This and that for your Sunday reading. – Arwa Mahdawi writes that the outsized influence wielded by billionaires makes them something beyond merely wealthy people. Tom Whyman challenges the worship of the excessively wealthy as a particularly destructive religion. Robert Reich points out that the means of accumulating a billion
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – David Jones writes about the important benefits enjoyed by workers as the result of the efforts of the labour movement. And Arindrajit Dube studies the international effects of minimum wage increases, finding that they consistently improve lower-end wages while having little effect on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: 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
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Michael Spence discusses how a wealth tax can work, while noting that the worst possible response to growing inequality is to refuse to do anything. And the Centre for Labour and Social Studies summarizes the current class disparity in the UK, as well
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Edgardo Sepulveda writes about Chile’s popular revolt against austerity and inequality – while at the same time pointing out how Canada is foregoing the revenue needed to provide for people’s basic needs. – Nicole Aschoff discusses a few trends highlighted by actors
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Stephen Mihm writes that among other positive outcomes, wealth taxes and other progressive tax options reliably produce a boost in life satisfaction for a large number of people (while having little impact on the positional interests of the ultra-rich against each other). And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Justin Fox writes that there are plenty of options available to push for the wealthiest few to pay their fair share toward a functional and compassionate society. And Christine Berry discusses the need for a progressive plan of attack to fundamentally restructure
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Christopher Ingraham reports on the reality that extremely wealthy Americans are now paying lower systemic tax rates than workers. And Andrea Germanos writes that Michael Sayman is among the plutocrats calling for his own class to pay its fair share. – Heather Mallick
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Look To The Skies
Only a simpleton would deny the reality of climate change. Whether we are reading almost daily about wildfires, tornadoes, floods or sea-level rise, we know in our hearts that the future has arrived and will only get worse. Despite that understanding, many of us continue with practices that will only
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Roger Grimes: the unlikely reactionary #nlpoli
What is happening in Newfoundland and Labrador is not merely polarization in public opinion. Polarization implies that people are within the same community or see themselves as being within the same community. What we are seeing increasingly is the tendency to fragmentation. People do not listen to differing opinions,. They do
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Can Trudeau Make a Future with Alberta?
Life is full of little surprises. Often pleasant ones. I encountered such a surprise this week reading the Calgary Herald, not a paper usually on my wave length. And yet here was this op-ed saying some of the most sensible things about Alberta’s aversion to anything Trudeau I’ve heard to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Kyle Whyte on Wilderness
I saw Dr. Kyle Whyte present at the University of Waterloo on Thursday night on climate change, traditional knowledge, and environmental justice. It was similar to what he said in this video, but longer and with a Q&A at the end. It was eye-opening in the worst way – in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – George Monbiot makes the case for popular sovereignty mechanisms to supplement systems of representative government which fail to reflect the will of the people. And Ian Bremmer reports on Chile’s mass protest seeking a public voice to end economic unfairness. – Katrina
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Time For Reflection
While the battle for climate-change mitigation will be won or lost by regulating the big polluters, it is all too easy for us to scrutinize them to the exclusion of our own profligate greenhouse-gas-emission practices. The following letter in the print edition of today’s Toronto Star should give us all
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Robert Frank reports on the latest galling threshold in wealth inequality, as millionaires consisting of less than 1% of the population now control effectively half of the wealth on Earth. And Steven Greenhouse asks why actual workers aren’t being included in talks about
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Justin Trudeau’s Huge Carbon Tax Victory
It took a lot of courage for Justin Trudeau to impose a carbon tax on Canadians, in a country where the word "tax" can be political poison.The Con premiers rose up against him. Their ugly supporters threatened to kill him.And the Ugly American Andrew Scheer vowed that the very first thing
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The Climate Case for Impeachment
Will they or won’t they? Impeach the Donald, I mean. As the U.S. Congress moves glacially along the impeachment path, I propose impeaching him not on the grounds of his political and legal sins but on the grounds of his unfitness to lead a major nation at a time of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: As The Dust Settles….
I will offer no analysis of our federal election; I will only say that from my perspective (my disappointment that the Greens did not do better notwithstanding), the fact of a minority government is the best of all outcomes. The question of whether or not Justin can find within himself
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Greta Visits Alberta
“So today is Friday and as always, we are on Climate Strike, young people all around the globe are today sacrificing their education to bring attention to the climate and ecological emergency.”—Greta Thunberg On Friday my friend Elaine and I joined more than 10,000 Albertans to show our support for
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Cycling Rant
If cycling is part of your life, it looks like the NDP comes way ahead in terms of addressing cycling concerns. Extinction Rebellion is clear about the need for car-free streets as part of action to decrease the threats of climate change. And even my city claims to be moving
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