CANADA'S  Boaty McBoatface  

Skyrocketing shipbuilding costs continue as estimate puts icebreaker price at $7.25B

OTTAWA — The federal government's plan to build new ships for Canada's navy and coast guard has been hit by more skyrocketing costs.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The latest blow came in a report released Thursday by parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux, who estimates Ottawa's decision to build two new polar icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard will cost $7.25 billion.

That represents a dramatic increase over the government's most recent estimate, released back in 2013, that it would cost $1.3 billion to build one such vessel.

Part of the difference is obviously tied to the decision to build two of the heavy icebreakers instead of one. The Liberal government announced without warning in May the addition of another ship to its plans.

Yet Giroux told reporters during a briefing that the plan to have the two ships built at different shipyards — Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver and Quebec-based Chantier Davie — will add between $600 million and $800 million to the overall cost.

"In naval construction projects, there are economies of scale and learning factors that would be accrued should the contract be to the same shipyard," he said. Splitting the contract, he said, "will not lead to these natural learning improvements."

Other factors identified by Giroux as driving the cost increase include delays in the entire project.

The government has not provided its own cost estimate on the two icebreakers.

The decision to add a second icebreaker and split the work between Vancouver and Lévis, near Quebec City, has been seen by some analysts as intended to help the Liberals' electoral chances in those two politically important communities.

The government has argued that dividing the work will ensure the ships are delivered faster, and Giroux’s report suggests the first icebreaker could be ready in 2030 while the second could be delivered the following year.

Yet that is contingent on steel being cut in Vancouver by 2023-24, a potentially tall order given Seaspan has repeatedly struggled to meet past timelines when it comes to other shipbuilding projects.

Those include the navy’s new support ships, which are already years late and billions over budget, and a new offshore science vessel for the coast guard, which was originally budgeted at around $100 million but is now nearing $1 billion in cost.

Davie, meanwhile, has yet to be formally accepted as the third shipyard alongside Seaspan and Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding in the federal government’s national shipbuilding procurement agreement.

That is despite the Quebec shipyard, which has staged numerous public relations and lobbying campaigns over the years for federal work, having emerged in December 2019 as the only pre-qualified bidder to join the procurement strategy.

The government has said work is underway to ensure Davie can meet its requirements, but otherwise offered no timeline on when it will be finished, leaving the shipyard in a kind of limbo.

Giroux estimates a one-year delay in construction of the two vessels would add $235 million to the overall cost while a two-year delay would result in a $472-million increase.

Stephen Harper’s Conservative government unveiled plans to build a new heavy icebreaker called the CCGS John G. Diefenbaker for $700 million in 2008. The Diefenbaker was intended to replace the coast guard’s flagship, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.

The government revised its estimate to $1.3 billion in 2013, at which point the Diefenbaker had been awarded to Seaspan along with four smaller coast guard vessels and the two navy support ships.

After Seaspan ran into problems delivering on those vessels, however, partly due to problems at the shipyard but also thanks to mismanagement and poor planning in Ottawa, the Liberals quietly removed the Diefenbaker from Seaspan’s order book in 2019.

The decision to build two polar icebreakers, announced months before the 2021 federal election, caught many by surprise.

Giroux’s report on the polar icebreakers is only the latest to show skyrocketing costs in Ottawa’s plan to build new navy and coast guard ships, which was first launched in 2010 to keep costs under control and maximize the benefits to Canada’s economy.

One of the budget officer’s most recent reports estimated the cost of 15 new warships for the navy at more than $77 billion, which is $17 billion more than the government’s own estimate and three times the original $26 billion budget.

Giroux said it has become clear that the government’s drive to build ships in Canada rather than overseas comes with a “significant premium” in terms of cost. The question of whether that premium is worth it is a political discussion that needs to take place, he said.

“It's a question that's eminently political, because there are regional benefits that need to be taken into account and also the issue of national security when it comes to maintaining the capacity to build these types of ships domestically,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Dec. 16, 2021.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

Biden administration officially reverses Trump-era environmental regulations that allowed showerheads to use more water

gpanetta@businessinsider.com (Grace Panetta) 

 In this Aug. 12, 2020 file photo, water flows from a showerhead in Portland, Ore. President Joe Biden's administration is reversing a Trump-era rule approved after the former president complained he wasn’t getting wet enough because of limits on water flow from showerheads 

AP Photo/Jenny Kane, AP Photo/Evan Vucci

The Biden administration formally reversed Trump-era water conservation standards.
Trump personally pushed for the EPA to allow shower fixtures to use more gallons of water per minute.

Trump had strong opinions on water conservation standards and complained about water pressure.

The Biden administration has officially reversed Trump-era relaxations of water conservation standards former President Donald Trump personally pushed for that allowed more gallons of water per minute to flow through showerheads.

Under standards initially set in the 1990s, federal regulations stipulated that all newly manufactured toilets had to use a maximum of 1.6 gallons of water per flush and new showerheads could only use 2.5 gallons of water a minute. Under the Obama administration in 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency tweaked the regulation to also apply that limit to more modern shower fixtures with multiple nozzles.

But when Trump was in office, the EPA relaxed the standard even further to apply the 2.5 gallon limit to each individual nozzle on a showerhead, meaning a showerhead with two nozzles could use five gallons of water per minute.

Because the Trump rule only went into effect a year ago in December 2020, shortly before Trump left office, consumers aren't likely to see much of a difference in their showerheads and water pressure, the Washington Post noted.

"This was a silly loophole from the beginning, and the department was right to fix it," Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, told the Post. "The good news is there was no clamoring for products that took advantage of this, and we can put this whole episode in the past."

Trump, who came to the Oval Office from a real estate and hotel management background, had strong opinions about water usage and water pressure that led to the regulatory change.

At a December 2019 event at the White House, for example, Trump opined at length about his beliefs on water usage and water pressure, saying that the EPA was "looking very strongly" at adjusting regulations.

"We have a situation where we're looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms, where you turn the faucet on in areas where there's tremendous amounts of water, where it all flows out to sea because you could never handle it all, and you don't get any water," Trump said in December 2019. "They take a shower and water comes dripping out, very quietly dripping out. People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once; they end up using more water. So EPA is looking very strongly at that, at my suggestion."

"You go into a new building, new house, a new home, and they have standards where don't get water, and you can't wash your hands practically; there's so little water," he added. "And the end result is that you leave the faucet on, and it takes you much longer to wash your hands, and you end up using the same amount of water. So we're looking very seriously at opening up the standard, and there may be some areas where we go the other route, desert areas, but for the most part, you have states where they have so much water where it comes down — it's called rain — that they don't know what to do with it."

In 2020, Trump again raised complaints about the energy standards leading to lower-than-ideal water pressure in the shower. "Because my hair — I don't know about you, but it has to be perfect," he said. "Perfect."

The New York Times reported in December 2017 that Trump, who "is naturally garrulous, and loves to give White House tours...has an odd affinity for showing off bathrooms, including one he renovated near the Oval Office."

Shocking but not surprising: Auditor General of Canada criticizes enforcement of COVID-19 regulations for migrant workers

Eric Tucker, Professor, Law, York University, Canada 

Leah F. Vosko, Professor of Politics, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, York University, Canada 

The Auditor General of Canada, Karen Hogan, recently issued a scathing report on Employment and Social Development Canada’s (ESDC) lacklustre enforcement of the pandemic regulations designed to protect temporary foreign farm workers.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot 

Mexican and Guatemalan workers pick strawberries at the Faucher strawberry farm in Pont Rouge Que.

These essential workers, on whom Canadians depend for their local food supply, are highly vulnerable to COVID-19 infection as they work elbow to elbow and inhabit crowded bunkhouses provided by the farm owners who employ them.

Workplace outbreaks were common, resulting in deaths and high caseloads among migrant agricultural workers. None of this should have happened.

Read more: How we treat migrant workers who put food on our tables: Don't Call Me Resilient EP 4

At the beginning of the pandemic, the Canadian government amended the regulations to place additional responsibilities on the employers of temporary foreign workers to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

These included a requirement that employers provide appropriate housing and pay wages during the mandated 14-day quarantine, and provide separate accommodations for workers who became infected or showed symptoms of COVID-19.

These regulations were in addition to existing obligations to comply with applicable employment laws, including occupational health and safety regulations and housing standards, amplified in amendments to the regulations in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act adopted in 2015. Recognizing the added enforcement burden these COVID-related regulations imposed, the government allocated an additional $16.2 million in July 2020 to cover the cost.

Why, then, did migrant agricultural workers suffer so greatly when the government had supposedly taken such care to ensure their safety?
What the report had to say

The Canadian government failed to enforce the law even after it was advised that its system of inspections and enforcement was deeply flawed.

In 2020, the ESDC evaluated almost all employers as compliant even though most quarantine inspections had little or no evidence to support that assessment. Even worse, in the presence of evidence that employers might not be following the rules, there was indication of no further enforcement action. Instead of conducting follow up inspections or imposing penalties for violations, these employers were labelled “compliant.”

The Auditor General notified senior government officials of her concerns in December 2020 and February 2021, but the problem got worse. An even greater percentage of inspection reports lacked evidence to support a finding that employers were compliant or that further enforcement action was taken when there was evidence of non-compliance.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

 A person holds a sign during a gathering to mark Day of the Dead, in Vancouver, on Nov. 1, 2020. People gathered to honour the lives of migrants, refugees, undocumented people, workers and students who have died during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the problem was not limited to quarantine inspections. Outbreak inspections often failed to provide enough information to determine whether employers were providing sick or symptomatic workers with separate accommodations. And regular workplace inspections, including those related to housing, were also often of poor quality and incomplete.

These are shocking findings. But why did the Canadian government fail to live up to its commitment to protect the health and safety of temporary foreign workers while they grew the food we needed?

The Auditor General doesn’t fault individual inspectors — nor do we. Rather, she points to managerial problems, including misunderstandings of the urgency of pandemic requirements and poor quality control, among others.
Flawed by design

We think the problems run deeper. Along with Sarah Marsden, a law researcher at Thompson Rivers University, we published a report and an article, Flawed by Design, critically scrutinizing the federal enforcement regime for temporary foreign workers before the pandemic.

Based on data obtained through freedom of information requests, we discovered that onsite inspections were optional. In the first six months of the 2018-19 fiscal year (the last year for which we had data) only about 55 per cent of inspections were onsite.

The outcome of these inspections was also surprising. When we looked at all completed inspections for the 2.5 years for which we had data, nearly half of all employers were found to be in violation the first time. However, of those non-compliant the first time, 90 per cent were labelled “compliant with intervention,” meaning in the end only 10 per cent of inspected employers were deemed non-compliant.

The most common reason an employer was labelled non-compliant was for administrative reasons, signifying they likely had not co-operated with the inspector.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

 Mexican and Guatemalan workers pick strawberries at the Faucher strawberry farm in Pont Rouge, Que.

Lacklustre enforcement

The data demonstrate a continuity between the light-touch enforcement regime that prevailed before the pandemic and the one that followed it. Inspectors are instructed to focus on education and compliance assistance, not law enforcement.

As long as employers exhibit cooperative behaviour, it is assumed they have or will comply with the law without requiring further evidence.

This pattern of lax enforcement is not unique to this agency. We’ve studied employment standards enforcement regimes in Canada since the late 19th century and more recently were part of a team that conducted a multi-year, multi-methods study of employment standards enforcement in Ontario.

In the context of the federal inspection regime, lax enforcement at the provincial level compounds the problem because federal regulations require compliance with provincial and local standards, which federal inspectors are unable to directly enforce.

While the details vary, the basic story repeats itself. Until we recognize that the problems with our enforcement systems require more than a few managerial tweaks, the kinds of problems identified by the Auditor General will persist and the basic promise we make to workers that they will be protected at work will once again be broken.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Eric Tucker received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council's Partnership Grant Program for a study on employment standards enforcement in Ontario. He is also a member of the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group formed in 2020 to provide expert evidence-based advice to both federal and provincial governments so they establish adequate standards and practices to protect the health and safety of migrant agricultural workers.

Leah F. Vosko received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada's Partnership Grant Program for her participation in "Closing the Enforcement Gap: Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs." She is also a member of the Migrant Worker Health-Expert Working Group.

Tornado-hit factory sued; workers said they couldn't leave

MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — Survivors of a tornado that leveled a Kentucky candle factory, killing eight workers, have filed a lawsuit claiming their employer demonstrated “flagrant indifference” by refusing to allow employees to go home early as the storm approached.

As legal fallout from the catastrophic weather started surfacing, steady rainfall added to the survivors' misery. As they picked through what remained of their homes, roofers patched holes and cleanup crews removed massive piles of downed trees and other debris. Storm-stricken parts of western Kentucky could get up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain by Sunday, officials said.

“It’s not right for the people who have had their homes knocked down, that are trying to salvage it, are now having all this rain on top of it,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed in state court late Wednesday, accuses the Mayfield Consumer Products candle production company of violating Kentucky occupational safety and health workplace standards by keeping its staff at work despite the danger of death and injury. The lawsuit claims that workers were threatened with termination if they left in the hours before the tornado hit. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

“It’s a straightforward claim, exactly what this statute was meant to address,” Amos Jones, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney representing employees, said by phone Thursday.

Bob Ferguson, speaking on behalf of the company located in the western Kentucky town of Mayfield, previously insisted that employees were free to leave anytime, and he denied that they would have faced retribution if they left the factory. Ferguson did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Thursday.

The company’s CEO, Troy Propes, said in a statement Wednesday that the company was retaining “an independent expert team” to review the actions of managers and employees leading up to when the tornado struck the factory.

“We’re confident that our team leaders acted entirely appropriately and were, in fact, heroic in their efforts to shelter our employees,” Propes said. “We are hearing accounts from a few employees that our procedures were not followed. We’re going to do a thorough review of what happened.”

The lawsuit claims the factory had “up to three and half hours before the tornado hit its place of business to allow its employees to leave its worksite as safety precautions.” The factory showed “flagrant indifference to the rights” of the workers by refusing to do so, the lawsuit said.

Factory employee Haley Conder told The Associated Press on Tuesday that a supervisor threatened her with written disciplinary action if she went home early because storms were approaching.

Conder questioned why the company did not encourage workers to go home — or at least give them a better understanding of the danger — between a first tornado siren around 6 p.m. Friday and another one around 9 p.m., shortly before the tornado hit.

The only plaintiff identified in the lawsuit is Elijah Johnson, who was working the night shift at the candle factory when the storm struck. The wording of the lawsuit says it was filed by Johnson and on behalf of “others similarly situated.” Others aren't identified by name for “fear of reprisal,” Jones said.

After days of not knowing how many workers died at the factory, authorities are now “pretty close to certainty” that no more than eight perished, Beshear said Thursday.

The governor said it was “an absolute miracle” that more lives were not lost. “I will tell you, I was almost certain that the number would be 70,” he said. “But thank God, others either left or escaped.”

More than 100 people were working on candle orders when the twister flattened the facility. The company later said many employees who survived left the site and went to homes with no phone service, adding to the confusion over who was missing.

The lawsuit was filed less than a week after the storms that began Friday night destroyed lives and property from Arkansas to Illinois and in parts of neighboring states, carving a more than 200-mile (320-kilometer) path through Kentucky alone.

Beshear has said that Kentucky’s workplace safety agency would look into the eight deaths. That kind of investigation is routine whenever workers are killed on the job.

Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press

Bungie's head of HR steps down following reports of toxic workplace culture

Mariella Moon 11 hrs ago

Gayle d'Hondt has stepped down as head of HR at Bungie after 14 years, according to IGN. The move comes shortly after the same publication released a report with accounts by former and current Bungie employees painting a picture of a workplace culture that's both toxic and sexist. In some instances, HR personnel were reportedly unwilling to help complainants and actively protected harmful individuals.

In her email sent to employees and seen by IGN, d'Hondt said she wants to do "everything in [her] power to make sure everyone who works [at Bungie] has a safe, welcoming, and supportive environment." It's necessary, she added, for the company's HR team to move forward with membership "largely comprised of people new to Bungie." d'Hondt didn't say who would be replacing her, but she told employees in the email that the HR team needs "to be trusted to be [their] advocates — not labeled as 'enablers' or seen as company resources who provide bad actors with safe harbor." It's also unclear if d'Hondt is leaving the video game developer completely or just moving to a different role.

© Chesnot via Getty Images PARIS, FRANCE - OCTOBER 31: Gamers play the video game 'Destiny 2' developed by Bungie Studios and published by Activision during the 'Paris Games Week' on October 31, 2017 in Paris, France. 'Paris Games Week' is an international trade fair for video games to be held from October 31 to November 5, 2017. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)

The former HR head mentioned about her own experience with an abuser at the company, as well: A male executive whom she thought was her friend. While she didn't name her abuser, she said Bungie eventually fired him. She concluded:

"I am proud of the work I did at this company. I believe I made recommendations that were in the best interest of our people and in service of the company we wish to become. I also believe we made some mistakes, and that to become the better version of ourselves — the company I know we can be – we have to acknowledge and confront them, in good faith, and grow together."

While IGN's report showed the company in a less-than-flattering light, it also showed how the studio is struggling to shake its toxic culture in an effort to foster a better one. In response to it, company CEO Pete Parsons published an apology letter, admitting that Bungie's "actions or, in some cases, inactions, caused these people pain." He also talked about the changes the company has made over the past few years to make it a better place for employees, including removing bad actors irrespective of their "tenure, seniority or interpersonal relationships."

ECOCIDE

Texas pipeline company charged in California oil spill


LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Houston-based oil company and two subsidiaries were indicted Wednesday for a crude spill that fouled Southern California waters and beaches in October, an event prosecutors say was caused in part by failing to properly act when alarms repeatedly alerted workers to a pipeline rupture.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Amplify Energy Corp. and its companies that operate several oil rigs and a pipeline off Long Beach were charged by a federal grand jury with a single misdemeanor count of illegally discharging oil.

Investigators believe the pipeline was weakened when a cargo ship's anchor snagged it in high winds in January, months before it ultimately ruptured Oct. 1, spilling up to about 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of crude oil in the ocean.

U.S. prosecutors said the companies were negligent six ways, including failing to respond to eight leak detection system alarms over a 13-hour period that should have alerted them to the spill and would have minimized the damage. Instead, the pipeline was shut down after each alarm and then restarted, spewing more oil into the ocean.

Amplify blamed the unnamed shipping company for displacing the pipeline and said workers on and offshore responded to what they believed were false alarms because the system wasn't functioning properly. It was signaling a potential leak at the platform where no leak was occurring, the company said.

The leak, in fact, was from a section of undersea pipe 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) miles away, Amplify said.

“Had the crew known there was an actual oil spill in the water, they would have shut down the pipeline immediately," the company said.

The Associated Press first reported last week that Amplify's leak detection system was not fully functional. At the time, the company declined to explain what that meant.

AP in October reported on questions surrounding the company’s failure to respond to an alarm.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday that it was responding to a report of a sheen off the coast of Bolsa Chica State Beach but hadn't determined the source and planned to fly over the scene Thursday morning.

The area is in the same general vicinity as that of the October leak, although the pipeline currently is out of service.

In that case, the first pipeline rupture alarm sounded at 4:10 p.m. Oct. 1, but the leak was not discovered until well after sunrise the next morning and reported about 9 a.m. Citizens on shore called 911 to report the strong smell of crude that first afternoon, and an anchored cargo vessel reported seeing a large sheen on the water before sunset.

Local authorities who went looking for a spill Oct. 1 didn’t find it. The Coast Guard said it was too dark to go out and search for the spill by the time they received a report about it. They went out after sunrise, finding it around the time the company reported it.

Just days after the spill, Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher had refused to answer questions at news conferences about the timeline surrounding the spill and a report that an alarm at 2:30 a.m. Oct. 2 alerted controllers about a possible spill. He maintained the company didn’t learn of the spill until a boat saw a sheen on the water at 8:09 a.m. that morning.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said the indictment validates residents who had detected the spill a day earlier and reported it.

“It’s terrible that they basically lied to the community during the press briefings and caused people to believe that what they saw with their own eyes or smelled or knew was actually not true,” she said. “What we know now is that the company knew this, and the alarms went off like they were supposed to, and nobody did anything.”

Even after the eighth and final alarm sounded, the pipeline operated for nearly an hour in the early morning, prosecutors said.

Pipeline safety advocate Bill Caram said the indictment paints a picture of a reckless company.

“I understand there are false positives on leak detection systems but this is our treasured coastline,” said Caram, director of the Bellingham, Washington-based Pipeline Safety Trust. “The fact that they kept hitting the snooze button and ignoring alarms, stopping and starting this pipeline and all the while leaking oil in the Pacific Ocean is reckless and egregious.”

Prosecutors also found that the pipeline was understaffed and the crew was fatigued and insufficiently trained in the leak detection system.

The indictment’s description of company personnel as fatigued pointed to a long-standing industry problem, said pipeline expert Ramanan Krishnamoorti with the University of Houston.

“Fatigue and overworked staff is old and trite and inexcusable,” he said. “This has been demonstrated over and over again as being the single most important vulnerability.”

It’s not clear why it took so long for the 1/2-inch (1.25-centimeter) thick steel line to leak after the apparent anchor incident, or whether another anchor strike or other incident led to the rupture and spill.

The spill came ashore at Huntington Beach and forced about a weeklong closure of the city’s beaches and others along the Orange County coast. Fishing in the affected area resumed only recently, after testing confirmed fish did not have unsafe levels of oil toxins.

If convicted, the charge carries up to five years of probation for the corporation and fines that could total millions of dollars.

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Associated Press reporter Amy Taxin contributed.

Brian Melley And Matthew Brown, The Associated Press

SOUNDS FAMILIAR

Steve Bannon Hopes for Century of Pro-Trump Republican Rule: 

Jahrhundert der Pro-Trump-republikanischen Herrschaft

'We Reign for 100 Years'

100 JAHRE REICH

Steve Bannon voiced his hope that supporters of former President Donald Trump will govern the country for a century, saying he hopes they will "reign for 100 years."

© Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Former Trump administration White House advisor Steve Bannon speaks to reporters outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal District Court House on November 15 in Washington, D.C.

Jason Lemon 

Bannon, a former Trump adviser, made the remark during an episode of his War Room podcast on Wednesday. The comment came as he and former Trump adviser Jason Miller discussed the upcoming 2022 midterms as well as the presidential election in 2024.

"I would say as far as Biden, I don't see any way that he stands for re-election in 2024," Miller, the CEO of Gettr who served on Trump's 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, told Bannon. He predicted that Democratic "elites" would tell Biden he needs to step aside after the 2022 midterms. He projected that Republicans will win big in those races.

"Best-case scenario for Democrats is that Republicans have a 60-seat landslide. I'm even hearing things like a historic 90-, even 100-seat, landslide—one of the biggest, if not the biggest in history," Miller said.

Bannon quickly responded, "Yeah, 100 seats, we reign for 100 years. I gotta tell you, this is the key."

Trump formally pardoned Bannon right before he departed office in January. The former president's ally had been charged with fraud related to a crowdfunding campaign he launched in an effort to fund a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Bannon was then indicted last month for criminal contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Bannon, like many other Trump loyalists, has become a key promoter of the former president's baseless theory that the 2020 election was "rigged" or "stolen" in favor of President Joe Biden. He has regularly promoted the claims on his War Room podcast while also touting pro-Trump Republicans' efforts to take back control of Congress and the White House.

"This is Trumpism in power. That's when we went to the 4,000 shock troops we have to have that's going to man the government," Bannon said during an episode of his podcast earlier this month. He called on Trump supporters to prepare to take control.

"Get them ready now. Right? We're going to hit the beach with the landing teams and the beachhead teams and all that nomenclature they use when President Trump wins in 2024—or before," he said.

Historical precedent and recent polling suggest that Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate, during the 2022 midterms. The party of the president in power generally loses a significant number of seats in Congress during the midterms of their first term. Because the Democrats control the House and Senate only by the narrowest of margins, even just a few seats flipping in Republicans' favor would shift the balance of power in the legislative chambers.

Polling conducted this month by CNBC found that Republicans are preferred by voters over Democrats, by a double-digit margin, to control Congress. While just about a third (34 percent) of respondents said they prefer Democrats controlling the legislative branch, 44 percent said they prefer Republicans. That's a 10-point lead for the GOP less than a year before the midterms will take place.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to tease the possibility of a presidential run in 2024—although he has not announced his intentions. Biden has said that he plans to seek another term. But with a sagging approval rating and concerns about his age (79), many political observers speculate that the president will step aside and let another Democrat run in 2024.

PATRIARCHY IS FEMICIDE 

Girl shot dead by Taliban while family was preparing to flee to Canada
Stewart Bell and Jeff Semple 

© Family handout

A 10-year-old girl was shot dead in Afghanistan while her family was preparing to flee to Canada under an immigration program for Afghans who worked for the Canadian Forces, multiple sources said Thursday.

The girl, Nazifa, was killed when gunfire erupted near a Taliban checkpoint in Kandahar on the night of Dec. 10, her father and the Canadian veterans group Aman Lara told Global News in interviews.

The father had worked for the Canadian military in Kandahar until 2011. The family was approved for resettlement by Canada, but was stuck in Afghanistan due to the lack of evacuation efforts.

“I can confirm this family did have approval to come to Canada, and they didn’t make it out in time, and it’s a very poignant example of what can happen,” said Kynan Walper, an Aman Lara spokesperson.

Nazifa's father Bashir said his daughter was a top student and was learning English to prepare for her new life in Canada. (He asked to be identified only by his first name for safety reasons.)

She was returning from a family wedding at about 11 p.m. Friday when the car she was in cleared a Taliban checkpoint, but then came under fire. The vehicle hit a building and caught fire. Nazifa died instantly and three others were injured.

Read more:
Inside the Kabul safe houses where Afghans wait to be evacuated to Canada

It’s unclear why the Taliban shot at the vehicle. Bashir said his family may have been targeted because he worked for the Canadian and U.S. forces, but there were also indications it was a result of Taliban negligence.

Bashir’s brother-in-law Mohammad said the driver of the vehicle thought he had been cleared to pass through the checkpoint, but when he did so, the Taliban started shooting.

The family was in Kandahar to prepare their applications for Afghan passports, which they needed to enter a neighbouring country like Pakistan and make their way to Canada, Bashir said.

“I am requesting the government of Canada to help us get out of this country, and get us out of this fear we are living in now,” said Bashir, speaking through an interpreter.

While the Canadian government has said it would resettle Afghans who helped the military mission in Kandahar, four months after the Taliban seized Kabul, fewer than 3,800 have arrived.

Another 1,755 have come to Canada through a humanitarian program.

Thousands more remain stranded in the country due to the suspension of evacuation flights, and border control measures in neighbouring countries that prevent them from fleeing.

Aman Lara confirmed the family was on its list of evacuees it was trying to assist, and said the death showed the risks resulting from delays in Afghan resettlement efforts.

“There was a 10-year-old girl who was shot ... when she should have been on her way to Canada. This was avoidable and it was bound to happen, and it’s going to happen more,” Walper said.

“We need to do better, and I understand that everyone’s trying, but we need to do better, we need to pick this up," he said.

“We need to get the log-jams resolved, wherever they lay, whether it be through flights, whether it be through ground movements, whether it be through co-operation with other countries, we need to continue this with a renewed urgency so this does not happen again.”

Read more:
The Taliban is rebranding Kabul with its white flags, but what comes next has Afghans on edge

As it seeks international recognition and the resumption of foreign aid, the Taliban has vowed not to retaliate against its former enemies. But given the Taliban's long history of killing Afghans who supported the international forces, locals who worked for the Canadian military fear they will be targeted.

The United Nations deputy high commissioner for human rights, Nada Al-Nashif, said this week that despite an amnesty announced by the Taliban, there were “credible allegations” of more than 100 killings of former Afghan national security forces and others tied to the former government.

"At least 72 killings were attributed to the Taliban, and in several cases the bodies were publicly displayed," she said.

Bashir said he was a carpenter for the Canadian Forces from 2006 to 2011. Walper said the family had been approved to come to Canada but was among the many unable to leave Afghanistan.

“I can confirm that this individual was a family member of a primary applicant who had a connection to the Canadian Forces,” he said. “He had worked alongside Canadian Forces and that work put them at significant risk.”

Read more:
Canada’s response to fall of Afghanistan target of new special committee of MPs

Neither Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada nor the office of Immigration Minister Sean Fraser have responded to requests for comment, but the Conservative opposition called the killing "horrific and heartbreaking."

“We need answers from the federal government as to why this family could not get out of Afghanistan in time," said Conservative leader Erin O'Toole.

He said a parliamentary committee set up last week by opposition parties would "explore these questions and examine ways we can help ensure no other families experience such loss."

Last month, the minister's press secretary Alexander Cohen said the government was working with Afghans to ensure they had the required documents, and cooperating with transit countries to allow them entry.

"The major hurdle in getting people out of Afghanistan remains the fact the country is under the control of the Taliban, with extremely volatile conditions on the ground," he said at the time.

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca

Nebraska's Republican governor joins Joe Biden in calling on Kellogg's to negotiate with striking workers: 'Retaining your people should be a priority'

insider@insider.com (Juliana Kaplan)

© Provided by Business Insider

 Keisha Richardson, 15-year Kellogg employee, waves to cars honking as they pass by as she gathers with union workers from Kellogg's while they picket outside the cereal maker's headquarters as they remain on strike in Battle Creek, Michigan,

 U.S REUTERS/Emily Elconin/File Photo

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, a two-term Republican, is urging Kellogg's to negotiate with strikers.
After more than two months, Kellogg's said it will permanently replace striking union workers.
Ricketts joins politicians like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in supporting the workers.

Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts — a Republican serving his second term in office and the former COO of TD Ameritrade — has called upon Kellogg's CEO Steve Cahillane to resume negotiations with striking workers.

In a letter dated December 12, Ricketts said that Nebraskans working in food processing "stepped up to help our state feed the nation and world," noting that workers helped increase Kellogg's revenue in 2020.

"Given the extraordinary commitment displayed by Kellogg's employees over the past two years, the successes they have helped Kellogg's to achieve, and the inflationary pressures they're facing, I urge you to return to the bargaining table," Ricketts said.

On Friday, President Joe Biden said that he was "deeply troubled by reports of Kellogg's plans to permanently replace striking workers," and called on employers to meet unions at the bargaining table. Senator Bernie Sanders has said he'll join a rally with striking Kellogg's workers in Michigan later this week.

Ricketts' letter signals a possible bipartisan shift towards supporting the striking workers. It's a notable move from a Republican governor who previously threatened to withhold federal relief funds for cities if masks were mandated in local government offices, and ended federal unemployment benefits months early in an effort to get workers to return.

Kellogg's workers at four plants — including one in Omaha, Nebraska — have been on strike for over two months. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International union workers are pushing back against what they say is an unfair two-tier wage system. On December 7, workers "overwhelmingly voted to reject" the company's latest tentative agreement offer.

After union workers voted down the tentative agreement, Kellogg said "the prolonged work stoppage has left us no choice but to hire permanent replacement employees in positions vacated by striking workers." That meant that 1,400 striking workers were facing replacement.

Ricketts said that he was writing "to express my hope that Kellogg's will reconsider its decision to discontinue negotiations" with the union, and that "retaining your people should be a priority."

"We remain ready and willing to continue negotiations," Kellogg spokesperson Kris Bahner said in a statement to Insider. "We have made every effort to reach a fair agreement, including making six offers to the union throughout negotiations, all of which have included wage and benefits increases for every employee on top of what is already an industry-leading compensation package."

Dan Osborn, president of the local union branch in Omaha, Nebraska, told Insider in a message that Rickett's letter shows this is a truly bipartisan message.

"I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of the 450 members of BCTGM Local 50G to Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts for acknowledging our cause to save the American blue collar worker," Osborn said.

Fox Hosts Knew—And Lied Anyway

Text messages sent to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reveal a disturbing truth.

By Adam Serwer

Daniel Constante / Alamy; Getty; Paul Spella / The Atlantic
DECEMBER 16, 2021, 1:30 PM ET
About the author: Adam Serwer is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers politics.

According to right-wing media figures, the January 6 sacking of the Capitol that disrupted the counting of the 2020 electoral votes was “a false-flag operation.” It was just “politicians” having their “jobs disrupted for two hours.” It was “mostly peaceful.” It was a “setup,” or perhaps it was the work of “antifa,” but those who were arrested and prosecuted are definitely “political prisoners.” Whatever happened, whether it was just a few misguided tourists or an inside job, Donald Trump is certainly not to blame and should not face punishment.

Or at least that’s what these Fox News personalities have said publicly. In fact, they understood exactly what was happening and who was responsible.

As part of its investigation into the Capitol riot, Congress has released a series of text messages between then–White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Fox News personalities, exchanged on January 6. The texts show that the network’s stars, contrary to the deliberate obfuscation campaign they have since offered, were well aware of who was responsible for the attack on the Capitol, and who could have prevented it.

Trump said to his supporters at the rally that day, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” and told them to march on the Capitol in the hopes of preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory. As the mob ransacked the building, the Fox host Laura Ingraham told Meadows, “The president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home,” and warned that “this is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.” The morning-show host Brian Kilmeade implored Meadows: “Please, get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished.” The prime-time host Sean Hannity urged Meadows to get Trump to “ask people to leave the Capitol.” Subsequently, all three hosts downplayed Trump’s responsibility for what happened, or sought to cast blame on others, knowingly misleading their viewers. If the rally had been peaceful, if the mob had not been full of Trump supporters, if this were an inside job, then appealing to Trump to stop it would not have made sense.

The texts provide a concrete record of what much of the right-wing media, and Fox News in particular, have since tried to obscure: A violent mob of Trump supporters, incited by falsehoods promoted by right-wing outlets and Trump himself about the election being stolen, sought to overturn the results by force. That violence was but the last desperate effort of a months-long campaign to invalidate the election results by pressuring election officials, state legislators, the Supreme Court, and ultimately former Vice President Mike Pence to use their power to install Trump as president against the will of the electorate.

The messages also highlight Fox News’s unusual relationship with its audience, which involves the conservative media’s most trusted figures consciously lying to their viewers. The texts between Meadows and the Fox News hosts are hardly the only example of the network’s personalities deliberately misleading their audience: From downplaying the deadliness of COVID to making misleading assertions about the effectiveness of the vaccines, to advancing the false claims of voter fraud that helped motivate the riot in the first place, Fox and its satellites have shown little hesitation in exploiting the confidence of conservative viewers who are convinced that the network is one of the few trustworthy outlets in a media landscape they regard with fierce hostility.

The roots of that hostility are worth reflecting on in light of these revelations. Fox News presents itself as a necessary counterweight to the supposed left-wing bias of other media outlets. Its defenders argue that the mainstream media have made so many glaring mistakes, the press can no longer be trusted, and it is therefore natural for Americans to seek alternatives.

The press does make mistakes, sometimes very serious ones—the coverage of the run-up to the invasion of Iraq is a prominent example. Developing stories are often subject to revision as new facts are uncovered, which to some audiences can feel like evidence of carelessness, negligence, or bias. Although the criticism the media face under such circumstances is often harsh, a healthy public skepticism of the press is as important to democracy as a thriving press.

But even errors of fact and framing, ideology or analysis, are different from what Fox News hosts do, which is attempt to get their viewers to believe things they themselves know are false. Fox News is distinct not only from most other broadcasters, but also from conservative magazines and websites whose writers are right-wing but maintain a sense of intellectual independence. Fox News’s symbiotic relationship with the Republican Party makes the outlet roughly as reliable as most politicians, who are more inclined to tell voters what they think they want to hear than what they ought to know.

It’s common to say that conservatives distrust the media, but conservative viewers trust Fox about as much as Democrats trust CNN. The fact that its most popular personalities consciously lie to their audiences has not diminished that trust; it has made Fox the most successful cable-news channel. It is difficult then, to argue that inaccuracy is what has eroded other outlets’ trust with conservatives—the reverse is true. More factual coverage would not strengthen Fox News’s bond with its viewers; it would likely drive them elsewhere. The outlet shapes this demand, but it also bends to it.

A conservative news outlet that sought to compete on accuracy would maintain standards of rigor that would not allow its most famous ambassadors to knowingly lie to their viewers, or it would sanction them for doing so. But Fox News understands that its success depends on maintaining a fantasy world, rather than doing anything to disturb it. This is why some of its most marquee personalities, who shared the same horror as most other Americans at the events of January 6, caked on their makeup, stared into the camera, and lied to the people who trust them the most. What makes Fox News unique is not that it is conservative, but that its on-air personalities understand that telling lies is their job. Their texts on January 6, and their conduct since, leave no other conclusion.