Assorted content to end your week. – Sid Ryan takes on the Harper/Hudak double-team effort to prevent workers from having any voice in our political direction: (T)here can be little doubt that what really offends Hudak is the fact that union members pool their resources to participate in municipal, provincial
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – Will Hutton discusses how the increasing gaps in economic equality are leading to radical differences in opportunity – with the U.S./U.K. push toward private schooling serving as a particular source of exclusion: (T)he middle class of whatever ethnic background is spending more on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Dave Coles comments on Brad Wall’s attempts to erase a century’s worth of gains when it comes to labour rights, but recognizes that we instead have an opportunity to again lead the way toward social progress: During this moment of relative prosperity
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On default positions
Dan Ariely comments on how the normalization of cheating can produce a cascading effect: The consequences of this sort of cheating are even more severe when the network of contagion is larger. We see this when we look at Greece, where masses of people have been cheating a little bit
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer theorize that we should discuss the economy as a garden rather than a machine: A well-designed tax system — in which everyone contributes and benefits — ensures that nutrients are circulated widely to fertilize and foster growth. Reducing
Continue readingCanadian Trends: RE: Fiscal “Crisis” In Context: Two Indicators
I’ve enjoyed reading the Progressive Economics Forum, they’ve had many great posts and analysis but a post put out today titled “Fiscal “Crisis” In Context: Two Indicators” has me strongly disagreeing as I find the context presented to be much too narrow to provide proper context at all. The post
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Harper Conservatives Nuke Own $1.2 Billion Military Project
On this one, I salute Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Sort of. The Harper Conservatives have just gutted their own plan to buy 1,500 logistics trucks, 800 commercial vehicles and equipment for the . That’s $1.2 billion of Canadian taxpayers money saved. Sort of agreeable too is the explanation for the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ed Broadbent discusses the connection between unions, democracy and equality: In democratic societies, there are two principal arenas of non-violent conflict over power: the state and the workplace. Just as political democracy entails the right to select or reject one’s representatives and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sid Ryan rightly criticizes Tim Hudak’s anti-labour plans as a push toward poverty rather than prosperity. – Via Climate Progress, Steven Mufson reports on the causes of Enbridge’s Michigan oil spill – with Enbridge’s complete failure to repair known defects over a period
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Why now
Of all the possible answers to the suggestion of a guaranteed annual income, I for one didn’t see “how can you speak of such a thing at a time like this?” as a particularly likely one. But since it seems to be the stock response, let’s point out just how
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: NDP: Harper Created Worst Deficit in Canadian History (VIDEO)
Apparently, the Official Opposition will not allow Stephen Harper‘s appetite for character-assassinating attack ads and propaganda to go unchallenged. The NDP has responded to the Conservatives’ recent attack ad targeting its leader, Thomas Mulcair. The ad, dubbed “Stephen Harper’s Solutions,” focuses on the prime minister’s economic record. It lambasts the Conservative
Continue readingThings Are Good: Farming Could Save Detroit
Detroit has been hit hard by the ongoing economic claptrap that’s plaguing the global economy; the once-thriving oil-driven economy of the city is not fairing well. The city of Detroit is now looking to environmentally friendly sources of renewing their economy: farming. Housing in Detroit is so cheap that it
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On parallel pursuits
Let’s follow on the theme of both Thursday’s column and the Mound of Sound’s post with a closer look at the corporatist “there are no bad jobs” philosophy – which serves as the obvious foundation for constant attacks on wages, unions and workers even if it’s been walked back as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – In keeping with the theme of my column this week, the Mound of Sound highlights the distinction between a “plutonomy” which serves as the source of easy profits, and a “precariat” which businesses are looking to treat as irrelevant (except when they need
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: What To Expect When You’re Electing: Part 2 – Mitt Romney
Romney.jpg In Part 1 of this series, we explored the overall environmental issues that are facing the U.S., mostly as a part of coordinated attacks by politicians in Washington. In the next few articles, we’ll take a look at what each candidate has said or done in regards to both
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Right-leaning British magazine rips Stephen Harper
Since coming to power in 2006, the Canadian prime minister “has acquired a reputation for playing fast and loose with the rules.” Harper plays to his social conservative base. He and his Conservative majority government tolerate neither criticism nor dissent. But these “bullying” ways are set to boost the opposition’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your day. – For those wondering what might become of Nathan Cullen’s leadership campaign plan to work with progressives of all party stripes, we now have part of the answer: in advance of the Calgary Centre by-election, Cullen will be reaching out to discuss how to
Continue readingTrashy's World: This is likely…
… the reality for most parts of the planet. Including Canada. (4) Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jim Stanford discusses how Canadian right-wing parties are picking up on the most extreme anti-labour stances of the U.S. Republicans. But I do have to wonder whether the comparison between union dues and taxes is one that they’d particularly shy away from:
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Lost In Stimulus
World markets and investors continue to scratch their heads about the market’s direction and the problems it’s facing. There is seemingly only one thing they all agree on, and that is they all are “hoping for more stimulus”. On any speculation of such hope, markets rise – which should confirm
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