Juxtaposition

The effect of the perpetual fear of falling downwards on ideology:

As far as there are forces at play that push job losers to the right of the ideological spectrum, these forces appear trumped by other pressures that pull job losers to the left. Indeed, while we do observe many people who revise their ideology to the right during our study window, these rightward shifts do not seem directly driven by job loss experiences. This finding aligns well with other recent work suggesting that the success of right-wing populist parties is primarily fuelled by fears of economic hardship, as opposed to actual experiences of economic hardship. If anything, actual hardship seems to first and foremost trigger a leftward ideological shift.

The Libs' position on the desirability of a perpetual fear of falling downwards:

Finance Minister Bill Morneau says Canadians should get used to so-called "job churn" — short-term employment and a number of career changes in a person's life.
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And when asked about precarious employment the finance minister told delegates that high employee turnover and short-term contract work will continue in young people's lives, and the government has to focus on preparing for it.

"We also need to think about, 'How do we train and retrain people as they move from job to job to job?' Because it's going to happen. We have to accept that," Morneau said during a question-and-answer session.

Canada's Libs: fuelling the rise of right-wing populism, one demand that we continually accept less at a time.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Bob Rivett highlights the fact that climate protesters are motivated by the desire to save our world from the reckless corporations and politicians who are prepared to sacrifice it for short-term gain. The Associated Press reports that Chile's coast is the site of the latest uncontained oil spill, while Jimmy Thomson takes note of Constantine North's plans to contaminate Alaska's environment. Leah Stokes writes about Ohio's appalling combination of dirty fossil fuel bailouts and relaxed emission requirements. And Tom Phillips reports on Jair Bolsonaro's determination to destroy the Amazon and the Indigenous people who inhabit it.

- Jonathon Gatehouse fact-checks the NDP's climate change plan and finds that it's entirely possible to deliver the 300,000 jobs in the process of transitioning to a sustainable society. And in contrast, Andrew Leach points out the implausible (and indeed outright contradictory) claims behind Elizabeth May's energy plans.

- Stephen Leahy points out the environmental dangers - and other avoidable difficulties - created by the spread of clamshell plastic packaging.

- Wanda Thomas Bardnard writes that prisons are only exacerbating the problems they're supposed to solve by failing to prepare residents for their eventual release.

- And finally, PressProgress warns that the UCP's attacks on social programs include slashing funding for school breakfasts to hungry children.

Sunday Morning LInks

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- James Cairns discusses why socialism is seeing a resurgence in popularity, particularly among younger citizens who see little reason for hope in politics as usual:

Occupy Wall Street popularized the language of the 99 per cent and the 1 per cent as a way of explaining class inequality. The 2012 Quebec student strike declared that "Education is a Right" while beating back a 75 per cent tuition hike. Bernie Sanders is campaigning for a "political revolution" that would end the power of corporate interests over public policy. Allied movements, such as Black Lives Matter, Idle No More, and Extinction Rebellion, while not explicitly socialist, fuel shifts in politics-as-usual.

These activist groups are doing socialist education on a mass scale. By their words and deeds, movements are giving people concrete reasons to believe in jobs with fair wages, cities built on affordable housing, the end of student debt, clean air and water for everyone.

Filmmaker and author Astra Taylor describes the despair of so many young people facing precarious employment, insecure housing, and crushing debt. She says the reason so many of these people are organizing for socialism is that "socialism would feel like having a future."

- But in case there was any doubt how many obstacles stand in the way of a fairer future, Shawn Gude interviews Matthew Lacombe about the stealth political control exercised by a few billionaires. And Peter Pomerantsev writes about the massive piles of disinformation being used to confuse and confound voters. 

- Paul Krugman offers a reminder that how corporate tax giveaways ultimately end up transferring massive amounts of wealth to foreign investors.

- The Economist writes that the environment currently looks to be the key ballot box issue for Canadian voters. David Suzuki discusses the dangers of recklessly producing and disposing of fossil fuel-basded plastics. And Sharon Riley offers some needed background on the Teck Frontier tar sands mine which has been recommended for approval despite the certainty that it will cause massive environmental damage even beyond its contribution to climate breakdown.

- Finally, Colby Cosh highlights why the latest bleatings about Alberta separatism don't deserve to be taken seriously.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Norm Farrell examines some of the root causes of a political system which lavishes benefits on the wealthy while neglecting people who actually need help.

- Natalie Kitroeff, David Gelles and Jack Nicas examine the role of deregulation in the multiple crashes of Boeing 737 Maxes. And following up on this week's column on the misuse of regulatory power to help entrenched corporate interests, CBC News reports that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is actively trying to enforce the righthink demanded by the meat and dairy industries even against avowedly "100% vegan" restaurants.

- Henry Mance discusses how Silicon Valley is exacerbating our climate breakdown. And Akshat Rathi points out the dangerous feedback loops which develop when people use ever more dirty energy to avoid the effects of extreme weather.

- The Canadian Press reports on a joint letter warning that Canadian pharmaceutical supplies could be used up by U.S. patients - though it's worth noting that the question of whether production can be ramped to meet the needs of Canadians and other purchasers is one where there's obvious room for action. And Jennifer Keesmaat writes about the need for our housing policy to include recognition of the value of rental homes, rather than focusing almost entirely on individual ownership.

- Finally, Cam Holmstrom offers a response to Elizabeth May's stunning claim that the water rights and needs of Indigenous peoples can be met by having the federal government hijack the sentencing of SNC Lavalin rather than living up to its own responsibilities.

Musical interlude

Elliot Middleton feat. Lynn Gunn - Begin

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- George Monbiot writes that the wealthiest few have responded to the rise of populism by funding their own killer clowns to assume power in place of anybody who might actually respond to the public interest. 

- And Chuck Collins calls for a 100% tax on estates over a billion dollars to ensure that accumulated wealth and power aren't left unchecked over a period of multiple generations. 

- Tom Parkin discusses the "battle of the bads" in this fall's federal election - along with the opportunity that raises for anybody who can rise even to the level of acceptability. And Robert Hackett writes about the importance of hope in overcoming inertia.

- Lee Wasserman questions why anybody is still building policy around the search for fossil fuels which can only contribute to climate catastrophe. David Climenhaga points out Jim Stanford's observations as to how Australia serves as a cautionary tale for anybody hoping to rely on private fossil fuel extraction and exporting as an economic panacea. And Norm Farrell highlights how British Columbia is essentially giving away its natural gas under the false assumption that sweetheart deals today will lead to remotely sustainable development in the future.

- Finally, Aleana Young writes that it's perfectly possible to run a small business while paying employees a living wage - and indeed that any business model which insists on employees living in poverty doesn't deserve to be granted special treatment by the government.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Derrick O'Keefe writes that our federal election should be focusing on the growing climate crisis, not being sidetracked by such trivialities as chocolate milk. (Though I'll argue that the two issues may sometimes point to the same key structural problems.) Cam Fenton has some suggestions for the questions which could be asked in a climate change debate. And Stephen Leahy points out that temperatures beyond the range of existing heat indexes could soon affect hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. alone.

- Anne Gaviola recognizes that the primary effect of the gig economy is to entrench the power of corporations over workers. And Mitchell Anderson calls out the Trudeau Libs for using public money to promote corporate malfeasance.

- Nora Loreto rightly argues that Canada has nothing to brag about in our own system of migrant detention.

- John Klein highlights Scott Moe's decision to promote racist symbols - now including the Confederate flag.

- And finally, PressProgress points out Brian Pallister's growing list of health care cuts, now including a third emergency room closure so far.

New column day

Here, on how the meat and dairy industries alone are offering far too many examples of how entrenched corporate interests are using both government power and their own clout to hide basic facts from the public.

For further reading...
- K. Annabelle Smith wrote about the history of veggie burgers. But more to the point, Kelsey Piper discusses the spate of anti-fact laws being used to try to legislate them out of existence as soon as they offer a viable alternative to meat products.
- Olivia Condon reported on the Weather Network's forced reversal after it dared to mention reducing beef consumption as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- And Ryan Flanagan reported on Andrew Scheer's attacks on a Canada Food Guide based on scientific knowledge (along with basic disclosure of unhealthy foods) when the alternative is complete subservience to industry.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Niki Ashton writes about Justin Trudeau's glaring failure to understand the importance of parity in services and genuine nation-to-nation recognition as core elements of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

- Helena Hanson points out that voters are entirely unsatisfied with both Trudeau and Andrew Scheer as electoral options. Karl Nerenberg explores the ramifications of Elizabeth May's willingness to back Scheer - particularly as it would allow Scheer to use effectively unfettered executive power. And Laura Nguyen discusses the hope Jagmeet Singh offers for racialized voters in an environment of increasingly loud bigotry and xenophobia.

- David Climenhaga writes about Calgary's appalling choice to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to further enrich Murray Edwards and the Flames while slashing basic services in the name of austerity.

- Tristan Hughes discusses Jason Kenney's war against the environment and its defenders. Matt McGrath writes that keeping greenhouse gases at anything below catastrophic levels may require a major change of course as soon as the end of 2020. And Anthony Davis points out some of the mental barriers to the change we urgently need to make.

- Finally, Jonathan Watts discusses a push to treat environmental damage as a war crime.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Festooned cats.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Osita Nwanevu describes the higher-brow forms of bigotry and wilful ignorance being pushed by U.S. Republicans for upper-class audiences. And Kate Aronoff discusses the racial undertones of yet another wave of red-baiting.

- Meanwhile, David Climenhaga highlights how Canadian right-wing governments are fully adopting the Republican playbook - including by denying constituents the benefit of funding from other levels of government for partisan gain. And Alan Freeman takes note of the dubious company Jason Kenney has joined in using public money to target perceived political opponents for harassment.

- Andrew Parkin writes that Canadian voters recognize the importance of a national climate change plan. And Dan Tong, Qiang Zhang, Yixuan Zheng, Ken Caldeira, Christine Shearer, Chaopeng Hong, Yue Qin and Steven J. Davis examine the effect of a phaseout of existing fossil fuel infrastructure - concluding that it alone could keep global warming under 2 degress Celsius.

- But Arwa Mahdawi laments the fact that far too many politicians insist on continuing business as usual - fossil fuel subsidies and all - rather than working toward a habitable future.

- Carolyn Ferns discusses the need for the federal government to start taking the importance of child care seriously.

- Finally, Sahil Jai Dutta, Samuel Knafo, Richard Lane, Ian Lovering and Steffan Wyn-Jones point out how neoliberal economics based on the alleged impracticality of centralized planning have ultimately resulted in exactly that - only carried out for corporate rather than public purposes.

Juxtaposition

Some parties and leaders recognize the stakes in determining how to manage a minority Parliament:

I asked Mr. Duceppe what he thought would happen if the prime minister refused to accept such an ultimatum. He replied that a government defeat so soon after a general election meant the Governor General would have to turn "to one of us" to form a government. We both knew that meant Stephen Harper and his Conservatives. I asked Mr. Duceppe if he could accept such an eventuality. He was not only clear that he could, but he would.
...
Realizing immediately the full magnitude of what was at stake, I knew I had to walk away. I was not about to participate in any scheme cooked up by the Bloc and the Conservatives that would put the country in the hands of Stephen Harper.

And some, well...

With three months until Canadians vote in the next federal election, Green party leader Elizabeth May says her big hope for the final result is a minority government over which she can exert some influence.

In fact, May thinks that influence could even get the Conservatives to drop their dyed-in-the-wool opposition to carbon taxes if it means the difference for them between governing or spending more time in opposition.

"People change their minds when they see the dynamic of a way a Parliament is assembled and maybe think, 'Killing carbon taxes isn't such a good idea if the only way I get to be prime minister is by keeping them,' " May says.
...
Federally, May says she could support a minority government of any party but only if that party is serious about acting to stop climate change.

"We will negotiate with anyone, we will talk to everyone, but we won't compromise on climate action," she says.

Meanwhile, let's keep in mind that it's a single vote of confidence following the 2008 election that gave Stephen Harper the ability to stay in office rather than facing the consequences of pushing to exacerbate an economic meltdown with cuts and political attacks.

May might well be able to get the Cons to say they'll change their position on climate policy for the purpose of taking power. She'd have far less leverage in getting them to follow through when they have the option of running away from Parliament.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Aditya Chakrabortty writes about the dangers of accepting gross inequality based on the hope that billionaires will make up in charity what they fail to contribute in tax revenue:

For the super-rich, giving is really taking. Taking power, that is, from the rest of society. The billionaires will get exclusive access to the “vision” for the reconstruction of a national landmark and they can veto those plans, because if they don’t like them they can withhold their cash. Money is always the most powerful casting vote, and they have it. Never mind that much of this cash actually comes from the public, as French law grants a whopping 66% tax relief on any donation – the power is entirely private. The annual cap on such contributions doubtless constitutes a prudent reason for the big donors to stagger their generosity.

Whether in France or Britain or the US, the rich give money to the grand institutions at the heart of our cultures to secure their social status in plaques and photo opportunities. In much the same way, they fund our political parties, then enjoy the kickbacks when they form a government. As Julia Cagé, an economist at Paris’s SciencesPo, points out, some of the same people pledging donations to Notre Dame were also among those who funded Macron’s rise to the presidency. In her recent award-winning book, to be published in English next year as The Price of Democracy, Cagé calculates that 600 wealthy people in France gave between €3m and €4.5m to Macron’s election campaign. In other words, 2% of all donors made up between 40 % and 60% of all En Marche funding. Within a few months, the new president cut taxes on the wealthy, giving his richest donors “a return of nearly 60,000% on their investment”. Just as with Notre Dame – a tiny deposit, a lot of influence and one hell of a payout.

- And Stephanie Bailey's observations as to how wealthier people can play a large part in mitigating our climate crisis are noteworthy primarily for the lack of any apparent action.

- In turn, the consequences of the failure to rein in greenhouse gas emissions caused primarily by the wealthiest have included record temperatures around the globe, along with unprecedented heat and wildfires in the Arctic region. 

- Rick Paulas makes the case to stop directing public resources toward restricting access to transit, and instead ensure that basic transit is freely available.

- And finally, Emily Guendelsberger discusses how an increasing number of jobs are calculated to cause "chronic mild stress" which inevitably results in employee burnout (but avoids the possibility that workers will have access to any social supports).

On denialism

Others have already pointed out the substantive recklessness of Brian Pallister's refusal to accept federal funding for climate projects in the education system. But Pallister's choice of wording - that of a "hoax" - may be even more significant than the money involved.

After all, the "hoax" terminology is entirely familiar within discourse about climate change. From Donald Trump to Ezra Levant, Breitbart to the Friends of Science, merchants of doubt about settled climate science have regularly used the word to attack the reality of climate change.

And in case one wanted to pretend there's some difference in context, the word is no more accurate when advanced by Pallister than in the regular spewing of outright climate denialism.

The federal government is in fact collecting revenue; it is in fact making money available for education systems; Pallister is in fact rejecting it. There's no hoax here by any rational definition of the term - raising the question as to why Pallister is choosing to use such a loaded word in the context of his government's position on the climate crisis.

While there are a few possible explanations for Pallister's choice to echo the preferred wording of the climate death cult, it's hard to see how any would be anything but a gross condemnation of his leadership.

Is he deliberately targeting his message toward the prejudices and misinformation of climate change denialists? Or is the information he's currently choosing to hear on climate issues so grossly slanted that he can't begin to discuss climate policy without turning into Anthony Watts on stilts?

Either way, Pallister looks to be going further than ever before in rejecting even his own government's recognition of facts to reinforce the message of Canada's gang of climate vandals. And Manitoba voters should take note of his extremism before allowing him to keep turning away funding for community priorities in the name of climate destruction.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Erika Beauchesne discusses the benefits of a wealth tax as both a means of reducing inequality, and a source of revenue for public priorities:

Canada’s NDP has proposed a one per cent tax on wealth over $20 million as part of its election platform. The party doesn’t include much detail yet but estimates it could generate several billion dollars a year.

Pundits have been quick to pounce on a wealth tax as too extreme, difficult or costly. A National Post column last month asked: “What is the problem to which creating a wealth tax is a solution?”

Growing inequality is the problem.

The richest families in Canada are now more than 4,400 times wealthier than the average family, according to a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

This widening gap has gone hand-in-hand with declining social and economic mobility. The CCPA found that family dynasties are more likely to keep their money in the family than they were two decades ago thanks to light taxes and loopholes that primarily benefit the wealthy, while Statistics Canada recently reported that family income mobility has declined since the 1980s.
...
There’s debate among economists about the pros and cons of annual wealth taxes, and whether inheritance taxes and other taxes on capital and wealth would work better. Canadians for Tax Fairness, an organization that advocates for fair and progressive taxation, has called for restoring an inheritance tax on high-wealth estates to narrow Canada’s widening wealth gap, make our tax system fairer and generate funds to pay for public services. Democratic leadership contender and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a similar plan to expand the estate tax for inheritances over US$3.5 million.

The question and debate should no longer be whether we have increased taxes on wealth and capital, but what form they should take. We should thank the NDP for getting this debate going in Canada, and look forward to seeing what other federal political parties propose.

- And Douglas Todd notes that a failure to adequately tax wealth as opposed to income has left British Columbia in the position of subsidizing foreign ownership of desperately scarce housing.

- Melanie Green offers some important background information as a British Columbia inquiry begins analyzing the cause of soaring gas prices being used by right-wing politicians to attach carbon pricing. Paul Cowley reports on another estimate showing that Alberta faces tens of billions of dollars in well reclamation liabilities left unfunded by the corporations who have extracted oil and gas. And Andrea Palframan reports on the work of the Heiltsuk Nation in documenting the lack of any effective oil spill response along B.C.'s coastline.

- Paul Wells writes that Andrew Scheer's anti-Canada Food Guide bombast can only be the product of a politician taking voters for idiots. And the Star's editorial board argues that we shouldn't allow anybody to play political with health and nutrition.

- Finally, Rick Salutin points out the sheer folly of Doug Ford's insistence that Ontario students earn online credits rather than receiving a full education at school.

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.

Musical interlude

PVRIS - Walk Alone

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Jim Stanford calls out corporate apologists for blaming workers for deteriorating working conditions and stagnant wages which have resulted from deliberate policy choices:

Unemployed workers on the dole for months at a time? Clearly they aren’t looking hard enough for work. Low-wage workers stuck in dead-end jobs? Clearly they didn’t invest in their own “human capital.” Young workers facing a never-ending series of gigs? Clearly they don’t have the discipline to stick with a real job.

A new high water mark in this lamentable practice was surely set this week with a research paper from the Commonwealth Treasury. The report examined historically weak growth in Australian wages over the last several years. It proposed a novel but far-fetched explanation: workers are failing to leave their existing jobs to seek out better-paying opportunities elsewhere.
...
The formal paper contained all sorts of statistical cautions and academic nuances. But that was lost on the legion of gleeful pundits who seized on its findings, pointing their accusing fingers at complacent, “stubborn” workers for their own low wages. Never mind obvious actions that could directly boost wages: things like raising the minimum wage, restoring collective bargaining (which has all but disappeared from private sector workplaces), or abolishing the Commonwealth government’s own strict two percent  limit on wage increases for its own employees.

No, it’s far easier to ascribe record-low wage growth to some perverse characteristic of the workers themselves. After all, the forces of supply and demand are always working their magic: allocating resources efficiently and ensuring everyone gets paid according to their “productivity.” If that payment isn’t enough to live on -- well, that must be your fault, not the market’s.
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(T)he insecurity and powerlessness felt by workers is no accident. It’s the deliberate outcome of a generation of labour and social policies predicated precisely on instilling fear and discipline among workers -- assuming that will lead to greater obedience and productivity. Newstart has been frozen for a generation; protections against dismissal have been dismantled; steady jobs have been casualised or converted into gigs.

In that context, there’s little hope of successfully demanding a raise from your boss: more likely, they’ll brand you a troublemaker and not renew your contract. And with strong restrictions on union activity and collective bargaining, there is little institutional possibility for workers to wield collective bargaining power.
...
But never mind. The high priests of economic policy would still come up with other reason to blame the victims for their own plight -- not the system. Perhaps their choice of music. Or their insistence on eating smashed avocado for Sunday brunch. Or their bad planning in being born into families without inherited wealth.

- And in a prime example of the systemic gap between what workers get paid and what they need to survive, David Macdonald studies how the minimum wage falls far short of allowing workers to pay for housing all across Canada.

- Sam Arie writes about the reality that due to decades of corporate control and conservative denialism, it's probably too late to entirely avoid dangerous global warming. But Ashli Akins discusses the need to let the prospect of changing our current course for the better needs to overcome any sense of outright despair - even if we also can't blithely assume everything will work out for the best without substantial work.

- CBC News reports that Donald Trump has wasted no time imposing new restrictions on Canadian imports after the Libs claimed success in negotiating a new and worse version of NAFTA.

- Finally, Andrew Mitrovica discusses the disastrous results of Ontario's election of a right-wing populist government.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Geoff Dembicki interviews Leah Gazan about the need to put people over corporate profits in our political system.

- Dale Eisler writes about the need for our conversation around climate change to focus on an honest appraisal as to how we can rein in carbon emissions. But Jason Markusoff points out how petro-jingoism is drowning out any willingness to consider the massive costs of continued fossil fuel extraction. And Paul Willcocks highlights the glaring partisan divide which has seen conservative parties tamp down any interest in acting to avert a climate crisis.

- Meanwhile, Andrew Leach observes that the right-wing strategy of opposing consumer-level pricing and incentives only figures to ensure that more of the cost of any action will be incurred by the extraction industry and other major emitters.

- Ian Austen looks back at the causes of the Lac-Mégantic explosion - and the minimal regulatory response so far.

- Finally, Ricardo Tranjan calls out the Ford government's stinginess in slashing funding for a seniors' transit tax credit. And Leyland Cecco discusses Innisfil's disastrous experiment replacing public transit with ride-sharing which has increased both costs and pollution.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Slumbering cats.