Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Beth Kowitt discusses how the inequality and exclusion deliberately exacerbated by the wealthiest few are only ensuring that CEOs have no idea how angry the public is with them. David Higginbottom writes about the capital class' increasingly sophisticated and thorough extraction of labour and value from the rest of us. And Nora Loreto discusses how the Libs have always been on the side of capital rather than the environment. 

- Madison Mills notes that the businesses who have poured the most faith and funding into AI are starting to realize that they're not getting anything close to the value promised by its purveyors. And Patrick Galey delves into the lies which have been used to lure them in. 

- Raphael Satter reports that the U.S. government's neglect of personal privacy and data protection has reached the point where its own troops are being targeted thanks to information handed to unscrupulous data brokers.  

- Jonathan Liew rightly questions why anybody who considers themselves progressive would want to contribute content and eyeballs to a Nazi recruitment tool like X.  

- Finally, James Goldston and Natasha Arnpriester write that the Trump regime's dehumanization of refugees and asylum claimants is utterly intolerable - and needless to say the same should go for any other country's willingness to pretend that the U.S. is a safe landing place for immigrants. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Paul Krugman discusses how one of the top priorities of the second Donald Trump administration is to trash public health in the U.S. And CBC News reports that the Libs are cutting public health staffing even as COVID continues to circulate and new threats emerge while the U.S. vacuum undermines any international response.

- Hamilton Nolan writes that Trump's ascent makes for a painful political application of the Greater Fool Theory in action - and that the only path to reversing it is to engage in opposition rather than attempts to foist costs onto others. Thor Benson interviews David de Jong about the history of corporate oligarchs making common cause with fascists in order to entrench their wealth and power. And Nora Loreto writes that the rise of fascism can be traced to the displacement of democratic power by neoliberal capitalism.  

- David Climenhaga discusses Steve Verheul's recognition that Danielle Smith is looking to sell out Canada to benefit Trump, while Stephen Magusiak notes that Scott Moe and other right-wing politicians are joining the anti-Canada coalition. And James Magnus-Johnston writes that we can't take for granted that a US takeover is impossible when a substantial base of institutional power is perfectly willing to collaborate with it. 

- Noah Berlatsky writes about the need to support the people who dare to speak out against the abuses of the Trump regime, even as Parker Molloy points out the rage machine seeking to impose intolerable costs on anybody who does so. Grace Blakely discusses how only collective action will offer a viable alternative to the descent into authoritarianism, while Sam Pressler points out the dangers of thinking we can make progress without engaging people directly. And David Zipper notes that car-centric urban design has made it needlessly difficult for people to interact socially. 

- Finally, Jake Landau comments on the importance of providing refuge for trans people and others fleeing the U.S. But Emma Weller reports that the Libs are instead slashing our immigration resources while holding to the claim that there's no concern about anybody's safety. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Damian Carrington reports on Antonio Guterres' latest warning about the dangers of perpetuating our fossil fuel addiction - even as Donald Trump and a growing number of Canadian conservative quislings push to exacerbate it. Joshua Lappen discusses how the U.S.' fossil gas infrastructure is doomed - with Los Angeles providing a preview of what's in store across the country. Ember Energy examines (PDF) the EU's progress in transitioning to cleaner energy, with solar power overtaking coal for the first time and gas continuing to decline. And Conor Curtis points out how to talk about the reality that a transition to clean energy would be a plus for Canada's sovereignty as well as for our living environment. 

- Andrew Nikiforuk reports on the public outcry resulting from Danielle Smith's decision to declare open season for coal mining in the Rockies. And Joel Dryden talks to a member of the UCP's own coal policy committee who's rightly outraged that fossil fuel tycoons' whims are being given precedence over the product of a public consultation. 

- Shimly Rajendrakumar examines the effect of microplastics on agricultural systems, with a wide range of plastic products resulting in adverse consequences for the health of soil, animals and consumers. 

- Matthew Trevithick reports on the beginning of what could be a massive U.S. exodus to Canada as people flee the Trump administration, while David Baxter discusses the push from refugee advocates to ensure transgender people are able to make asylum claims rather than being told they're completely safe in a country that denies their existence. But Elizabeth Thompson reports that the response from the Libs so far is to assume everything's fine and maintain the fiction that the U.S. is safe. 

- Finally, Dan Rather discusses the firehose effect - and the need to withstand Trump's attempt to shock, awe and overwhelm people into compliance. 

On resistance

Charlie Angus continues to receive plenty of well-deserved attention for his work trying to focus on the dangers of the impending Trump administration - including his latest op-ed in the National Observer. And others are also engaging in some discussion about what it means to stand up to Trump. But having previously theorized that there's an important role for the NDP to play as the political organizing hub for resistance in Canada, I do think it's worth recognizing what that could mean in practice - and why we can't expect any other party to take it on.

Let's start by making clear what doesn't count as resistance. It's low-hanging fruit to claim surface-level disagreement with some of Trump's attempts to grab Canada by force when the issue is raised directly, while working hand in hand with his anti-democratic project in substance. And indeed that makes for a useful test as to what constitutes meaningful resistance: anything the Cons are willing to direct at their Republican cousins is best dismissed as being for show rather than having any meaning.  

In discussing what options should be on the table, let's start by working on the structural obstacles to the protection of people endangered by Trump.

Most obviously, the Safe Third Country Agreement (put in place under a Lib government, and expanded in its application by Justin Trudeau) has become all the more risible when the U.S.' incoming administration is shrieking "mass deportation now!" as one of its organizing themes - making clear that safety and due process will not be available to anybody needing protection in or from the U.S. So it's worth putting pressure on the Libs to scrap their shameful agreement to ignore actual evidence, and instead make it a priority to ensure those who need to flee the U.S. have a safe place to go. 

Failing that, the NDP should make the issue into a key platform plank. There's an opportunity to create a contrast against the Libs' immigration cutbacks by advocating for an open door - and offering logistical assistance and community support to those looking to move north. 

Even where people may not qualify as refugees or asylum-seekers, it's both the right thing to do and a pragmatic choice to make sure that those with justified fears about Trump's America are able to find a home elsewhere. And it's in Canada's interest to welcome them - just as we've done by offering a place to previous waves of U.S. resisters. 

And just as for individuals at the personal level, it's also worth setting up landing spots for the causes and industries which are set to beat the brunt of Trump's ire. 

We know that Trump's administration is looking to destroy existing work in areas ranging from public health to medical research to clean energy - which represents both a severe potential loss for humanity as whole if it succeeds, and an opportunity for Canada to serve as a new base of operations if we make the case to offer a new base of operations. (And on this point too, the Libs' reaction thus far has been based primarily on conflict avoidance, rather than any plan which might provide an alternative to the Trump power structure.)

The main objection to the concept of taking in people and businesses from the U.S. is of course bound to be the one that gave rise to the Libs' immigration cutbacks in the first place, being the sense that we lack enough housing and other infrastructure already. But as an answer to that with some roots in existing policy proposals, I'd suggest that the idea of a civilian service corps be expanded beyond single-purpose uses, and put forward to meet general needs - including the repair and expansion of affordable housing (which could be the immediate priority), as well as longer-term work in the climate transition and the care economy. 

Finally, beyond policy advocacy and promises, I'll suggest that the NDP and its activists should be at the forefront of building organizational infrastructure for a cross-border resistance movement.

At the moment, there are obvious fault lines in the media and communication tools being used by people on both sides of the border. 

The U.S.' corporate media is signaling its willingness to comply in advance with Trump's directions; Canadians are only beginning to understand how the giant social media sites have become entirely unreliable as sources of information; and the general social media environment is in flux as Twitter/X has become too toxic for anybody paying even a modicum of attention, while the most promising replacement still has a long way to go in developing the kind of reach of its since-commandeered predecessor. And the U.S.' election result should serve as a warning that the connections in place to deliver information that doesn't serve corporate purposes aren't yet strong enough to reach the people who need to receive it.

But the rapid shift away from both X and the corporate press does seem to signal a substantial desire for alternatives to servants of the corporate elite. And in putting in the work to build and support those alternatives, there's a prospect not only of inching toward a less harmful information environment for this year's election, but also of setting up the foundations for the next set of primary information sources.

Meanwhile, the constant stream of news out of the Trump administration will also provide no end of opportunities to talk to people and engage them in the task of responding. And so Trump's ascent may also provide a spur to develop the type of person-to-person contact that may otherwise seem to be beyond our current capacity.

Obviously the above would represent a heavy lift which would need to be put in place in an extremely short period of time. And the strong and unfortunate likelihood is that we'll see the NDP follow its recent pattern of campaigning on small populist offerings and a general sense of "not like the other guys" - even when there's an obvious pivotal moment to be met.

But it's worth noting that even if it doesn't succeed in the short term, a demonstration of principle can pay off many times over in building a movement in the longer term: remember after all that the NDP's past surge in Quebec under the leadership of Jack Layton and Thomas Mulcair can be traced to Tommy Douglas' principled resistance to even a popular use of martial law. And given how justifiably dubious Canadians are about the Trump regime, I'd think there's reason for optimism that the right position - in rallying opposition to a force which demands it - can also be a political winner.

[Edit: added link.]

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Tarun Sai Lomte discusses new research on the connection between structural brain changes and fatigue associated with long COVID. And Eric Topol examines the growing body of evidence on the increased risk of heart attacks and strokes after COVID infection. 

- Robert Reich writes about the problems with corporate capitalism which tries to cut all values other than immediate exploitation out of decision-making processes. David Sirota writes that the prospect of increased rail regulation in the wake of reporting about the East Palestine toxic release offers at least some example of how responsive governance is supposed to work. And Joe Mayall points out the importance of talking about wage theft - and combating it at every possible level of government. 

- Jim Stanford writes that Bank of Canada's choice to strangle growth is only ensuring that we don't produce more goods to help counteract inflation and push prices down. And David Moscrop points out that the most important source of affordable homes needs to be the public sector - which is currently falling far short of replacing housing which is becoming unaffordable in private hands. 

- Jim Bronskill reports on CSIS' assessment of the multiple security threats posed by a climate breakdown, while Owen Jones offers a reminder that anti-refugee rhetoric is being used to try to deny a massive wage of climate migrants any place to go. And Graham Readfearn reports on new findings showing Antarctica's sea ice at the lowest level ever. 

- Finally, David Climenhaga discusses how Danielle Smith is determined to break Alberta beyond repair, both in ensuring the collapse of systems of public services and in setting up the worst fossil fuel bust cycle the province has ever seen. And Jonathan Thompson writes about the public subsidy to oil barons as U.S. states pick up the tab for neglected and abandoned well sites. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jasmine Kerrissy and Judith Stepan-Noris examine the state of the U.S. labour movement for Labour Day. And Gil McGowan points out the many basic freedoms which are lacking for Canadian workers and their unions.

- Alex Himelfarb writes about the politics of inflation - and particularly the deliberate effort to allow profits to rise while suppressing any associated improvement in wages. And Ted Johnson discusses the significance of even modest student debt relief in making clear that working people can benefit from public policy choices.

- Jeremy Clifton and Nicholas Kerry study the values which best map to political ideology, and find that the most important dividing line is not based on fear (as often assumed) but the acceptance of hierarchy and inequality. And Ariel Kalil et al. find that welfare restrictions driven by both neoliberal and conservative politicians served to exacerbate those factors by preventing parents living in poverty from providing needed emotional support to their children.

- Kevin Rennert et al. find that our current estimates of the social cost of carbon - though far higher than the prices set by public policy - are themselves far short of sufficient to account for the damage wrought by carbon pollution. And Megan Rowling reports on the prospect of a rapid transition if only the money currently spent on fossil fuel subsidies is instead put into a clean economy. 

- Finally, Kate Aronoff writes about Mississippi's example of eco-apartheid, while the Economist's review of two new books points out the imminent reality of large number of climate refugees from around the globe.

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Linda McQuaig writes about the dangers of treating public health care systems as resources to be plundered by corporate raiders rather than essential services for people. And John Michael McGrath discusses how the Ford PCs are demanding that some of the most vulnerable patients in Ontario sacrifice  to hide the damage they've done to health care (while refusing to allow that imposition to be subject to normal legislative accountability).  

- Katie Bach highlights the tens of millions of Americans suffering from long COVID, including millions unable to work as a result of it. 

- James Temple points out the flaws in "net zero" climate plans which are intended to maximize continued corporate pollution as long as possible based on questionable assumptions about offsets and scopes of responsibility. And Hanna Hett asks whether Canada is prepared to accept the climate refugees losing their homes as a result of the carbon pollution which we continue to subsidize and promote around the globe. 

- Michelle Gamage discusses the massive amount of food waste generated in Canada - and the source of that waste in a system which makes it cheaper and easier to discard food than to find a use for it. 

- Jared Brock writes about the need to apply fair taxes to ensure that parasitic extractors at least have to contribute something to the common good. 

- Finally, Max Fawcett discusses Pierre Poilievre's choice to operate in league with Diagolon extremists and other elements of the violent right-wing fringe. 

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Dianna Chang et al. examine the correlation between social and political factors and COVID-19 spread and mortality. And Crawford Kilian discusses how Canadian society has failed the basic test of looking out for each other's well-being, while Teresa Wright reports on the imminent prospect of a summer wave even as provinces continue to abandon what few public health protections were still in place.

- Yasmine Ghania reports on a new survey showing the precarious financial situations of Saskatchewan residents (even as the establishment shifts into austerity mode to make matters even worse). And Andrew Elrod discusses how the solution to any labour shortage needs to be giving people more control over their work, not starving them into putting up with employer abuses.

- And in case there was any doubt that there's plenty of room for overall good to come of limiting the arbitrary power of property owners, Jen St. Denis reports on a review showing that British Columbia's real estate speculation tax worked even better than expected in putting housing units back into service.

- Finally, Catherine Shoichet reports on the UNHCR's latest report showing that over 100 million people around the world are displaced by war, violence and human rights abuses - even as far too many countries are primarily focused on avoiding providing a place to go.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Caroline Chen discusses the reasons why we're still waiting for COVID vaccines for children under 5 - leaving the people least able to protect themselves to bear the full weight of irresponsible declarations of surrender against the pandemic. Benjamin Ryan reports on the research showing that even mild COVID cases can lead to brain damage and reduced cognitive function. And Phil Tank writes that Saskatchewan's citizens are understandably losing hope and faith as a result of the Moe government's callous disregard for their health and well-being. 

- Meanwhile, Zak Vescera reports on the continued overload in Saskatchewan's health care system even as even the slightest public health measures are eliminated. And Linda McQuaig calls out Doug Ford and his Ontario PC government for joining Moe and Jason Kenney in using the pandemic as an excuse to privatize health care. 

- David Macdonald writes that the provinces making excuses to slash public services have plenty of money available to improve the lives of their constituents. And Clarisa Diaz discusses how part of the story of inflation includes corporations supplying less of their products while charging the same or more out of sheer opportunism. 

- Mitchell Anderson writes about the need for a detox from Russian state propaganda which has been put on Canadian airwaves for profit. Walker Bragman examines how business lobby groups have bought support from U.S. judges by painting corporatist ideology as neutral legal education. And David Suzuki discusses how the fossil fuel sector continues to sow doubt and denial in order to allow it to keep polluting our planet, while Alice McCool and Thomas Lewton point out the use of "Indigenous-washing" in particular to deflect from the real costs of locking in new pipelines. 

- Finally, D.G. discusses the conspicuous contrast in how police have treated violent white supremacists compared to peaceful land defenders. And Kelly Hayes talks to Harsha Walia about the radically different treatment being offered to refugees from Russia's attacks on Ukraine as opposed to people seeking to escape war in the Middle East - as well as the organizing necessary to make sure everybody has the opportunity to seek a better life. 

Thursday Evening Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Harold Varmus and Rajiv Shah write that the CDC's willingness to parrot the Trump administration's desire for less COVID-19 testing is forcing states and other actors to take up the job of providing appropriate public health advice. And David Climenhaga points out the rightful frustration of Alberta parents and education workers who have been told that the social distancing rules applicable to every other building in the province will be ignored in schools - even as the U.S. sees soaring rates of infection among children.

- Leilani Farha and Kaitlin Schwan offer a reminder that homelessness is a matter of life and death in the midst of a pandemic. Victoria Gibson discusses the Toronto families being torn apart by inadequate housing. And Dan Darrah highlights the problems with a real estate market administered primarily to build stores of wealth, rather than to ensure that people of all income levels have a reasonable place to live. 

- The Economic Policy Institute studies the advantages in wages, sick days and health benefits held by union workers compared to unorganized labour. But Bob Hennelly writes that with corporate wealth getting more concentrated and unions losing ground, workers in general are being treated as perpetually more expendable.

- Finally, Philip Oltermann highlights how Germany is significantly better off for having welcomed far more refugees than other wealthy countries.

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Amanda Follett Hosgood reports on the environmental damage being done to Wet’suwet’en territory as (pointless) pipeline construction is again being given precedence over environmental protection. And Reuters reports that Zurich has become the latest insurer to decide it doesn't see TransMountain as an acceptable risk, leaving the public holding the bag even as the Libs continue to push forward.

- Leah Stokes reports on the $61 million bribery scandal - including both the Speaker of the House and corporate executives - that resulted in Ohio providing massive handouts to nuclear and fossil fuel power operators while shutting down any transition to clean energy.

- Megha Rajagopalan writes about the cosmetic industry's attempts both to push skin lightening as a necessary cosmetic step, and to bully into submission anybody who questioned it.

- Andrea Germanos writes about the Federal Court of Canada's decision striking down the Safe Third Country agreement between Canada and the U.S. on the basis that the latter doesn't actually provide effective protection for refugees.

- Finally, PressProgress discusses the Saskatchewan Party's reliance on corporate donations from Alberta and elsewhere - and the result that Saskatchewan's citizens have been ignored in favour of oil tycoons.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Luke Savage responds to the attempt by neoliberals to escape growing discontent with corporate control and individual atomization by denying they actually represent a distinct position capable of being opposed:

The ubiquity of a particular phenomenon does not make discrete analysis of it useless; if anything, such omnipresence makes identifying it a more urgent and critical task. A phenomenon so diffuse that it seems manifest throughout politics, economics, and culture is hardly a chimera, and the apparent reticence of many commentators to recognize or even acknowledge its valence as a term can only be viewed as a symptom of neoliberalism’s continued stranglehold on our political, cultural, and intellectual life.

The longer something is a part of your reality, the more it tends to fade from your field of focus. Put another way: the more pervasive a particular object or phenomenon, the easier it can be to take its presence for granted. After its initially disruptive incursion in the 1980s, neoliberalism fast became a feature of our collective existence, so indelible many now seem unable to recall a time before it existed, let alone conceive a future that goes beyond it. An ideology secures hegemony at precisely the point it ceases to be considered an ideology: its claims transform into axioms; its theories harden into dogma; its abstruse vernacular becomes the lingua franca; its assumptions are subsumed under “common sense.”

That neoliberalism remains so poorly understood in the very political mainstream whose frontiers it now circumscribes is a testament to both the breathtaking scope of its counterrevolution, and the daunting task facing those of us who desire its overthrow. It is everywhere and therefore nowhere: at once so diaphanous it seems invisible; so internalized it appears inescapable.

- Cameron Fenton hopes that a minority Parliament will give rise to a Canadian Green New Deal. And Judy Rebick discusses what the NDP accomplished during the election campaign despite a disappointing outcome in terms of votes and seats.

- Desmond Brown reports on Toronto's continued lack of sufficient shelter spaces to ensure that homeless residents have safe places to sleep through the winter. And Robert Tibbo calls out Justin Trudeau for choosing to separate refugee families.

-Rob Ferguson reports on Doug Ford's plan to gift polluters with a low, one-time fee to dump hazardous substances wherever they want for as long as they want. And Matt Elliott notes that Ford's refrain about finding "government waste" has consistently been followed by a failure to find anything of the sort.

- Finally, Clifford Krauss discusses the flood of oil which looms as a potentially decisive threat to any hope of preserving a habitable climate.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Lana Payne points out the options to make life genuinely affordable for Canadians - while noting that the Cons' usual tax baubles don't make the list. And PressProgress both reveals Doug Ford's plans to slash Ontario's already-insufficient housing supports, and lists Brian Pallister's steps to take money away from Manitoba workers.

- Carl Meyer reports on Imperial Oil's use of a gala at which it funded every participant's attendance as an opportunity to lobby Andrew Scheer. But David Climenhaga offers a reminder (based on Jim Stanford's observations) that no amount of lobbying or denial can avoid the reality that dirty fossil fuels are a dying industry.

- Andy Blatchford reports that even the businesses which supposedly stand to benefit from corporate trade deals like the CETA neither know nor care about their terms - signalling just how few conglomerates are actually benefiting from trade rules biased toward the corporate sector.

- Richard McAlexander notes that the only connection between immigration and terrorism arises from the violence of domestic right-wing terrorists. Brennan MacDonald and Vassy Kapelos report on Justin Trudeau's appalling willingness to accept Donald Trump's abusive concentration camps (and general contempt for the concept of immigration and refugee status in any form) as "safe" for the purposes of asylum claims. And Emerald Bensadoun offers a wake-up call as to the long-term detention of immigrants in Canada.

- Finally, Laura Dale writes that decriminalization represents a proven means of reducing the harm and social cost caused by drug use and addiction.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Lawrence Mishel points out that Donald Trump's giveaways to the rich actually resulted in a sharp decline in bonuses paid to workers.

- Robert Plummer reports on the precarity facing lower-income workers in the UK. And John Clapp writes from experience about the catch-22s standing between people and desperately-needed housing in Toronto.

- Gerald Kutney comments on the utter lack of content in the Cons' saw excuse for a climate change plan. Jasper Jolly discusses the role a shift toward electric airplanes will need to play as part of a transition to a sustainable economy. And Nicole Mortarillo writes about Canada's certain role as a haven for refugees driven from newly-uninhabitable areas as our climate crisis worsens.

- Jim Stanford points out a new report from the Conference Board of Canada showing how investment in education pays off many times over - even as right-wing governments across the country slash from students to give to the rich.

- Finally, Cam Holmstrom duly criticizes the Cons' unelected Senators who took it upon themselves to block legislation to implement UNDRIP. And Graham Thomson discusses what Jason Kenney's decision to hand earplugs to his trained seals to avoid even hearing the opposition in Alberta's legislature says about his attitude toward democracy.

New column day

Here, on how Justin Trudeau has gone from counterweight to lapdog in dealing with the Trump administration.

For further reading...
- Teresa Wright reported on the crackdown on refugees in the Libs' omnibus budget bill. And Karl Nerenberg called out Trudeau's pandering to anti-refugee prejudice.
- Kelly Crowe reports on Canada's role among the countries trying to suppress accurate information about pharmaceutical profits.
- Janice McGregor examines the fine print of the much-ballyhooed - but little-scrutinized - deal to temporarily remove tariffs on steel and aluminum.
- Peter Zimonjic and Katie Simpson report on the Libs' fast-tracking of Trump's version of a revised NAFTA.
- Finally, the Council of Canadians expresses its own concern about Trudeau's willingness to do Trump's bidding.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- The Star's editorial board rightly criticizes Doug Ford for his propensity to announce massive cuts first, then begrudgingly acknowledge their unconscionable consequences later. Linda White, Elizabeth Dhuey, Michal Perlman and Petr Varmuza note that Ford's cuts to child care will be particularly harmful for low-income families with parents working or studying full-time. And Madeleine Ritts calls out the PCs for blaming individuals for systemic poverty (and denying them the essentials of life as punishment).

- Meanwhile, Robert Booth reports on the connection being drawn between the UK Cons' similar attack on the poor, and the historical blight of workhouses. And Chris Vallance discusses the medicalization of the symptoms of poverty, including the overprescription of drugs in response to the inevitable stresses of precarity.

- Ronald Labonte, Courtney McNamara, Deborah Gleeson and Eric Crosbie point out how the new NAFTA can be expected to harm public health by preventing governments from regulating in the public interest. And Ed Finn discusses how the corporate push toward processed foods and a focus on convenience over nutrition is making us all less healthy.

- Mitch Potter highlights how the Libs are echoing the Cons' anti-refugee rhetoric and policy as this fall's federal election approaches.

- Finally, Jonathan Michie points out that employee-owned businesses perform significantly better than their corporate counterparts, but are limited in their development by government and financial policies which stifle them.

Deep thought

Sure, on the surface one might expect refugee claimants to be displeased to be deported and subsequently killed based on Justin Trudeau's decision to outsource their assessments to the Trump regime. But won't they feel better for having received an empty reassurance they were welcome in the meantime?

(See also: Andrew Coyne and Martin Patriquin.)

Friday Morning Links

Assorted material to end your week.

- Nick Falvo writes that artificially low taxes at the expense of Saskatchewan's well-being are nothing to brag about:

(T)axes can help finance important social spending, such as poverty in First Nations’ communities, affordable housing and child care. The province’s on-reserve rate of child poverty is nearly 70 per cent, second highest in the country after Manitoba.
...
Second, taxes share the wealth, making a province more equitable. Increasing personal income tax rates can be especially effective at reducing income inequality. Yet, Saskatchewan’s top marginal tax rate is the lowest among all Canadian provinces, meaning its personal income taxes are the least effective in Canada at redistributing income.

Third, taxes can discourage undesirable behaviour, such as excessive consumption of energy, alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking. France tripled cigarette prices by raising taxes every year between 1990 and 2005. During this time, cigarette consumption in that country was cut in half.
Finally, taxes can reduce public debt. Saskatchewan’s public debt-to-GDP ratio currently sits at 25.8 per cent and is expected to hit 27.6 per cent by 2023.

And where do Saskatchewan taxes as a whole currently stand in comparison with other provinces? A recent report found Saskatchewan to have Canada’s lowest tax rate as a percentage of GDP, at just 27.1 per cent. Meanwhile, Quebec’s stood at 37.3 per cent. And therein lies thick irony: Premier Moe attributes Quebec’s more generous social programs to equalization, rather than to higher tax rates.

This should all make us all pause for thought. Do we want to pay low taxes if it means more poverty in First Nations’ communities, more homelessness and insufficient child care? For most residents of Saskatchewan, I think the answer is no.

- Murtada Haizer and Steven Moranis write that public investment in social housing produces substantial social and economic returns beyond the initial sticker price. And Chris Arsenault points out the need to update our infrastructure to account for climate change. 

- Karl Nerenberg calls out Justin Trudeau for his choice to legitimize the Cons' anti-refugee messaging. And Robyn Urback points out the lack of any factual basis to treat the number of asylum claimants in Canada as a problem at all.

- Finally, Erica Johnson and Ensa Uda expose the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's willingness to let banks rewrite a report into their own exploitation of consumers. Jen St. Denis reports on the lack of any RCMP resources being used to investigate money laundering in British Columbia. And the Canadian Press reports on the Libs' continued delays in establishing even a toothless ombudsperson to review the actions of Canadian corporations abroad.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- George Monbiot contrasts the message of neoliberalism as freedom against the reality that it imposes severe corporate control on anybody short of the billionaire class:

(N)eoliberal theology, as well as seeking to roll back the state, insists that collective bargaining and other forms of worker power be eliminated (in the name of freedom, of course). So the marketisation and semi-privatisation of public services became not so much a means of pursuing efficiency as an instrument of control. Public-service workers are now subjected to a panoptical regime of monitoring and assessment, using the benchmarks von Mises rightly warned were inapplicable and absurd. The bureaucratic quantification of public administration goes far beyond an attempt at discerning efficacy. It has become an end in itself.

Its perversities afflict all public services. Schools teach to the test, depriving children of a rounded and useful education. Hospitals manipulate waiting times, shuffling patients from one list to another. Police forces ignore some crimes, reclassify others, and persuade suspects to admit to extra offences to improve their statistics. Universities urge their researchers to write quick and superficial papers, instead of deep monographs, to maximise their scores under the research excellence framework.
...
New extremes in the surveillance and control of workers are not, of course, confined to the public sector. Amazon has patented a wristband that can track workers’ movements and detect the slightest deviation from protocol. Technologies are used to monitor peoples’ keystrokes, language, moods and tone of voice. Some companies have begun to experiment with the micro-chipping of their staff. As the philosopher Byung-Chul Han points out, neoliberal work practices, epitomised by the gig economy, that reclassifies workers as independent contractors, internalise exploitation. “Everyone is a self-exploiting worker in their own enterprise.”

The freedom we were promised turns out to be freedom for capital, gained at the expense of human liberty. The system neoliberalism has created is a bureaucracy that tends towards absolutism, produced in the public services by managers mimicking corporate executives, imposing inappropriate and self-defeating efficiency measures, and in the private sector by subjection to faceless technologies that can brook no argument or complaint.

- Meanwhile, Kate Aronoff points out that a Green New Deal would enhance general well-being and foster genuine freedom while also protecting our planet.

- Damian Carrington points out that whatever choices we make, future generations will need to make do with far smaller carbon footprints than we've come to expect.  And Daphne Bramham highlights the influence millennial voters can have on this fall's federal election if they elect to participate.

- Nora Loreto calls out the Trudeau Libs for a federal budget whose treatment of refugees - including dismissing their claims in bulk, and playing up claims of nonexistent security risks. And Teresa Wright reports on the resulting outrage on the part of refugees and their advocates.

- Finally, Sally Bakewell and Lisa Lee report on the increasing level of risk being taken in the funding of corporate debt. And Richard Shillington studies how tax-free savings accounts have predictably favoured the wealthy over the lower-income people they were supposed to assist - with higher-income people taking advantage to a greater extent even as a percentage of income.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Josh Bornstein writes that in Australia like elsewhere, the combination of increasing corporate profits, stagnant wages and resulting inequality can be traced to the reduced bargaining power of workers. Jim Stanford notes that New Zealand offers an example as to how to reverse the pattern.And Robert Reich highlights why we shouldn't accept the crocodile tears of the uber-rich seeking to shape any response to growing inequality to protect their own disproportionate concentration of wealth:

If Dimon and the others were serious about helping most American workers – whose real wages have been going nowhere for decades and job security is dwindling – they could use their outsized political influence to push for laws requiring CEOs to consider all their stakeholders, not just shareholders.

Rather than make it harder for workers to unionize, they could fight to make it easier, and to give workers larger voice in management decisions and a greater share of the profits.

Rather than reflexively seek tax cuts, they could push to raise taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans like themselves, so there’d be more school funding to prepare American kids for the jobs of the future.

They could seek a higher minimum wage, a larger Earned Income Tax Credit, universal healthcare, and other measures to make left-behind Americans more secure.
...
(A)s heads of institutions with the greatest influence over American politics, they also have a duty to the common good and are uniquely positioned to advance it.

For 40 years, CEOs of America’s largest corporations and Wall Street banks have abdicated this responsibility.

We are now living with the consequences. Jamie Dimon and the Business Roundtable can see those consequences as well as anyone.

Rather than announce token jobs programs, they’d be better served seeking to increase the economic and political power of left-behind Americans – many of whom will otherwise continue to vote for demagogues who only make them feel powerful.

- Meanwhile, Joe Demanuelle-Hall highlights the beginning of strike action to force Amazon to treat workers with a modicum of respect and dignity.

- PressProgress reports on the Libs' school meal program which features precisely zero funding.

- In a reminder as to how discriminatory policy seldom survives contact with any system designed to ensure fairness, Nicholas Keung reports on the Federal Court's determination that the Harper Cons' attempt to negate the rights of refugees by labeling specific countries of origin as "safe" is unconstitutional. And Patrick White reports on a judgment awarding tens of millions of dollars in damages against Correctional Service Canada for using solitary confinement to warehouse prisoners with mental health needs.

- Riki Ott and Jack Siddoway point out that while fossil fuel flacks try to pretend there have been major advances to limit the risk associated with offshore drilling and ocean transportation of oil products, the reality is that there's been substantially no improvement in the response to oil spills since the Exxon Valdez disaster. And Laura Parker writes about the need for a coordinated international response to the growing plastic waste crisis.

- Finally, Sean Holman discusses the need for massive improvements in the flow of information between governments and citizens - both to ensure that we know what our leaders are doing, and to require them to listen to the will of the public.