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 readingTag: George Monbiot
Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ploy Achakulwisat writes about the health emergencies emanating from an ongoing climate breakdown. And Andy Kroll points out that even in the U.S., a concerted effort of corporate spinmeisters and anti-environment politicians hasn’t been able to override the public’s concern about climate change.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Eric Levitz exposes the unsoundness of the right-wing excuses for allowing the accumulation of obscene wealth. And Toby Sanger weighs on the effect of increased tax rates on extremely wealthy individuals – along with the other policies which need to accompany more progressive
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Roderick Benns points out the disruptive effect of the cancellation of Ontario’s basic income trial – signalling the importance of being able to plan on a stable source of income. And Jessica Chin reports on an anticipated wave of renovictions to push tenants
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Henry Bewicke charts the worst offenders when it comes to per-capita carbon pollution – with the U.S. and Canada sharing an ignominious place at the top of the list. And the Star’s editorial board points out that we shouldn’t trust politicians who claim
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Alex Hemingway and David Macdonald point out the appalling wealth gap between British Columbia’s privileged few and most of the population. – ProPublica reports that the IRS is being used to exacerbate the similar gap in the U.S. by focusing its limited
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Avi Lewis contrasts the real crises which demand our attention against the manufactured ones which are instead promoted by far too many of our political leaders: Even for those of us who have not yet experienced personal loss and trauma from climate catastrophe,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jonathan Watts reports on a new study showing how the world’s largest economies (including Canada) are falling far short of the Paris climate goals due mostly to the influence of the fossil fuel industry, while also noting that Canada ranks with China and
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Assorted content to end your week. – Rupert Neate reports on the latest Credit Suisse study showing that wealth continues to concentrate in the hands of a few ultra-rich individuals. And Lawrence Mishel and Julia Wolfe take note of a similar trend for U.S. wages, particularly when it comes to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Patrick Kingsley points out how children are feeling the effects of the UK’s austerity, including by being driven into avoidable poverty. And Michelle Bellefontaine reports on the predictable damage to Edmonton’s schools even from the cuts being bandied about by Jason Kenney
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Michael Harris laments the lack of any consistent connection between reporting on severe weather events and the climate change which is producing them in unprecedented numbers: Mainstream news coverage does well with reporting episodes, but misses the boat on thematic coverage. CNN is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Mike Konczal notes that a single-minded focus on shareholder wealth – exemplified by today’s obsession with stock buybacks – has frozen workers out of any returns from economic development. And Anne Perkins writes about the outrageous gap between the pay of the
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – George Monbiot discusses the dark money behind much of the political turmoil in the UK and elsewhere, while questioning why the secretive and self-interested funding of astroturf groups should receive favourable tax treatment: A mere two millennia after Roman politicians paid mobs
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how NAFTA has proven wholly ineffective in deterring a destructive U.S. president from starting a gratuitous trade war – and how Canada should respond in charting a new economic course. For further reading…– Andrew Jackson has previously discussed the effects of NAFTA to date, as well as Canada’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – George Monbiot discusses the dangers of treating our natural environment solely as something to be priced and commodified. – The Mound of Sound comments on Stephen Leahy’s work in crunching the numbers on the climate change impact of a Trans Mountain expansion. And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – May Boeve and Michael Brune comment on the danger that political- and court-based attacks on U.S. unions could substantially weaken the progressive movement as a whole. But Jane McAlevey writes that West Virginia’s successful teachers’ strike may provide an important reminder that the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Livia Gershon discusses why relative equality plays a far greater role in people’s well-being than absolute income in developed countries. And Stefanie Stantcheva writes about the cultural roots of the U.S.’ relative acceptance of extreme inequality (though it’s worth noting that even in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Elizabeth Piper reports on Jeremy Corbyn’s much-needed declaration that under a Labour government, the financial sector will serve the public rather than the other way around. And George Monbiot comments on the role the left needs to play in reversing the accumulation
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joan Hennessy writes that instead of limiting ourselves to holiday-season charity, we should insist on fair wages and dignity for our fellow citizens throughout the year: ll the while, the economy has been on the mend and corporate earnings have risen, but the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Facing Hypocrisy
Last month, I read an article by the redoubtable George Monbiot that left me both shaken and, for a period of time, quite depressed. It forced me to face some unpleasant and inconvenient truths about people like me, and left me with the realization that when all is said and
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