Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Andrew Nikiforuk examines what we know about - and what we should be doing in response to - the Kraken COVID-19 variant which is running amok in parts of the US and beginning to spread in Canada. 

- Whizy Kim writes about the worsening race to the bottom among U.S. states in allowing the wealthiest few to avoid paying taxes (forcing people with less resources to foot the bill for whatever public services remain available). And Romain Schue and Thomas Gerbet report on the escalating amount of money being paid to McKinsey & Company as a substitute for a functional civil service at all levels of government in Canada. 

- hopebuilding discusses how Housing First policy is ultimately about valuing the people otherwise lacking one of the essentials of life. And Patrick Condon points out the glaring lack of evidence that funneling large amounts of money into private housing produces measurable improvements in making units available and reducing homelessness. 

- Izzie Ramirez writes about the trend toward perpetually inferior consumer products as businesses optimize a system based on constant replacement rather than the provision of what people actually want. And Leslie Kaufman highlights the damage we're doing to our climate through an addiction to cheap plastics (which petropoliticians are only looking to worsen). 

- Neal Lawson discusses how UK Labour can't credibly claim to be offering change from the Cons without committing to a fair electoral system - a point which applies equally to other parties claiming to be a progressive alternative to top-down, corporate cronyist governments. 

- Finally, Owen Jones writes that the younger generations which have been made the object of conservative scorn and spite are unlikely to reward that enmity with future support.