Assorted content to end your week. – Ed Yong laments the U.S.’ particularly dangerous spin through the pandemic cycle of panic and neglect as it is eliminating all federal funding even as the most dangerous COVID-19 wave yet begins to crest, while Phil Tank calls out Scott Moe’s cherry-picked appeal
Continue readingTag: Astroturf
Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Katharine Wu examines how the effect of immunity is just one more area where people are seeing profoundly unequal results of the COVID pandemic – with a disproportionate burden being placed on those who were already facing disadvantages. Lauren Pelley reports on the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Johnson, Anglin, Nenshi and Butler. Who said Alberta politics is dull in the summer?
TweetPremier Dave Hancock is standing behind Jeff Johnson, even after the Information and Privacy Commissioner ruled that the embattled education minister broke Alberta’s privacy laws by sending a direct message to the personal email addresses of thousands of teachers during their contract negotiations. In any other job, breaking the law
Continue readingAlberta Diary: CFIB members please post: ‘Money from public sector wages & pensions NOT wanted here!’
CFIB AstroTurf technicians roll out part of their campaign against improved pensions for Canadians, a plan certain to harm the group’s naïve supporters. Below: A suggested sign for the windows of CFIB-member businesses. Whew! That was a close one! We almost improved the Canada Pension Plan! So says the so-called
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Minuscule Canadian Taxpayers Federation in running for ‘Turfy Award’
Former Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta Director Scott Hennig, now the group’s Communications VP, in a nice AstroTurf-coloured sweater at last weekend’s Ottawa conference of the Manning Centre for Undermining Democracy. Below: CTF President Troy Lanigan; CTF member … rrrrrrr … supporter, Riley Climenhaga; CTF Operations VP Shannon Morrison. When it
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fracking Industry’s Answer to “Gasland”: Devised by Astroturf Lobbying Group and Political Ad Agency
This is a guest post by Ben Nelson from Public Accountability Initiative that originally appeared on LittleSis. Truthland, a 35-minute compilation of interviews with fracking proponents, is being promoted by the oil and natural gas industry’s PR arm, Energy In Depth, as an answer to the 2010 anti-fracking film Gasland.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Climate Change Denial Isn’t About Science, or Even Skepticism
David Suzuki.png Cross-posted from the David Suzuki Foundation's Science Matters blog. By David Suzuki with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Editorial and Communications Specialist Ian Hanington. Let's suppose the world's legitimate scientific institutions and academies, climate scientists, and most of the world's governments are wrong. Maybe, as some people have argued,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: American Petroleum Institute’s Jack Gerard Fact Checked By Activists During Speech
Vote 4 Oil.png Guest post by Connor Gibson, cross-posted from Polluterwatch. Two days ago, President Obama denied the permit for the destructive Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, much to the dismay of Big Oil's top lobbyist and propagandist. Speaking at the National Press Club to an audience dominated by oil, coal and nuclear representatives and
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Unaccountable Oil: Is Enbridge Already Polluting the Canadian (Political) Environment?
Enbridge oil spill.jpg If the pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. is content to cower behind a 20-something blog manager rather than acknowledge its role in the recent attack on the patriotism of Canadian environmentalists, what hope have we that the company would ever stand accountable for the accidents that will occur
Continue readingChatty Kathy Marshall doll debuts
Just pull the ring. You never know what she’ll say next. Kathryn Marshall. She’s no puppet. She’s a doll!
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: API’s New ‘Vote 4 Energy’ Ad Campaign Is Thinly Veiled Election Year Bullying
API Vote 4 Energy.jpg American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard today announced the oil and gas industry’s latest election-year scare campaign to threaten the demise of the U.S. economy unless Big Oil gets its every wish in Washington. This year the wish list includes approval of the Keystone XL pipeline,
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Astroturf #nlpoli
Sometimes the people using fake names online screw up their little game. This little gem came from the Telegram last week and a letter to the editor in favour of free tuition at Memorial University. Janice and Babs should have talked to herself…
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Power Workers Union Rethinking "Social Media" Campaign?
oth their fake blogs, Enviralment and Envirogy are “undergoing scheduled maintenance”. We’ll see for how long, and what comes out the other side.Background here.h/t Scott in the comments.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Justice Department Launches Investigation Into BP’s Oil Gusher Cover Up
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The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an official investigation to determine whether or not BP lied to the public and to the government about the amount of oil that was leak…
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The Canadian Federation of Independent Business: another AstroTurf organization attacking the interests of its own members
Alberta small businesses: not helped by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Below: The CFIB’s Dan Kelly, the CLC’s Ken Georgetti.Why does the so-called Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses push a far-right agenda that benefits…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Oil Industry Steps Up Astroturf Efforts For 2012 Election
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The oil industry has put their astroturf and lobbying efforts into overdrive over the last few months, preparing for a bitter fight in the upcoming 2012 presidential election. In a…
Continue reading350 or bust: Koch Industries: The Dirty Business Of Climate Denial
A short animation by by Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham which details the efforts of billionaire oil barons Charles & David Koch to undermine belief in climate change and prevent legislation that threatens their profits. By pouring money into bogu…
Continue readingBouquets of Gray: Wind-power take-down
Over at The Disaffected Lib you can find a first rate take-down of wind-power opponents, including Progressive Blogger’s own Wind-Concern Ontario. The problem, as Disaffected points out, is the single-mindedness and ill-informedness of the opposition:…
Continue readingJimBobby Sez: The Problem With Taxpayer Funded Social Media
Whooee! Well, friends an’ foes, the twitterverse and blogdom is finally sittin’ up and takin’ notice that our gummint is paying for favourable postings in various social media. There was a story on it over the weekend: Harper government monitoring onli…
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