Alberta Politics: Jason Kenney names Gerry Butts and Barack Obama in latest UCP conspiracy theory!

Does anyone actually believe Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s startling claim that Gerald Butts, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s principal secretary, secretly conspired with the White House in 2015 to engineer “a co-ordinated surrender” by Canada on President Barack Obama’s veto of the Keystone XL Pipeline project? Judging from the conversations

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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Nick Hanauer discusses the futility of “educationism” which treats schools as the only factor in social outcomes without recognizing the importance of inequality and precarity in restricting opportunities for far too many children. And PressProgress points out that Brian Pallister’s Manitoba PCs –

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Accidental Deliberations: New column day

Here (via PressReader), on the U.S.’ long-overdue conversation about progressive taxes on extreme incomes and wealth – and the need for Canada to follow suit. For further reading…– Matthew Yglesias has offered useful background on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ high-end income tax proposal, Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax proposal, Bernie Sanders’ estate tax

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Politics and its Discontents: Elizabeth Warren Eviscerates Wells Fargo CEO

The world may need more Canada, but it also needs more Elizabeth Warren. A tireless defender of the unrepresented, i.e., the majority of Americans, the Democratic Senator, as you will see in the following videos, is relentless in her systematic pursuit and evisceration of the self-serving rhetoric of Wells Faro CEO John Stumpf as he avers complete innocence in the scandal that has rocked his institution.

First, some brief background which saw the bank firing some 5300 frontline employees

roughly 1 percent of its workforce — for signing up customers for checking accounts and credit cards without their knowledge. Authorities said about 2 million sham accounts were opened going back to 2011, complete with forged signatures, phony email addresses, and fake PIN numbers — all created by employees who were hounded by supervisors to meet daily account quotas. The bank then charged customers at least $1.5 million in fees for the bogus accounts.

The greater scandal is that Ceo Stumpf knew about this practice going back to at least 2013 and did nothing. Indeed, his performance bonuses only grew, and Carrie Tolstedt, who oversaw the banking division responsible for the fake accounts, just left in July with a $125 million retirement package.

The following videos are brief; the first one shows Senator Warren masterfully outlining the parameters of, as she calls it, “this scam;” the second shows her eviscerating the no-longer-smug CEO.

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