This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Alec Connon discusses how anger is an entirely appropriate response to the capitalist imperative to impose constant costs and burdens on people and the planet. And Alexandra Digby, Dollie Davis and Robson Hiroshi Hatsukami Morgan write that the collapse of First Republic Bank and
Continue readingTag: astroturfing
Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Simon Enoch studies how P3 projects result only in public money subsidizing private profits. And a new report from the Canadian Labour Congress warns about the dangerous consequences of privatizing public goods and services. – Amanda Follett Hosgood examines how the authority
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Rochelle Baker interviews David Suzuki about the lessons from the coronavirus pandemic which we should apply equally to the threat of a climate breakdown. And Mike Layton writes that we need a Green New Deal as our recovery program once the pause on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canadian Taxpayers Federation commentary on nurse salaries isn’t research so much as an echo chamber
Has anyone noticed how the propaganda produced by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation seems to be growing more inept of late? Misleading arguments and anti-union bias have long characterized many of the claims made by the Regina-based CTF, which claims to be a non-partisan “citizens’ group,” although its only legal members
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Gary Mason worries that Canada has become so accustomed to prioritizing fossil fuels over the habitability of our planet as to make impossible any action to avert a climate crisis: (H)ere we are, more than a third of the way through the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On fanaticism
I’ve previously pointed out the connection between Andrew Scheer and an explicit effort to elevate the burning of fossil fuels to goal surpassing any interest in human well-being. But it’s worth noting how much more extreme the same forces are becoming in order to serve the cause of extracting oil
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Donald Gutstein examines the crucial difference between advancing toward a zero-carbon economy, and incentivizing further fossil fuel development through misleading terms such as “low-emission”. And Arthur White-Crummey reports on Nic Rivers’ response to the Saskatchewan Party’s attempt to self-assess climate policy while
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Edward Luce writes about the reckless greed of the U.S.’ billionaire class which includes far too many people willing to see Donald Trump re-elected as the price of avoiding paying a fair share toward a civilized society. And Noah Smith compares a wealth
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on Scott Moe’s apparent view that the only voice which deserves to be heard or amplified is that of the oil industry. For further reading…– Jie Jenny Zou is among many to have discussed the oil industry’s track record of funding science denial in the interest of being able
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jerry Dias writes that the holiday season will be a difficult one for far too many Canadian workers facing precarious employment and hostile governments. And the Economist discusses the long hours expected of workers in the U.S. and the UK. – PressProgress highlights
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the outside interference becoming the norm in elections everywhere – and the Saskatchewan Party’s choice to avoid even the slightest steps to ensure that provincial elections are centered on citizens rather than corporate messaging. For further reading…– I’ve previously written about the need to address the dangers of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Joe Pinsker offers a reminder that the wealthiest individuals are primarily concerned with positional rather than absolute gains – meaning that nothing useful is accomplished by diverting wealth toward them other than to drive up the price of status symbols. And Thomas Piketty
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Owen Jones writes that a four-day work week being developed by UK Labour could represent an important step toward genuine personal freedom: (I)t is extremely welcome that Labour’s John McDonnell has approached eminent economist Lord Skidelsky to head an inquiry into potentially cutting
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Joseph Stiglitz writes about the continuing need to rein in the excesses of corporate-dominated globalization:The failure of globalization to deliver on the promises of mainstream politicians has surely unde…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On countermovements
Alison is right to highlight the latest right-wing astroturf group in Canada. But we shouldn’t assume that mere exposure will meaningfully affect the growth of corporate-owned politics alone.As is typically the case, Canadian politics tend to be influe…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Patrick Flavin studies (PDF) the direct benefits that flow from giving people secure access to health care. And Daphne Bramham writes that the damage done by child poverty can be directly observed in educational…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Linda McQuaig discusses how a politically-oriented audit of the CCPA fits with the shock-and-awe part of the right’s war against independent (and public-minded) though: In the conservative quest to shape public debate in recent years, no tool has proved more useful than
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Paul Krugman calls out the U.S.’ deficit scolds for continuing to invent a crisis to distract from the real problems with middling growth and high unemployment. And Bruce Johnstone singles out a few of the Cons’ talking points which have somehow become conventional
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Paul Boothe responds to the C.D. Howe Institute’s unwarranted bias against public-sector investment: Is the public sector holding back provincial growth rates by crowding out private sector investment? That’s the contention of a recent C.D. Howe paper by Philip Cross. The paper
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Joseph Heath responds to Andrew Coyne in noting that an while there’s plenty of room (and need) to better tax high personal incomes, there’s also a need to complement that with meaningful corporate taxes: (A) crucial part of the Boadway and Tremblay
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