Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Lana Payne comments on the war being waged by Canada's right-wing governments against workers.

- Dion Rabouin writes about the product of decades of giveaways to the rich - as the obscenely wealthy literally can't find any use for massive amounts of money other than to hoard it, even while refusing to pass any of it along. And Elizabeth Capelle discusses both how housing has become financialized, and how to reorient our view of it to serve the interests of people beyond the 1%.

- Frederick Hewitt points out how some of the most several long-term dangers of a climate breakdown involve the types of food supply disruptions which proved the undoing of past civilizations. Christopher Flavelle notes that the increasing recognition of the dangers of climate change is leading to higher costs and lower use of insurance to guard against foreseeable risks. And while Susan Delacourt wonders whether the climate crisis will lead to full social mobilization, the most telling part of her column is the thoroughly uninspired (and uninspiring) response from the Lib government:

My colleague here in the Star’s Ottawa bureau, Alex Ballingall, asked Environment Minister Catherine McKenna this week about whether wartime examples could inspire more collective public action on climate change.

“Look, I mean, I am very supportive of more ambition on climate change. I hear good ideas every single day. I mean I think the idea that you need to link climate action with people and making sure that you are focused on how do you improve lives is critical,” McKenna told Ballingall. But the minister also said that any ambition has to be tempered with, yes, affordability. “People want action on climate change but they want life to be affordable and at the same time creating good jobs.”

So, not exactly Dunkirk or D-Day, at least not yet. Bill Nye may need a bigger blowtorch.

- Finally, Bruce Campbell comments on the need for a public inquiry into the Lac-Mégantic disaster and points out some of the questions which remain unanswered to this day. And Penelope Simons notes that the Libs' distaste for corporate accountability is endangering Canada's global reputation.

Musical interlude

Matthew Good - Decades

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Justin Fisher laments the fact that we're still talking about first steps toward combating a climate crisis after decades of understanding the problem. Jake Woodier points out that Brexit has been the UK's recent distraction from the most important issue facing humanity. And Joseph Stiglitz is the latest to compare a Green New Deal to avert climate breakdown with the scale and urgency of a wartime mobilization:

When the US was attacked during the second world war no one asked, “Can we afford to fight the war?” It was an existential matter. We could not afford not to fight it. The same goes for the climate crisis. Here, we are already experiencing the direct costs of ignoring the issue – in recent years the country has lost almost 2% of GDP in weather-related disasters, which include floods, hurricanes, and forest fires. The cost to our health from climate-related diseases is just being tabulated, but it, too, will run into the tens of billions of dollars – not to mention the as-yet-uncounted number of lives lost. We will pay for climate breakdown one way or another, so it makes sense to spend money now to reduce emissions rather than wait until later to pay a lot more for the consequences – not just from weather but also from rising sea levels. It’s a cliche, but it’s true: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The war on the climate emergency, if correctly waged, would actually be good for the economy – just as the second world war set the stage for America’s golden economic era , with the fastest rate of growth in its history amidst shared prosperity. The Green New Deal would stimulate demand, ensuring that all available resources were used; and the transition to the green economy would likely usher in a new boom. Trump’s focus on the industries of the past, like coal, is strangling the much more sensible move to wind and solar power. More jobs by far will be created in renewable energy than will be lost in coal.
...
The mobilization efforts of the second world war transformed our society. We went from an agricultural economy and a largely rural society to a manufacturing economy and a largely urban society. The temporary liberation of women as they entered the labor force so the country could meet its war needs had long-term effects. This is the advocates’ ambition, a not unrealistic one, for the Green New Deal.

There is absolutely no reason the innovative and green economy of the 21st century has to follow the economic and social models of the 20th-century manufacturing economy based on fossil fuels, just as there was no reason that that economy had to follow the economic and social models of the agrarian and rural economies of earlier centuries.

- But if we needed a reminder of the ease with which serious dangers to the public get ignored or forgotten, Benjamin Kentish notes that tens of thousands of Britons still live in buildings covered in the same material which caused the spread of the devastating Grenfell Tower fire.

- Rafferty Baker reports on research showing how harm reduction steps are reducing the still-alarming number of deaths caused by opioids. And Barbara Krantz points out that as serious as the opioid crisis is, far more people die due to alcohol - even as Canada's right makes it a core policy to try to push people to drink more.

- Trade Justice Network Canada discusses how the new NAFTA is anything but progressive - no matter what talking points the Trudeau Libs use in trying to push it through.

- And finally, Paul Romer suggests that a tax on targeted advertising could both raise revenue, and reduce the amount of user tracking that contributes to hidden dangers online.

Thursday Evening Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Jonathan Aldred calls out the combination of handouts to the rich, cultivated attitudes of self-reliance and antisocial assumptions which have exacerbated inequality over the past few decades:

European countries have, on average, more redistributive tax systems and more welfare benefits for the poor than the US, and therefore less inequality, after taxes and benefits. Many people see this outcome as a reflection of the different values that shape US and European societies. But cause-and-effect may run the other way: you-deserve-what-you-get beliefs are strengthened by inequality.

Psychologists have shown that people have motivated beliefs: beliefs that they have chosen to hold because those beliefs meet a psychological need. Now, being poor in the US is extremely tough, given the meagre welfare benefits and high levels of post-tax inequality. So Americans have a greater need than Europeans to believe that you deserve what you get and you get what you deserve. These beliefs play a powerful role in motivating yourself and your children to work as hard as possible to avoid poverty. And these beliefs can help alleviate the guilt involved in ignoring a homeless person begging on your street.

This is not just a US issue. Britain is an outlier within Europe, with relatively high inequality and low economic and social mobility. Its recent history fits the cause-and-effect relationship here. Following the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, inequality rose significantly. After inequality rose, British attitudes changed. More people became convinced that generous welfare benefits make poor people lazy and that high salaries are essential to motivate talented people. However, intergenerational mobility fell: your income in Britain today is closely correlated with your parents’ income.

If the American Dream and other narratives about everyone having a chance to be rich were true, we would expect the opposite relationship: high inequality (is fair because of) high intergenerational mobility. Instead, we see a very different narrative: people cope with high inequality by convincing themselves it is fair after all. We adopt narratives to justify inequality because society is highly unequal, not the other way round. So inequality may be self-perpetuating in a surprising way.

- David Climenhaga predicts that the UCP's review of health services - like so many before it - will cost more than it ever recoups in promised efficiencies. Brielle Morgan, Katie Hyslop, Cherise Seucharan and Tracy Sherlock highlight the absurdity of offering more money to foster families to house children after findings of poverty-based "neglect" than to the vulnerable families who only lack sufficient financial resources to be able to provide an adequate home. And Jesse Snyder reports on new research showing how blinkered fearmongering against carbon pricing stands to increase the cost of any climate progress.

- Brendan Kennedy discusses what the future will look like in New Brunswick as climate change continues to exacerbate the flooding which has become commonplace in recent years. And Charlie Smith looks at the effect of a movement away from air travel on cities such as Vancouver which currently rely on air traffic as a major part of their local economies.

- Finally, Simon Dyer offers six factors to look for in determining whether a climate policy is viable. And David Miller highlights how the NDP's climate plan measures up to the scope and urgency of our climate crisis.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Statuesque cats.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- In his Arnold Amber Memorial Lecture, Alex Himelfarb offers his take on the dangers of austerity and the loss of collective action:

1. Austerity is toxic.
2. It is built on a lie, and on a withered idea of freedom and a hollowed out notion of citizenship.
3. Austerity is self-perpetuating, trapping us, stunting our political imagination.
4. We nevertheless do have alternatives. There are always alternatives. Big change is hard, but given the risks, the stakes, the opportunities, big change is urgent, and bold is exactly what’s needed if we are to meet our challenges and break out of the austerity trap.
5. A new generation of leaders is giving us reason for hope, though clearly there’s no reason for complacency.
...
Right wing governments embrace deficits.  They need them to justify cuts to vital services, cuts that they couldn’t sell otherwise. They create them through their tax cuts, occasionally aided by accounting tricks. At the same time they describe these self-induced deficits as poisonous. There are, we are told,  both moral and economic imperatives for eliminating deficits and balancing budgets. Otherwise the sky will fall. Spoiler alert. It won’t. We are told that governments are like households and must live within their means, an analogy that would be more apt if households like governments could print money. Households can’t. Governments do.  Austerity isn’t simply the consequence of tax cuts, it may often be their purpose.

- Bernie Sanders discusses the need for political leaders to understand and meet the needs of the working class, rather than assuming that governance consists solely of catering to the wealthy. And Mathew Lawrence writes that Sanders' plans to empower workers could be just as effective outside the U.S. context, including in the UK.

- Meanwhile, the New York Times' editorial board calls out Donald Trump for going out of his way to further distort the balance of workplace power in favour of employers.

- Katie Hyslop reports on new polling showing that a large majority of British Columbia oppose tax breaks for elite private schools, particularly in the context of constant cries of poverty when it comes to the public school system.

- And finally, Crawford Kilian reviews Dave McGrane's new book on the evolution of the federal NDP.

Monday Evening Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- John Paul Tasker reports on the final report of the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. And Kenyon Wallace highlights the need for meaningful federal action in response - though if the Libs are deviating at all from their usual all-talk-no-action stance, it's by trying to avoid even the plain wording of the report.  

- Emma McIntosh and Mike De Souza report on the reality that the reclamation of the environmental destruction wrought by Alberta's oil sector could take thousands of years. But Nafeez Ahmed warns that if we don't stop the damage to our planet from carbon pollution, human civilization as we know it may not last more than a few decades.

- Meanwhile, Geoff Dembicki points out how the Green New Deal concept which holds out the promise of just transition to clean and sustainable energy sources has built on the work behind the Leap Manifesto. And Elise Stolte theorizes that the regular spread of wildfires and blankets of smoke should jolt Alberta to recognize the need to join in the effort.

- Canadians for Tax Fairness highlights the unfairness of the Canada Revenue Agency striking secret deals with systematic tax evaders while directing its enforcement activities toward people who don't have money to stash offshore.

- Finally, Matthew Klein observes that the best way to reduce crime - and particularly recidivism - is to invest in legitimate social supports for people who would otherwise lack legal means to provide for themselves.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Stephen Maher writes that Michael Cooper's choice to give voice to the Christchurch shooter's manifesto represents a test of Andrew Scheer's willingness to take action to match his words. And Scheer's choice to quietly shuffle Cooper out of a single committee assignment - rather than actually showing him the door in response to premeditated hate speech - seems to offer a clear wrong answer. 

- Keith Gerein laments Jason Kenney's insistence on betting Alberta's future on ideological tax cuts which have proven to be losing gambles everywhere else they've been tried. And Jesse Ferreras points out that Kenney's predictable response to wildfires exacerbated by our climate breakdown is to deny the science plainly connecting the two.

- Murray Mandryk notes that Yancoal's simultaneous palm-greasing at the municipal and provincial levels offers yet another example of the types of seedy pay-for-play politics which prevail in Saskatchewan in the absence of basic donation restrictions.

- Meanwhile, the CP reports that Manitoba has decided to fund coverage of Mifegymiso, leaving Scott Moe's government as the most regressive of conservative parties in the country in refusing to do the same.

- Finally, Alex MacPherson reports on the increasing recognition of how people are worse off for the Saskatchewan Party's destruction of STC - as well as the NDP's plans to restore and improve service.

On crisis acting

Shorter Brad Wall, Distinguished Statesman:

Never mind the facts about my trumped-up grievances, I demand that we break up the country in order to burn down the world!

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- The NDP has released its Power to Change climate plan, including steps to create green jobs and give effect to Indigenous rights while meeting emission reduction targets needed to contribute to the international fight against climate breakdown. And Christo Aivilis offers his first impressions, while Jolson Lim focuses on the plan for fare-free, zero-emission public transit which would combine substantial environmental benefits with improvements in affordability for the people who need it most. 

- Meanwhile, Sean Holman implores the media to start treating the climate crisis as an emergency. And David Roberts points out how California has managed to make substantially more progress on energy efficiency than the rest of the U.S., while also examining the lack of a reasonable basis to push natural gas expansion as a "bridge" to a clean energy economy. 

- Kim Samuel notes that a higher nominal GDP isn't actually leading to improved well-being for the people being told that everything's fine. Anne Gaviola highlights how an undue obsession with homeownership results in both poor policy choices, and financial stresses on younger workers feeling social pressure to pursue it. And Zi-Ann Lum reports that Canadian life expectancies are stagnating due to an opioid crisis created by predatory capitalists. 

- Brian Merchant argues that we shouldn't blame faceless technology for job losses when it's the choice of executives to push workers out the door. Terri Gerstein reports on Colorado's steps to crack down on wage theft rather than taking it as a given that unscrupulous employers will get away with denying pay to their workers. And PressProgress points out that Jason Kenney is doing the bidding of his corporate masters by slashing wages and overtime pay and placing obstacles in the way of unionization.

- Finally, Quentin Fottrell writes about the connection between social class, overconfidence and undue advantages in employment.

Musical interlude

Now, Now - Set It Free

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Joseph Stiglitz points out the need to move beyond neoliberalism and offers a useful policy framework to do so - though framing an alternative as "progressive capitalism" cedes far more ground than necessary in continuing to prioritize capital over social well-being.

- The Economist examines how increasing numbers of Americans are acknowledging the climate crisis in the face of extreme weather events. But Heide Pearson reports that right-wing governments are still sticking with denial, as the UCP for one isn't particularly concerned with the people losing their homes and communities to climate disasters. Mitchell Anderson reminds us that Jason Kenney's top priority is only to accelerate the harm done by a substantially-unregulated fossil fuel sector. And George Monbiot highlights how the Trump administration's propaganda campaign is a planetary version of exactly the language used to persuade people to harm their own lungs by smoking.

- Harvey Cashore reports on another secret settlement in which wealthy KPMG clients avoid not only prosecution, but even public awareness of their deceptive tax evasion schemes. PressProgress points out the connections between the Aquilini family, the gross abuse of workers, and the funneling of money to the B.C. Liberals. And Robert Fife and Steven Chase expose an arrangement in which the federal government ensures that Irving Shipbuilding gets notified of any attempt by journalists to investigate its public contracts.

- Finally, Jean Swanson suggests that if Vancouver is willing to proclaim basic freedoms for animals, it should certainly be prepared to do the same (and couple it with action) to ensure a reasonable standard of living for all people.

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.

- Jeff Stein reports on Bernie Sanders' plans to transfer power from capital to people. And PressProgress highlights the Saskatchewan Party's continued reliance on corporate funding from outside the province.

- Ron Walter recognizes that Scott Moe's carbon tax posturing is purely a matter of politics rather than any rational policy. Luke O'Neil reports on the Trump administration's push to take carbon cultism to new depths. And Kim Phillips-Fein points out how discussion of the Green New Deal in the U.S. has been met with reactionary Republican rhetoric at its worst.

- Meanwhile, both S. Clay Steell and Emma Jackson and Paige Gorsak make the case for a Green New Deal as a necessary alternative to continued petro-politics in Alberta.

- Brendan Frank writes that any talk about "innovation" in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is utterly meaningless in the absence of meaningful targets to pursue. And Richard Perez and Karl Rabago suggest that the path toward a full transition to renewable energy involves overbuilding renewable generation rather than relying more than necessary on storage.

- Finally, Gloria Galloway reports on the obstruction by Conservative senators against the effective implementation of Indigenous rights in Canada - which of course says far more about the Cons' real attitude toward minority groups than Andrew Scheer's empty words.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Close cats.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Peter Eavis points out how U.S. CEOs are only seeing their exorbitant pay soar even further due to Donald Trump's tax giveaways. Kara Swisher interviews Anand Giridharadas about how "philanthropists" are bribing the public with small parts of the obscene concentrations money they've extracted from society at large.

- James Kurz highlights how the Trudeau Libs and a number of provincial governments are basing their climate policy on the perverse hope that Canada will fall far short of doing its share to avert the global climate crisis. Barry Saxifrage points out the distinction between the balance of Canada which is somewhere close to meeting its Copenhagen targets, and Alberta and Saskatchewan which are entirely undoing any progress - though it's worth noting that the federal government has chosen to emphasize continued oil development rather than administering a system capable of reaching our national targets. And the Associated Press reports on the deforestation of the Amazon which is only making matters worse.

- Meanwhile, Mia Rabson reports on the Greens' odd position that they're eager to see new fossil fuel infrastructure built as long as any development is done on a sufficiently nationalistic basis. Michael Laxer calls out the Cons for a literal scorched-earth policy on climate change. And Andrew Coyne offers a reminder that the only argument against carbon pricing is bare climate denial.

- Finally, Christo Aivalis offers an apparently-necessary reminder of the legitimacy of coalition governments:

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- CBC examines the obscene corporate subsidies doled out by Canadian governments - with Alberta ranking as the worst offender even as it also takes in less revenue than other provinces. And Jeff Gray reports on the growing gap between Doug Ford's budget promises and the revenue available to keep them - even as he hastily backtracks on a few of his most antisocial cuts.

- Meanwhile, Michael Ungar points out how resilience depends on social supports, rather than being a matter of individual choice or merit as it's so often portrayed.

- Murray Mandryk discusses the Saskatchewan Party's telling refusal to evaluate the effect of its much-criticized "lean" program imposed on the province's health care system - as well as the research confirm that it was an utter waste.

- Stuart Trew highlights how spin about "Good Regulatory Practices" in the new NAFTA serves only to limit the ability of governments to act in the interest of citizens and workers. 

- Finally, Andrew Coyne points out that the unelected Senate's interference in bills dealing with preventing oil spills and ensuring effective environmental assessments represents just another instance of obsolete political structures thwarting the will of Canadian voters.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jo Davies points out the widespread recognition that Canadian corporations need to pay their fair share for a functional society. And Eric Levitz notes that Donald Trump and other right-wing pseudo-populists are ensuring the opposite, as the IRS has stopped any meaningful enforcement action against the wealthy since Trump and the Republicans have been in a position to direct its actions.

- Tom Parkin points out the profound impact activism can have in changing and saving lives. And Dave Meslin discusses the need to tear down our current political structures in order to build a sustainable society:

What if the greatest challenges of our time can’t be solved by our current political system at all? Indeed, what if the greatest challenges of our time are a direct result of our decaying political system? The symptoms are clear: Legislatures have descended into mob-driven battlegrounds. Centralized power within parties has transformed our elected representatives into trained seals who clap or jeer on cue, voting as they’re told. Growing cynicism and frustration among voters are leading to lower and lower levels of political participation. Corporate lobbyists continue to wield enormous influence. And we are constantly facing fishtail legislation: the absurd reality that each new government spends their first year in office undoing whatever the previous government had done.

None of this serves the public interest. In fact, all of it is holding us back from what we are capable of.

...

The first step is to overcome our fear of using words such as “rigged” or "broken” to describe our political state. There’s a concern that attacking our democratic institutions only serves to empower extremist ideologues. But the opposite is true. When we turn a blind eye to the need for radical change, it’s those very extremist leaders who happily take advantage of the vacuum and use it for their own purposes. We’ve seen the electoral results of this.

It’s time to change course. Pretending that that we can use our current political ecosystem to bring about meaningful change is not only negligent, it’s a guaranteed recipe for environmental suicide.

We need a political uprising of passionate activists and leaders, prepared to prescribe and implement surgical interventions that will change the tone, shape and nature of power. Ours is a battle for inclusive governance, for deliberative and thoughtful decision-making and for elections that offer real choice and representative results. It’s a fight to inject some humanity into our democracy, for a new culture of political engagement and for decentralized and participatory local government, throwing open the doors to a system that is currently designed as an insider’s game.

- Joel French writes about the need for Alberta to pay attention to both its own youth and the rest of the world, rather than wrongly assuming that it can rely indefinitely on expiring industries without a plan to transition to a modern economy. And Carol Kroeger comments on the shortsightedness of ruling out - and demonizing - any carbon pricing as one of the means of averting a total climate breakdown. 

- Finally, Shael Polakow-Suransky writes about the need to ensure early childhood education in order to ensure that every child has a fair chance in life. And Sandra Black, Paul Devereux, Petter Lundborg and Kaveh Majlesi highlight how wealth disparities are passed on between generations. 

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Leslie Hook offers a reminder of the dangers of methane as a particularly damaging type of carbon emission which is both associated largely with fossil fuel production, and poorly tracked when it is emitted. And the Edmonton Journal makes the case for Jason Kenney to abandon his campaign rhetoric about scrapping any carbon tax (along with so much of the simplistic talking points which propelled him to power). 

- Merran Smith highlights the transition toward clean energy which is already taking place. And Tabatha Southey points out the glaring gap between the media's minimal recognition of existing clean energy, and its ostentatious cheerleading for the oil sector the face of economic and environmental reality.

- J. David Hughes examines the real reasons for increasing gas prices in British Columbia (contrary to the spin of fossil politicians trying to pretend it has anything to do with the TransMountain pipeline). And PressProgress points out that residents are well aware that it's big business that's making fuel unaffordable - which is exactly why renewables which aren't subject to the same scarcity represent a superior option for everybody but the privileged few accustomed to leveraging their closely-controlled resources into windfall profits.

- Kelly Crowe points out the Trudeau Libs' international position of trying to suppress information about the causes of exorbitant prescription drug prices. And NPR takes note of the continued pattern of exploitation by big pharma, as a new gene therapy treatment is being priced at a record $2.1 million per dose.

- Finally, Julia Conley writes about the growing income gap between CEOs and other workers. Joe Neel discusses new polling on the financial insecurity and lack of access to health care in the rural U.S. And John Cairns reports on Ryan Meili's rightful criticism that Scott Moe is utterly failing to address the root causes of crime and other social illnesses, while Kevin Doherty's return as a lobbyist offers a reminder as to how immediate profits for donors and insiders have always been the Saskatchewan Party's only focus.

Musical interlude

The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight