Assorted content to end your week. – Robinson Meyer writes about the latest IPCC report on how our climate crisis endangers the land we rely on. And George Monbiot responds by noting that it understates the need for changes in how we produce and consume food, while the Canadian Press
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Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – George Monbiot writes that the wealthiest few have responded to the rise of populism by funding their own killer clowns to assume power in place of anybody who might actually respond to the public interest. – And Chuck Collins calls for a 100%
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jim Stanford Part II: An Australian cautionary tale for Alberta and Canada
What do Albertans imagine will happen if we manage to build more pipelines to tidewater, as the ocean is known out here on the Great Plains of North America? Going into last April’s Alberta provincial election, there was a clear consensus by both Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party and Rachel
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Trump’s “Go Home” Tweet
Ms Soapbox found herself organizing the sock drawer this morning. She blames this burst of domesticity on Donald Trump. She’ll explain how this ties back to Alberta politics in a moment, but first a quick recap of the most recent Trump blowout. The Tweet Last week Mr Trump tweeted
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jim Stanford calls out corporate apologists for blaming workers for deteriorating working conditions and stagnant wages which have resulted from deliberate policy choices: Unemployed workers on the dole for months at a time? Clearly they aren’t looking hard enough for work. Low-wage workers
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Lesson of the Beaver: Something for Alberta’s fossil fuel boosters to think about
If you forget everything else, just remember this about our country’s incessant and often bitter debate about fossil fuels: “Canada is never going to run out of oil, just like we never ran out of beavers.” We owe this pearl of insight to Canadian economist Jim Stanford, late of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Robert Reich points out that the most significant political divide is the one between the wealthiest few and the rest of the population: In reality, the biggest divide in America today runs between oligarchy and democracy. When oligarchs fill the coffers of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Lawrence Mishel points out that Donald Trump’s giveaways to the rich actually resulted in a sharp decline in bonuses paid to workers. – Robert Plummer reports on the precarity facing lower-income workers in the UK. And John Clapp writes from experience about the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ethan Cox reports on the massive public support in Canada for a wealth tax. David Hetherington writes that the wealthy few go out of their way to avoid any personal interaction with the realities of economic inequality – making it absurd to accept
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Vindication? Board of Internal Economy renders a Scotch verdict on Jason Kenney’s ethical lapse
CALGARY – Jason Kenney’s been in power for less than a week and already his election promises are falling like dominoes.* Yesterday, another wobbled when the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled that the federal government has the power to establish limits on greenhouse gas production that provinces must meet, and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – CBC reports on Canada’s Changing Climate Report showing that we’re facing climate change twice as severe as the rest of the world, while Phil Tank writes about the anticipated effects on Saskatoon in particular. And the Canadian Press reports on the latest report
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Josh Bornstein writes that in Australia like elsewhere, the combination of increasing corporate profits, stagnant wages and resulting inequality can be traced to the reduced bargaining power of workers. Jim Stanford notes that New Zealand offers an example as to how to reverse
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Armine Yalnizyan comments on the need for a widespread and sustained challenge to the corporate powers which currently dominate political and economic decision-making: (P)ublic and private investments are the twin engines that propel shared prosperity. But where will the money come from
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jim Stanford discusses the decline (PDF) of Australia’s enterprise bargaining system (and associated lack of wage growth). – Patrick Butler reports on the tens of thousands of people who will be homeless for the holidays in the UK due in large part to
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: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Chuck Collins discusses the obscene wealth being hoarded by the U.S.’ few richest families. And Owen Jones comments on the need for UK Labour to plan to push for far more revenue – especially from the top end – than it’s proposed
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This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jim Stanford discusses how abusing precarious workers has become the primary job of big business. But Owen Jones notes that strikes against McDonald’s in the UK represent just the latest example of workers taking collective action to fight for a more fair
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Jim Stanford writes that the D-J Composites lockout should offer Canada a much-needed reminder as to the reality of labour conflict: Through 640 emotional days, the picket line has remained peaceful: the only injury was a union member hit by a vehicle charging
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Sam Pizzigati discusses the predictable social consequences of allowing inequality to grow: What sort of unintended consequences [result from increased inequality]? The British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett have some compelling answers in their powerful new book, The Inner Level. The more
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Emma Paling discusses how the security of a basic income provides the opportunity to escape an abusive relationship. And Jim Stanford collects four views of a basic income from Australia, including this (PDF) from Ben Spies-Butcher: There are two broad ways that
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