in Vladimir Putin's war. And Charlie Angus writes that we can't afford to keep clinging to the laughable theory that it's possible to avert a climate breakdown while subsidizing the increased production and export of dirty oil and gas. 

- Finally, Giulia Gipponi and Steve Machin study labour market inequality in the UK, and find that the middle class of workers has seen effectively no increase in income over the past four decades. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Andrew Nikiforuk distills the four myths which have resulted in Canada's political leaders plunging us into multiple avoidable waves of COVID spread. Isaac Olson and Verity Stevenson report on Quebec's latest set of public health rules to try to rein in an unprecedented number of cases, while Bartley Kives points out that Manitoba's health care system (like Saskatchewan's) is straining under the prospect of another wave without having recovered from the previous one. 

- Susan Delacourt highlights how the Libs' narrowed set of benefits - developed on the assumption that the worst of COVID was far behind us - proved to be obsolete by the time it was introduced. Christine Dobby reports on the especially severe effect on workers who may miss the threshold for even reduced federal relief, while having no say in whether they have access to employment income. And Nora Loreto reports on the 107 workers (to date) who have died of COVID contracted in Ontario workplaces. 

- Meanwhile, Walker Bragman and Alex Kotch expose how the Koch right-wing message machine has been running at full capacity to undermine any public health response to COVID.

- Angela Dewan reports on the similar lobbying and PR effort by fossil fuel interests to lock in long-term reliance on natural gas (and associated carbon pollution). And Erik Reinert writes about Frederick Soddy's prescient recognition of the problems with an economy which fails to properly value and protect our natural environment. 

- Finally, Robert Reich writes that corporate exploitation is the actual cause of the inflation we're experiencing - and that working-class and lower-income people will only be worse off if our policy response is to let even more wealth and power flow to those who already have the most. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Frank Addario asks how any politician can claim to be a leader while taking a mulligan on the COVID-19 pandemic. Amy Kaler writes that Jason Kenney's decision to pay off non-vaccinated people while doing virtually nothing to limit community spread has only made matters worse in trying to make any case for collective action. And Adam Hunter points out Scott Moe's choice to do nothing and point fingers while Saskatchewan careens into disaster.  

- Meanwhile, Greg Sargent points out the potential for a strong political response to the "Jonestown Republicans" (and similarly destructive Conservatives in Canada) encouraging an antisocial response to a social crisis. 

- Paul Krugman welcomes us to to autumn of anxiety as a COVID wave driven by the most dangerous variant yet is accompanied by the removal of the supports which enabled people to survive its earlier incarnations. Hayes Brown warns that one of the virtually certain results is an escalation in poverty levels which dipped when somewhat better income supports were available. And the Houston Chronicle's editorial board notes that it's entirely understandable that workers aren't eager to endanger themselves and their families for precarious and low-paying work. 

- Sarah Zhang notes that the ventilation improvements which are being demanded by forward-looking people as a means of reducing the spread of COVID would carry the side benefit of stopping all kinds of respiratory viruses. 

- Nick Toscano writes that temporary price hikes aren't fooling most investors into thinking there's any real future in fossil fuels. But Carlos Joly points out that in the midst of its election, Norway (like Canada) is seeing most of its political parties continue to push carbon pollution exports rather than transitioning to a clean economy. 

- Jasmine Banks documents how the Koch brothers' dark money empire is behind the contrived U.S. uproar over "critical race theory" - making for a particularly stark example of how capital stokes racism in order to preserve its position of privilege. And John Tattrie reports on the the apparently race-motivated killing of Truro taxi driver Prabhjot Singh Katri as an ugly example of the consequences of letting racism fester.

- Finally, Arwa Madhawi writes that it's long past time to start paying attention to the people accurately warning of the dangerous consequences of anti-social neglect, rather than allowing the people who benefit from maintaining it to tell us there's nothing to worry about. 

Thursday Evening Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Martin Regg Cohn writes that Doug Ford's brutal austerity against the people who most need social support has been based on entirely made-up numbers. And David Climenhaga points out that Alberta's civil service has been shrinking over the past decade, showing that Jason Kenney is peddling lies of his own in pretending that public-sector workers can afford to take on more work for unconstitutionally-limited pay.

- Alex Hemingway discusses the need to extend democracy into our workplaces and economic planning - as even the U.S. and UK are having far more serious conversations about worker control than we are.

- Patrick Butler reports on new research showing that homeless people in the UK are being denied social housing precisely because they're poor enough to need it.

- Emma White suggests that it's time to explain climate change to recalcitrant politicians in terms that small children could understand. Lynn Giesbriecht reports on the Saskatchewan Party's choice to pull the plug on a solar installation program which was producing both clean energy and substantial economic activity. And Alex Kotch points out how Koch funding and Republican political power are being used to try to stifle the development of electric vehicles to keep people burning dirty fossil fuels.

- Finally, Shree Paradkar offers some important context for Justin Trudeau's multiple blackface and brownface revelations. And Debbie Douglas and Shalini Konanur recognize that Canada still needs to answer for and correct massive racial disparities.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Greg Wilpert interviews Julia Wolfe about the contract between soaring incomes for CEOs, and stagnant ones for workers. And David Cooper observes that everybody benefits from a fair minimum wage.

- Christopher Cheung points out that the presence - or absence - of basic bathroom facilities offers a simple test as to whether cities are designed to be lived in by people.

- Zoe Ducklow interviews Tatiana Schlossberg about the relationship between consumer lifestyles and our climate breakdown and other environmental consequences.

- Patricia Aldana rightly calls out Canada's corporate elite (and their fully-owned political subsidiaries) for prioritizing resource sector profits over the rule of law in Latin America. And Mitchell Anderson notes that we don't have any standing to claim superiority over Brazil in our effect on the climate - though the answer should be that we accept being subject to the same type of pressure we ought to apply to other countries who also place short-term profits ahead of the viability of our planet. 

- Finally, Bernie Sanders highlights how media outlets motivated by a combination of easy profits and billionaire manipulations represent a threat to democracy. And Dennis Gruending discusses how the Koch brothers' dark money has harmed Canada's political debate.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Paul Krugman writes about the U.S. Republicans' new complaint of evil eye economics - though it shouldn't come as much surprise that people who treat the economy as nothing more than a confidence game would object to anybody pointing out how the public is being conned.

- Alex Kotch writes about David Koch's legacy of destruction. And Suketu Mehta writes about the manufactured anti-immigration message which has allowed the racist right to grow across much of the developed world.

- Meanwhile, Ian Tucker interviews David Wallace-Wells about the pattern of policy hypocrisy which includes the Libs' determination to build pipelines at public expense while posturing as climate champions.

- Michael Laxer highlights how the Libs' housing plan for Nunavut involves funding only a tiny fraction of even the most immediate needs.

- Finally, Keith Gerein calls on Jason Kenney to acknowledge the evidence that supervised consumption sites save lives. And Andre Picard questions why we're happy to accept the social consumption of alcohol in bars while acting squeamish about the equivalent for any other substance. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Richard Cannings comments on the need for governments to collect a fair share of revenue from wealthy individuals and corporations. And Erin Weir argues that Canada's federal government shouldn't subsidize Jason Kenney's corporate tax giveaway with abatements on federal taxes.

- Meanwhile, Paul Krugman discusses the damage being done by the U.S.' plutocrats who are happily accepting the destruction of their country's social and economic infrastructure in exchange for short-term tax handouts.

- Jennifer Szalai reviews Christopher Leonard's Kochland, including a look at how the Koch brothers have manipulated governments and employees alike to wring out every possible dollar with no regard for any community interests. And David Olive notes that a reckoning is coming for the pharmaceutical corporations which have created North America's opioid crisis - while also observing that government acquiescence has played a role in an issue which hasn't similarly taken hold elsewhere. 

- Karl Nerenberg discusses the role Canada's successful but incomplete public health care system is playing in elections on both sides of the border. And A Montgomery et al study the consequences of widespread burnout among health care workers facing increasing demands and decreasing resources to fund them.

- Finally, Mary O'Hara writes about the connections between poverty and mental health - and the need for public policy which properly invests in ameliorating both. 

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Ernest Canning writes about the importance of treating corporatism as a specific and extreme position, rather than allowing it to define the political centre. And Norm McKee rightly argues that Canada's federal election campaign needs to include a focus on ensuring the rich pay their fair share - though he inexplicably fails to mention the NDP's plan to do just that.

- Christopher Leonard reports on Koch Industries' alarming track record of worker injuries and deaths at Georgia Pacific as it has sought to wring ever more production out of fewer and fewer exhausted employees - and the Koch brothers' determination to keep extracting immediate and unsustainable profits at the expense of workers.

- Julie Lalonde discusses the importance of working on improving our health care system to ensure Canadians receive the care we need, rather than merely being satisfied with it being less costly and dysfunctional than the U.S.'. And Eric Topal highlights the role organizing within the medical profession can play in pushing for policies which improve social health.

- The Rocky Mountain Outlook writes that the UCP's reckless combination of immediate corporate slashing and calculated uncertainty for all public services is only making life worse for Alberta's most vulnerable residents. And Tahirih Foroozan and Sarah Rieger examine Jason Kenney's choice to leave libraries in particular with doubts about their ability to operate.

- Finally, Brian Feldman observes that the apparent death of the headphone jack represents another worrisome step toward technology being proprietary rather than connected.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Joel Connelly reports on a new B.C. study showing the breadth and depth of the effects of a climate breakdown. Reuters examines the threat of water bankruptcy looming over a quarter of the Earth's population - including a substantial part of the Canadian Prairies. David Suzuki writes that climate deniers are having a perpetually more difficult time avoiding reality. And Charlie Smith discusses the impact the Extinction Rebellion has had around the world as it looks to make its mark in Canada.

- But Sarah Cox notes that reckless forestry and natural gas approvals are essentially choosing to facilitate environmental destruction and potentially species extinction. And Steven Hsieh reports on the Koch brothers' spending to shout down even the most modest of local transit plans in the name of maximizing the burning of fossil fuels (and the resulting damage to our planet).

- Arthur White-Crummey reports on Scott Moe's choice to turn away federal funding for major projects in Regina and Saskatoon solely for the sake of picking a political fight. And Mia Rabson discusses how Manitoba school boards have had to go around their provincial government due to Brian Pallister's similar decision to prioritize naked partisanship over the public good.

- Finally, Aditya Chakrabortty writes that economic policies designed to serve the super-rich have turned most of the UK's population into losers. Labor411 notes that Lowe's has joined the ranks of the corporations who have responded to Donald Trump's tax giveaways by slashing jobs. And Leslie Josephs and Michael Wayland write that workers are still trying to find some way to win a share of the windfall handed to the U.S.' wealthiest few.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Mike Pearl discusses the climate despair of people understandably having difficulty working toward a longer term which is utterly neglected in our most important social decisions. But Macleans' feature on climate change includes both Alanna Mitchell's take on what a zero-emission future might look like, and an editorial calling for far more action to get there than either the Libs or Cons is willing to even suggest (let alone deliver).

- Meanwhile, Gregory Meyer offers a reminder as to how methane leaks make natural gas a non-starter when it comes to maintaining a liveable climate. And Nerilie Abram, Matthew England and Matt King point out the dangers of instability in giant Antarctic ice sheets.

- But John McMurtry discusses how the Koch Brothers and other plutocrats are trying to buy public ignorance to ensure that environmentally destructive plans are permitted. And David Climenhaga writes that Jason Kenney is looking to distract from any issue worthy of public discussion by funding conspiracy theorists to write fiction about environmental activists, while Graham Thomson also calls out the lack of any rational basis for Kenney's McCarthyite project.

- David Macdonald offers a primer on tax fairness for Canadians examining their options in this fall's federal election. And the Canadian Press analyzes how British Columbia's anti-speculation tax has collected $115 million for a fund dedicated to affordable housing.

- Finally, Jolson Lim reports on the decision of human rights advocates and labour representatives to resign from a Trudeau-appointed advisory body which was falling short of offering anything remotely resembling corporate responsibility.

Wednesday Morning Links

This and that for your mid-week reading.

- Rick Salutin discusses the needed rise of left-wing populism in the U.S.' presidential campaign (and elsewhere).

- Ed Finn highlights how policies designed around austerity and competition are designed to prevent people from cooperating toward the common good. And Erlend Kvitrud points out how direct public control over corporations serves as a crucial aspect of Scandinavia's economic and social successes.

- Tracey Lindeman notes that the airline industry represents just another example of how corporate consolidation is producing windfall profits and higher prices. And Katie Nicholson reports on Boeing's falsification of safety records.

- Rebecca Willis writes that more democracy is a crucial aspect of a successful effort to combat our climate crisis, while Avi Lewis and David Suzuki are hopeful that Canada is on the right track. Bloomberg News calls out the fossil fuel industry's continued sabotage of any attempt to develop workable plans to avert a climate breakdown, while Alastair Jamieson reports on Saudi Arabia's interference in UN discussions. Ben Jervey notes that the Koch brothers are among the oil barons trying to prevent the emergence of the electric vehicle industry. And James Temple discusses the need to reduce out anticipated fossil fuel use rather than trying to justify continued expansion in the name of "transition", while David Roberts writes about Jay Inslee's detailed plans to actually phase out our dependence on carbon pollution. 

- Finally, Tom Koch writes that a national pharmacare system would both benefit from, and contribute to, the principle that big pharma shouldn't be able to capture public research dollars as a source of private profits.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Alex Hemingway and David Macdonald point out the appalling wealth gap between British Columbia's privileged few and most of the population.

- ProPublica reports that the IRS is being used to exacerbate the similar gap in the U.S. by focusing its limited resources on the working poor rather than on wealthy individuals and corporations thumbing their noses at any social obligations. And Elizabeth Thompson notes that Canada still hasn't seen a single charge or conviction arising out of the Panama Papers.

- Nick Saul rightly argues that Ontario needs to focus on raising wages and incomes in order to respond to rising food prices and other costs of living.

- Dan Leger writes that the rise of bigotry in politics is fueling a growing number of hate crimes. And George Monbiot highlights a UK example of how the Koch brothers are bankrolling the descent into barbarism.

- Finally, Ryan Meili makes the case for the Saskatchewan NDP's renewable energy plan as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while also providing tangible economic benefits for participants. Matthew Taylor reports on London's declaration of a climate emergency (matched with a push toward carbon neutrality by 2030). And Peggy Lam reports that plenty of businesses are calling for a rapid transition to zero-emission vehicles as another crucial step in averting climate breakdown.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Avi Lewis contrasts the real crises which demand our attention against the manufactured ones which are instead promoted by far too many of our political leaders:

Even for those of us who have not yet experienced personal loss and trauma from climate catastrophe, the juxtaposition of our genuine planetary emergency with cynically manipulated fake crises is getting painful. It’s gaslighting on a national scale. We are bombarded by endless coverage of the fake crisis in the oil patch while the real crisis of all life everywhere is so often rendered invisible.

We are living in a state of planetary emergency. It has been declared by scientists, Indigenous leaders, social movements, and communities that were already living in a state of daily emergency long before the extent of the climate catastrophe became clear. We have solutions that will truly benefit everyone — especially those most marginalized and under attack by the current extractive system, and those currently working in industries that need to be wound down.

But we can’t get started until this emergency is felt — viscerally — by a great many more people, especially the hardest to reach: our political leaders. That’s precisely what is happening in the United States, where a generation of complacent corporate Democrats is suddenly being challenged by a crowd of impatient millennials, bursting with the urgency of their generation, creating an emergency for the political status quo. Apparently, losing power is the only crisis that politicians can really understand.

 - David Moscrop argues that it's long past time for climate change defeatists to get out of the way of the people with the hope and vision necessary to do the work to avert total climate breakdown.

- Stephen Cornish observes that Husky's uncontrolled SeaRose oil spill shows how reckless it is to approve offshore drilling and other projects which threaten water with contamination. And Andrew Nikiforuk confirms that fracking operations have been the cause of earthquake activity in B.C., leading to at least a temporary shutdown. 

- George Monbiot exposes how the Koch brothers are buying political influence in the UK and elsewhere - and choosing to do so by funding hate. And Monia Mazigh comments on the resulting increase in hate crimes in Canada and the U.S. - even as right-wing parties blithely ignore the dangers they've created and exacerbated for minority-group members.

- Hamid Dabashi notes that Justin Trudeau's Potemkin progressivism is no better for our long-term hopes than the reactionary politics of Donald Trump and his ilk.

- Finally, Sam Pizzigati examines who stands to lose and gain from GM's massive job cuts.

Friday Evening Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Martin Regg Cohn writes that reducing access to pharmacare is just the first item on Doug Ford's extensive hidden agenda. And Steve Morgan examines the effects of Ford's cuts to public prescription drug coverage and finds that the end result of relying more on the private sector will be added costs borne disproportionately by the middle class.

- David Climenhaga points out that the funding for Canada's anti-tax propaganda mills includes the donation-laundering mechanisms used by American billionaires.

- Corey Shefman recognizes that the disproportionate concentration of Indigenous people in jails should be considered a national crisis. And Max Fineday notes that the gap is only getting worse for the new generation of Indigenous youth.

- Lana Borenstein highlights why Scott Moe's crusade against greenhouse gas emission pricing is likely doomed to fail.  And Marc Lee offers a reminder of the massive public subsidies behind British Columbia's liquid natural gas industry (among other fossil fuel development).

- Finally, Claire Cain Miller explores the factors behind the choice of younger Americans to have fewer children, and finds that a lack of affordable child care is at the top of the list.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Stuart Heritage argues that a shared sense of morality is our best hope of ensuring that narcissism isn't rewarded. And Paul Gleason reviews two new books - including Thomas Piketty's latest - on the importance of progressive taxes to reduce inequality (in addition to funding social goods).

- Josh Eidelson discusses how the Koch corporatist machine intends to capitalize on yesterday's SCOTUS decision undercutting public-sector labour organization. But Peter Greene notes that plenty of unions have already learned to navigate the types of restrictions imposed by the Republican contingent on the court.

- Kelly Grant reports on British Columbia's proposal to require the disclosure of pharmaceutical industry payments to doctors.

- Murray Mandryk discusses the mounting problems with the Saskatchewan Party's multi-billion-dollar privatized Regina bypass.

- Finally, Brian Hill points out that Canada's immigration system imposes unreasonable barriers to family reunification, including by failing to classify the parents of child refugees as "family members".

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- David Brady, Ryan Finnigan and Sabine Hubgen challenge the claim that there's any relationship between single motherhood and poverty. And Doug Saunders writes that there's an opening for progressive movements to take back the theme of family values which obviously bear no relationship to the policy cruelty of the right:

As the Brown University historian Robert O. Self found in his chronicle of this period, conservatives "energized by the legalization of abortion, the demands of feminists, the expansion of welfare, rising crime rates, and the increasing visibility of homosexuality, cast the nuclear family as in crisis and its defense as their patriotic duty … they sought to protect idealized families from moral harm."

It was politically very successful. Yet it was built on a flawed premise. Poverty, inequality, crime and dependence are linked to family breakdown. But family-values conservatives got it backward: Broken families are not the cause of social and economic deprivation; they're an effect. Those dreaded big-state policies hadn't undermined the family; they'd protected it.

...

Stable and successful two-parent families tend to flourish where there's strong promotion of birth control and robust sex education, where child-care resources exist so that parents don't have to choose between work or children, where housing and social-assistance policies allow couples to have stable long-term tenure, where laws and social practices allow couples outside the traditional sphere of the heterosexual nuclear family to enter the security of marriage.

Beneath all that controversial liberal language of shifting identities and diversity and competing rights, you'll find the secret to family stability and, therefore, to upward mobility. If candidates are careful with that language, the next few years could see the return of the family-values left.

- Speaking of which, Renee Feltz reports on the lobbying by Koch-backed groups to undermine any movement toward paid sick leave in the U.S. - because for the plebes, the only acceptable response to illness is to suck it up and go to work anyway. 

- Kate McInturff reminds us why the continued gender pay gap is everybody's problem.

- David Pugliese points out that the Libs' agreement to sell military helicopters to Rodrigo Duterte was made with full knowledge that human rights abuses would result. And Tom Parkin puts the helicopter sale to the Philippines in context with Justin Trudeau's general failure to match words about human rights with meaningful action.

- Finally, Terry Dance Bennink, Maria Dobrinskaya and Antony Hodgson make the case for a proportional electoral system in British Columbia.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jesse Winter is the latest reporter to tell the stories of a few minimum-wage workers who will see a raise as a result of improved employment standards. And Erika Shaker points out that a substantial minimum-wage increase is a long-overdue response to outdated statutory standards and stagnant wage levels, not a meaningful imposition on employers:

(W)hat’s truly surprising is that so many businesses didn’t seem to see it coming, even after a two-year $15 minimum wage campaign in Ontario. After all, increases have been studied, debated and implemented in several American states, Britain, and Australia (to name a few), not to mention Alberta. All this strikes me as something that might be considered “market research” or simply “planning ahead” for a business concerned with its bottom line.

So while this is certainly a significant change, Ontario businesses had time to rethink their decision to pursue a low-wage business plan in the broader socio-economic and political context (the Changing Workplaces Review was initiated back in February 2015 “to consider issues brought about in part by the growth of precarious employment”), seven months to adjust to being compliant with the legislation (if the mere desire to treat their workers well wasn’t strong enough), and another year before $15/hr kicks in.
...
The increase to the minimum wage shouldn’t be seen as a shock, but rather a long-fought-for correction…which suggests that those businesses arguing loudest had perhaps become too comfortable counting on an outdated business model whose profit margins depended on low-wage employees. The much-publicized decision by a few (“rogue”, according to Head Office) Tim Hortons franchises to find ways to gouge their workers betrays a somewhat Dickensian nostalgia for a time when the highest costs of doing business were borne by the worker — not the cutting-edge, forward-looking business acumen that we’re often told tax breaks will encourage.

- Lydia Dobson criticizes Ontario employers whose reaction to an improved minimum wage is to steal employees' tips. And Heidi Shierholz, David Cooper, Julia Wolfe, and Ben Zipperer document the billions of dollars workers stand to lose from Donald Trump's plan to let U.S. employers do exactly that.

- Matt Bruenig points out the problems with fetishizing small businesses, rather than focusing on the importance of workers' protections and needs regardless of the size of their employer.

- The Star's editorial board argues that Google and Facebook should be required to pay a fair share of taxes proportional to the corporate revenue they accumulate from their Canadian operations.

- And finally, Mary Papenfuss reports on the Koch family's six-figure payout to Paul Ryan (and other donations which represent a small portion of the Republicans' tax giveaway) as a prime example of the corruption inherent in politics dominated by big money.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- George Monbiot examines the history of James McGill Buchanan, Charles Koch and others who have used massive amounts of time and money to ensure that wealth wins out over democracy in shaping U.S. policy - and how their influence will sounds familiar elsewhere as well:

The papers Nancy MacLean discovered show that Buchanan saw stealth as crucial. He told his collaborators that “conspiratorial secrecy is at all times essential”. Instead of revealing their ultimate destination, they would proceed by incremental steps. For example, in seeking to destroy the social security system, they would claim to be saving it, arguing that it would fail without a series of radical “reforms”. (The same argument is used by those attacking the NHS)...
...
Reading this book felt like a demisting of the window through which I see British politics. The bonfire of regulations highlighted by the Grenfell Tower disaster, the destruction of state architecture through austerity, the budgeting rules, the dismantling of public services, tuition fees and the control of schools: all these measures follow Buchanan’s programme to the letter. I wonder how many people are aware that David Cameron’s free schools project stands in a tradition designed to hamper racial desegregation in the American south.

In one respect, Buchanan was right: there is an inherent conflict between what he called “economic freedom” and political liberty. Complete freedom for billionaires means poverty, insecurity, pollution and collapsing public services for everyone else. Because we will not vote for this, it can be delivered only through deception and authoritarian control. The choice we face is between unfettered capitalism and democracy. You cannot have both.

Buchanan’s programme is a prescription for totalitarian capitalism. And his disciples have only begun to implement it. But at least, thanks to MacLean’s discoveries, we can now apprehend the agenda. One of the first rules of politics is, know your enemy. We’re getting there.

- Robert Reich writes about the erosion of social bonds by growing inequality. And Jonathan Kay discusses how the U.S. is suffering for refusing to raise tax revenue as the price of a civilized society.

- Thom Hartmann writes about the new forms of indentured servitude becoming increasingly common in the U.S.' labour market. Jake Johnson comments on the gap between CEOs who have seen gigantic pay increases over the past few decades, and workers who have seen nothing of the sort. And Frank Pasquale points out that significant collective action will be needed to prevent platform capitalism from further undermining workers' rights.

- On that front, Andrew Hartman theorizes that millennials' political activism figures to present a strong challenge to capitalist control. And James Elliott interviews Jon Lansman about the next steps for UK Labour - and particularly its progressive activists - following Jeremy Corbyn's first electoral success. 

- Finally, Geoff Leo reports on the GTH's latest violations of access to information laws - while finding that experts see the Wall government's combination of compulsive secrecy and gross incompetence as similar to Donald Trump's administration.

On countermovements

Alison is right to highlight the latest right-wing astroturf group in Canada. But we shouldn't assume that mere exposure will meaningfully affect the growth of corporate-owned politics alone.

As is typically the case, Canadian politics tend to be influenced strongly by U.S. trends due to the overlap in culture and media. And there, privately-owned political structures are beginning to exceed the reach of political parties.

That makes for a serious problem to the extent the model is adopted on a similar scale in Canada - as a fairly modest amount of money by business standards could drown out nearly all other political voices between elections without any legal restraints.

But it also signals that citizens' movements can likewise work across and beyond party lines with relative freedom (at least for the moment). And so while we call out the astroturf in our midst, we should also recognize the opportunity to sow real seeds of change for the better.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Jim Stanford points out that the choice to leave drug development to the market resulted in a promising ebola vaccine going unused - and indeed untested - for years until the disease threatened a wealthy enough target population:

Canada’s outstanding work to invent one of the world’s most promising vaccines against Ebola perfectly epitomizes both the promise of public research, and the perverse incentives of the for-profit industry. Early this century Health Canada recognized the need for an Ebola vaccine, and assigned scientists with the Public Health Agency of Canada to find one. Almost a decade ago they patented a vaccine that prevents Ebola in monkeys. Canadian researchers should have been hailed as heroes.

Unfortunately, the government snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by handing over this important invention to the private sector – for a pittance. In 2010 Ottawa licensed the Ebola vaccine to a small U.S. firm called NewLink Genetics. I’ve been asking Health Canada to explain how the licensing was negotiated, and how much Canada was paid; I have yet to receive an answer. NewLink’s financial filings report it paid Canada an initial patent and signing fee, and a “milestone” payment of up to $205,000; “low single-digit” royalty fees will be payable on future commercial sales.

Most distressingly, guided by the profit-maximizing calculations of NewLink’s executives, the promising vaccine languished for years with no human testing – until this year’s outbreak. NewLink has suddenly rediscovered a sense of urgency, and is now accelerating human tests: but too late for thousands whose lives could have been saved if a vaccine was ready now. Even with the licence, Ottawa could have forced NewLink to move more quickly (or else revoke the licence altogether), but chose not to interfere. In the words of the University of Ottawa’s Amir Attaran, an expert on drug policy and public health, “This could have been a heroic Banting and Best moment for Canadian science, but instead it is a black comedy.”

Motivated by their government salaries and a desire to do good, smart Canadians can develop incredible medicines that significantly enhance human life. It’s only when the whole business becomes guided by profit, instead of human need, that this noble mission is lost.

- And Carol Goar exposes the use of Canada's public health care system for medical tourism, rather than to provide needed care to citizens.

- The Star weighs in on the Cons' latest income-splitting scheme and rightly concludes that a few tweaks around the edges can't justify a deliberate transfer of billions of dollars to disproportionately benefit wealthy families.

- Alan Tovey reports on KPMG's study showing that millions of workers in the UK are scraping by on less than a living wage. And Trish Hennessy looks at the numbers on our insufficient minimum wage levels in Canada.

- Mike De Souza reports on ExxonMobil's efforts to get him not to report on ALEC's shady dealings - including an ominous warning that other media have been entirely happy to fall in line with orders from their corporate overlords not to examine how big money is affecting policy debates. Andrew Prokop points out how the need for constant fund-raising makes it a challenge for U.S. political candidates to keep the public good in mind, while Democracy Now and Emily Atkin each document examples of the oil lobby flat-out buying municipal elections. And David Ball confirms that the Koch brothers have been funnelling money to the Fraser Institute's corporatist projects for decades, while Mark Eliesen explains his conclusion that the National Energy Board has joined the list of institutions which have been completely co-opted by corporate owners.

- Finally, Murray Dobbin has a few questions for Stephen Harper arising out of the tragic shootings in Ottawa. And Joan Bryden reports on Harper's refusal to discourage any anti-Muslim backlash.