Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Jeff Masters points out how the climate breakdown is making hurricanes and other severe weather far worse than would otherwise be the case. And Gary Fuller reports on new research showing how air pollution contributes to multiple health issues. 

- Paul Kershaw writes that the Iran war and resulting oil supply shock is finally convincing many countries to shift to renewable energy as a matter of security even if they'd never bothered for environmental purposes or cost savings. And Susan O'Donnell and M.V. Ramana point out the absence of any rational case to forego a transition to renewable power in favour of nuclear plants which are both vastly more expensive and take far longer to put into operation. 

- Ed Zitron examines the comically-irresponsible world of private equity - and the systemic risks involved in allowing it to dictate economic decisions without meaningful oversight or regulation. And Eric Platt, Jill Shah and Euan Healy report on the bets major banks are making against the viability of consumer debt. 

- Sharon Zhang reports that Palantir paid precisely zero dollars in U.S. federal income taxes in 2025, even as it racks up publicly-funded contracts to invade people's privacy. 

- Finally, Lindsay Tedds examines how Mark Carney is implementing Stephen Harper's fiscal framework - yet being adulated for it by a Lib cult of personality.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Prem Sikka discusses how any prospect of meaningful change for the better depends on prying power out of the hands of the wealthiest few, while David Wallace-Wells writes about the first signs of progress on the part of the working class. And Sam Ellefson talks to Herbert Chang about the systematic abuse of offshore tax havens as one of the mechanisms the ultra-wealthy are using to avoid making any fair contribution to the countries that have made them rich.

- Jennifer Ludden notes that the Trump regime's choice to abandon people to go hungry figures to cause lasting anger and anxiety among the people deemed unworthy of even the most minimal standard of living. Benedict Vigers and Julie Ray report on new polling showing that 40% of younger women in the U.S. would understandably be happy to leave permanently. And Greg Sargent discusses how the U.S. general public has no interest in Republican cruelty when it's inflicted for its own sake rather than being attached to false promises of material gains. 

- Nina Lakhani reports on a new Amnesty International study showing that even setting aside the climate crisis, two billion people have their health threatened by pollution emanating from fossil fuel projects. And Dan Collyns reports on new archeological research documenting a coordinated effort to escape severe drought in Peru thousands of years ago - including warnings left behind for future generations. 

- Bob Berwyn discusses how UN climate talks are now designed to obstruct progress rather than to achieve it. Olivia Rudgard reports that the scientists who have done the most work on carbon capture are now warning against unduly relying on it as a substitute for effective climate action. And Rick Smith writes that the best-case scenario for Mark Carney's narrow climate plan is to see a meaningful industrial carbon price implemented quickly and effectively.

- Finally, Pippa Norman reports that Carney's plans to tie Canada even more tightly to the corporate elite includes pouring resources into a defence bank to finance military spending. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Hamilton Nolan discusses the multiple crises facing labor in the U.S., as a failure to organize produces particularly catastrophic results in hostile political and legal environments.  The Star's editorial board calls out Mark Carney's attempt to nullify the labour rights of Air Canada workers contrary to overwhelming public opinion - though the ultimate result offers a lesson in the value of maintaining solidarity. And Nora Loreto points out that the systematic suppression of workers' bargaining power under a system intend to reflect a peaceful compromise of interests is virtually certain to lead to far stronger tactics. 

- Vitoria Barreto discusses Brazil's Pix instant payment system - which is naturally drawing fire from bankers and billionaires for providing people of all income levels with financial services without exploitation. 

- Will Noel details the immense amount of renewable energy which has been scrapped due to the UCP's attacks on wind and solar power. And Eugene Ellman reports that U.S. investors are recognizing there's no future in dirty energy despite the Trump regime's determination to try to keep extracting profits for his oil tycoon donors. 

- Finally, Euan Thomson reports on Alberta's sudden abandonment of a private mental health data harvesting app after news has started to emerge about its dangers. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Paul Krugman discusses how Donald Trump and Elon Musk are severing the U.S.' ties around the world. And Eamon James and Dan Mangan report that the one form of international interaction Trump is looking to bolster is the legitimization of bribery. 

- Lisa Needham writes that Trump isn't pretending to govern as anything but a dictator unbound by law or by accountability. Jason Stanley writes about the new Republican "Southern Strategy" seeking to make a constant war against minorities and their voting rights into a foundation for electoral dominance. David Dayen notes that the technological takeover of the U.S. government seems designed to impose to impose rule by capricious and malicious autopilot. Molly Jong-Fast calls out the second Trump administration's war on science, while Amanda Marcotte notes that Musk is going out of his way to destroy research and innovation after building his own obscene fortune on past generations' work. 

- The Guardian's editorial board notes that the real purpose of Trump's obsession with tariffs is to allow him to impose the most extreme program of systematic economic inequality the world has ever seen. Jason Leopold and Evan Weinberger highlight the blatant self-dealing involved as Musk shreds the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and seizes competitors' confidential information just in time to turn X into a financial services rent-seeker, while Kylie Cheung points out that existing creditors and banks are also looking forward to free rein to scam their customers. 

- Meanwhile, James Temperton and Murad Hemmadi report on Shopify's embrace of Nazi merchandise and causes - which is of course particularly important given Pierre Poilievre's desire to turn its principals into the Canadian version of Musk. Nora Loreto discusses the ethnonationalism behind Pierre Poilievre's new choice of slogans. And Jon Henler reports on new research showing that the far right spreads fake news far more than any other grouping on the political spectrum. 

- George Monbiot laments that Keir Starmer's Labour government is further dismantling the UK's machniery of government (and undermining its own stated goals in the process). And Chris Dillow points out how the fanatical belief in commodified markets as the solution to everything prevents governments from serving the interests of their citizens. 

- Finally, Adam King interviews Bryan Evans and Carlo Fanelli about the damage Doug Ford has done to workers in Ontario. And Canada Healthwatch points out that despite how one prominent poll has been framed, it's unlikely that health care will be the top issue for voters - making a full accounting for Ford's subservience to Donald Trump a must to ensure he can't hang on to power. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Owen Schalk writes that there's no need for Canadian leaders to be doormats for the Trump administration. And A.R. Moxon offers some lessons as to how an opposition party and movement should respond in the face of rising fascism - with a willingness to fight being the first step to both achieving substantive results and earning trust. 

- Jonathan Weisman discusses how U.S. Democrats lost enthusiasm among the working class by hoping policy aimed at long-term stability would overcome an immediate sense of precarity and unfairness. Michael Podhorzer notes that the most important difference between the 2020 and 2024 U.S. elections was a collapse in interest among anti-Trump voters. Brian Beutler writes about the need for simple and repeated messages to reach voters - and the danger that corporatism and corruption will run rampant if opposition leaders don't focus attention on them. 

- Meanwhile, Charlie Warzel and Mike Caulfield write about the most important effect of the right-wing information ecosystem, as it serves to rationalize and excuse even what's obviously wrong. Brandi Buchman talks to Michael Fanone about the disillusionment of security officers seeing the leader of a  violent riot returned to office. 

- Amanda Marcotte writes about the role of toxic masculinity in fomenting terrorist violence against inclusivity and equality (currently framed in terms of "woke" culture). Yves Engler discusses how Pierre Poilievre is using the same themes, while at the same time planning to impose far more draconian restrictions on speech than anything he claims to be complaining about. And Olufemi Taiwo highlights the need for solidarity against the divide-and-conquer bullying from the right. 

- Finally, Amos Barshad discusses how buy now, pay later services are creating sustained precarity (particularly among those who are already the most financially vulnerable). Aballah Fayyad weighs in on the value of universal social programs which both reduce administration costs and ensure far greater income security for recipients. Ned Fresnikoff points out that modest income redistribution alone may do little if anything to reduce homelessness if it's not accompanied with action to make more affordable housing available. And Laura Dwyer-Lindgren et al. study the radically different life expectancies among ten distinct groups of Americans based on factors including race, geography and income. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Colin Carlson discusses why we should be treating the climate crisis as a health emergency (while also recognizing that such a thing demands urgent action rather than enforced denial). Debra Werner discusses the progress being made on at least identifying methane emissions which have previously gone undetected, while Laurie Winkless writes about the severe underreporting of pollution from the tar sands. And NASA notes that Greenland's ice sheets are in worse shape than previously recognized. 

- Meanwhile, Juliana Marino reports on the call from scientists to start monitoring the presence and effects of plastic particles in water. 

- Cory Doctorow's McLuhan lecture takes a look at how Facebook serves as the poster child for enshittification, while Luis Berumen Castro examines its application to digital products generally. 

- Finally, Dom Byrne discusses Catherine Thomas' work demonstrating the effectiveness of cash transfers in alleviating poverty, while Lise Olsen highlights the work being done by counties in Texas to implement a basic income (at least until antisocial Republican state officials stymie them based on the principle that helping people is unconstitutional). But Brandie Weikle reports that the Libs' level of ambition is limited to slightly reducing the interest people can be required to repay when trapped in a cycle of payday loans. 

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Peter Zimonjic reports on the latest audit from the federal environment commissioner showing that Canada is falling far short of meeting its greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments. And Brendan Haley discusses how a focus on a transition to heat pumps could provide a needed push in the right direction, while Max Fawcett points out the flaws in the attempts by petropoliticians to prevent the use of any clean heating options. 

- Dave Cournoyer discusses how Danielle Smith's UCP is more a hard-right call-in show than a political party. And Robson Fletcher writes about Nate Horner's musings about converting Alberta to using heating oil as an indication that there's just as much ill-thought-out blubbering coming from the cabinet as from the membership. 

- Don Mitchell reports on the Ontario Living Wage Network's latest study showing that workers' pay is falling ever further behind a reasonable standard of living. And Charles R. Davis reports on the transformative effects of a basic income in a Baltimore pilot project (among so many other examples). 

- Freddy Brewster examines how U.S. banks are able to trap customers and prevent them from seeking out better options elsewhere. 

- Finally, Samantha Beattie reports on the Ford PCs' practice of copying and pasting from developer wishlists, while Isaac Callan and Colin D'Mello reveal how they rushed through a zoning order which would have allowed a skyscraper in the middle of Pearson International Airport's flight path. Which naturally means it's time for Ford to start complaining that others aren't letting him unilaterally dictate what housing is built and where. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Gregg Gonsalves writes that rather than spurring the development of more effective public health mechanisms, the COVID-19 pandemic has instead seen massive backsliding as a culture of denial has overtaken even existing programs.  And Justin Ling points out the painful inability of the Canadian federal government to actually solve problems, rather than merely treating them as communications issues to be managed and ultimately suppressed. 

- Yet even that pattern is less pernicious than the pattern of right-wing governments actively exacerbating unfairness - including the Saskatchewan Party's choice to direct a fire hose of money toward private schools which consider themselves entitled to reject high-needs students (while slashing resources from the public system), and the UCP's decision to eliminate any type of support for people facing addictions in rural Alberta.  

- Andrea Bennett interviews Ricardo Tranjan about the housing crisis facing so many people - including the reality that it's being perpetuated because it's so profitable for a wealthy few. And Irina Wang writes about the problems with funding for a climate transition being directed toward glitzy consumer goods rather than systemic interventions. 

- Andrew King and Steven Sherwood discuss how we're pushing the Earth out of the "Goldilocks zone" of energy inputs and outputs. Craig Stanbury writes about Elizabeth Cripps' entirely-justified concerns that it's not possible to be a good parent without acting to ensure a viable future for one's children. Stefan Labbe reports on a new study documenting the lack of accurate emissions data from the logging sector. And Carl Meyer and Rianna Lim report on the dozens of MPs whose decision-making on climate policy is influence by substantial investments and family income from the oil and gas sector. 

- Michael Roberts makes the case for publicly-owned banks as a replacement for a financial system built on gambling with depositors' money for private profit (with the expectation that the government will step in if there's any trouble). And Noah Smith writes about the lessons governments are finally re-learning about the need for industrial strategy and policy beyond laissez-faire dogmatism. 

- Finally, Juliana Kaplan weighs in on the corporate greed at the root of the inflation hitting the American public. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Alec Connon discusses how anger is an entirely appropriate response to the capitalist imperative to impose constant costs and burdens on people and the planet. And Alexandra Digby, Dollie Davis and Robson Hiroshi Hatsukami Morgan write that the collapse of First Republic Bank and other financial institutions can be traced directly to an incentive structure which rewards reckless risk-taking rather than responsible management and long-term planning. 

- Alex Lawson reports on yet another quarter of obscene windfall profits for BP, while Reuters reports on similar results for ExxonMobil and Chevron. And Geoff Dembicki exposes an Alberta group - known for shilling for the oil industry with false accusations against pipeline activists - is itself funded with hundreds of thousands of dollars of secret contributions from CNRL. 

- Lisa Young writes about the choice facing Alberta voters in the election campaign which began this week - with the oil-funded good ol' boy network being challenged in its assertion of perpetual dominance by a coalition seeking to at least expand the range of voices involved in shaping the province's future.  

- Finally, Cory Doctorow writes about the bondage fees used to keep workers from pursuing anything better than exploitative current jobs. And Bob Egelko reports on a court's determination that a single Marriott hotel stole over $9 million in tips from its banquet workers - with the typical consequence being nothing more than a belated requirement to pay it back. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading.

- Alejandro de la Garza writes about the devastation continuing to be wrought by COVID-19 in Lamb County, Texas even as the powers that be pretend the pandemic is in the past. And John Michael McGrath discusses why Ontario shouldn't count on the Ford government allowing any progress on indoor air quality - no matter how obvious that step would seen as a means to prevent readily-avoidable health problems.

- Steven Johnson writes about the tragically flawed inventions of Thomas Midgley - including the adoption of his leaded gasoline solely because it allowed for patent protection in contrast to a safer substitute. And Ben Webster, Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Lucas Amin report on the aviation industry's predictable refusal both to acknowledge the question of how vapour trails contribute to climate change, and to do anything but obstruct the research which would be needed to provide a fuller answer.

- Fiona Harvey reports on new research showing that fresh water demand will exceed supply by 40% as soon as 2030. And Kevin Philipuppilai reports on the soaring price tag for the Trans Mountain pipeline as escalating costs have to financed at far higher interest rates.

- Steve Burgess offers his take on the reasons for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, while Henry Mance focuses on the right's attempts to blame diversity for a phenomenon plenty familiar to corporations dominated by privileged white men.

- Finally, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association examines how the Communications Security Establishment has been systematically prioritizing the sharing of information with foreign security services over Canadians' privacy - frequently to the point of breaking the law.

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Rosemary Boyton and Daniel Altman discuss how any immunity from prior COVID-19 infection is waning as time passes and ever-changing variants circulate for want of any attempt to limit their spread. Bobbi-Jean Mackinnon reports on the rising number of COVID-related workers' compensation claims in New Brunswick even as any protections have been wound down. And Steve Wilcox laments that so many Canadian universities have joined the post-truth COVID denialists rather than acknowledging and reducing the ongoing risk to students and staff. 

- Cory Doctorow points out some of the most glaring examples of corporations using inflation as an excuse for blatant profiteering. And Robert Faturechi and Ellis Simani comb through IRS records and find distinct patterns of CEOs cleaning up on conveniently-timed trades in the shares of competitors and industry partners.

- Meanwhile, Tom Malleson writes about the need for a wealth tax to ensure that increasingly-concentrated wealth can be directed to the public good.  

- Finally, Ryan Cooper makes the case for a banking public option in order to ensure the need to access financial services isn't yet another tax and burden on the less wealthy. Guy Dauncey offers some promising ideas to make healthy food more available and affordable for the people who need it most. And Christopher Patterson and Lance Barrie highlight the advantages of 15-minute cities in response to the laughable fear campaign from the petropolitical right. 

Tuesday Evening Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Henry Mance talks to Mariana Mazzucato about the big con by private consultants who have been treated as a substitute for a knowledgeable civil service without having any expertise in actually serving the public. And Cathy Taylor writes about the need to invest in non-profit rather than corporatized supports for people living in poverty. 

- Moira Welsh and Clare Pasieka each report on AdvantAge's report on exploitative practices by temp agencies who poach staff from the public sector, then charge exorbitant rates to now-desperate care homes. Joel Lexchin discusses how the pharmaceutical and insurance industries are standing in the way of universal prescription drug coverage in order to preserve their own profits off of people's need for medicine. And Sarah Rieger interviews Arshy Mann about Canada's grim status as three monopolies in a trenchcoat. 

- Meanwhile, Tim Redmond reports on draft plans indicating that San Francisco could afford to set up a public bank with as little as $20 million in startup capital - ensuring that all citizens have access to the financial services they need without being at the mercy of the corporate sector. 

- Finally, Madeleine de Trenquayle interviews Naomi Klein about the inextricable connection between economic inequality and climate injustice. Naveena Savidasam discusses how the East Palestine rail calamity underscores the needless dangers arising from our reliance on petrochemicals and plastics. And Carl Meyer highlights how the tar sands sector is engaged in another exercise in greenwashing - this time at the expense of tens of billions of public dollars - in order to run decades off the clock while avoiding any plan to build out cleaner energy alternatives. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Matt Gurney writes about what continues to be a woeful response to COVID in Ontario among other provinces, while Jason Herring reports on Alberta's collapsing emergency medical services. And Claire Pomeroy recognizes the tsunami of disability which will need to be addressed arising out of long COVID. 

- Umair Haque writes that our social system is collapsing due to the capitalist imperative to concentrate perpetually more wealth into fewer and fewer hands. And David Dayen highlights why so many workers have decided after facing the trauma of a pandemic that they're not willing to tolerate exploitative jobs. 

- Elaine Power, Paul Taylor and Valerie Tarasuk remind us that charities and food banks shouldn't be accepted as a response to poverty and hunger. 

- Scott Schmidt points out the obvious unsustainability of an economic system which relies on people taking on unmanageable debt to provide both jobs and profits. And Dan Darrah reports on the record profits being reaped and bonuses being paid out by Canada's big banks as they extract a growing share of our country's wealth. 

- Finally, Morgan Meaker writes that the U.S.' rejection of Meta's attempt to buy out Giphy may reflect a noteworthy first step in reversing the concentration of wealth and power through antitrust law.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Bruce Arthur warns against letting up in our effort to fight COVID-19 just when a substantial victory is in sight. And Stephen Reicher, Susan Michie and Christina Pagel offer their take on the needed response to the emergence of more dangerous COVID variants - including a couple of recommendations which tragically will almost certainly be ignored in Saskatchewan:

Fourth, given the growing evidence regarding aerosol transmission and hence the critical role of ventilation as a means of mitigation, adequate ventilation should be a criterion for commercial reopening, along with an enhanced inspection regime and grants available for improving ventilation, both in businesses and in the home.

Fifth, we need clear and consistent public messaging to communicate the changing risks from covid-19 along with clear guidance on how people can identify and reduce those risks in their own lives. There is a particular need to avoid the mistakes of summer 2020 when people were urged to return to offices (even when they were able and willing to work from home) and go to pubs as their “patriotic duty.” This creates a sense of “it’s all over” and encourages people to lower their guard.

- Meanwhile, Caitlin Owens examines the social predictors of vaccination rates (and their consequences for the U.S.' hopes of controlling COVID-19). 

- Emma Knight highlights Canada's mediocre results in providing for maternal health. And Chantal Braganza rightly argues that it's time to fix a crisis of care work - and to do so without expecting mothers to bear the additional burden.

- Amanda Peacher points out how public housing should be seen as desirable rather than a poorly-funded option of last resort (with Vienna as a prime example). But Luke Ottenhof reports that Doug Ford is focused instead on ensuring that tenants are unable to organize or to document his system of rubber-stamped evictions to provide even more leverage to landlords.

- Alan Rappeport reports on lobbying by U.S. banks to prevent the repayment of loans on behalf of black farmers who have faced historical discrimination. And Anand Giridharadas talks to Mariana Mazzucato about our ridiculous fetishization of businessmen at the expense of the public good - including through the needless promotion of philanthrocapitalism.

- Finally, Thomas Piketty writes that it's both possible and desirable to work toward a basic income, job guarantee and universal capital inheritance to ensure both a reasonable standard of living and genuine opportunities for all. 

[Edit: fixed typo.]

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- David Graeber wrote (just before his death) about the need to do more than default back to an unacceptable "normal" once the COVID-19 pandemic is under control. 

- Arthur White-Crummey and Lynn Giebrecht have been writing a series of stories on the longstanding lack of regard for residents and workers in Saskatchewan's long-term care homes, while Dylan Scott notes that the U.S. has matched Canada's pattern in seeing more and worse COVID outbreaks in for-profit facilities. And Bryn Levy reports on the push for stronger protection at the Prairie Pride meat-packing plant where an outbreak was hidden from the union as well as the public.

- Brennan Strndberg-Salmon makes the case to give young people the chance to vote in elections which will shape their future. 

- Dianne Buckner reports on the movement to challenge payday lending which traps people in cycles of debt.

- Stephen Leahy examines the potential for the world to shift to 100% renewable energy by 2030.

- And finally, Emma McIntosh reports on the Peter Bryce Prize for whistleblowing rightly awarded to John O'Connor for his work calling attention to cancer around Alberta's tar sands in the face of suppression from industry and governments.

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Bruce Campbell highlights how corporate greed isn't limited by a public health emergency. And indeed, the Canadian Press reports on a record amount of federal lobbying in February and March as entrenched interests seek to increase their wealth and power as a result of COVID-19.

- Meanwhile, Quinn Slobodian points out that corporate interests are counting on the rest of us doing nothing to push for change as a result of a glaring breakdown of our public health and support systems:

We have seen a world where capitalism stops. But it will start again. When America “reopens,” it will be much like the old America. Big companies will be bigger, ever more beholden to the leader for having saved them. Arguments for austerity will return in the wake of the unprecedented spending.
...
The next year will be a litany of the “workouts and turnarounds” that bankruptcy specialists are known for, ruthlessly wringing the value out of companies, while ignoring the human or social costs. Distressed debt funds are the loan sharks of the business world, and will feel no compunction about pursuing the bottom line. We have seen a preview of such dispassionate calculation in the last month, as stock values soared alongside record unemployment numbers and mounting deaths. The combination seemed shocking to some people, even scandalous. “The stock market doesn’t care about your feelings,” was the response of a Los Angeles Times business reporter, “nor should it.”

Covid-19 has left the economy in rubble, and we have a brief chance to build anew. But to avoid the vultures, we will have to be creative and work together. Freed from our quarantine, we can use the remains of our old society to construct new buildings, gardens, playgrounds, and, when necessary, barricades too.

- Anne Gaviola reports on the appalling exploitation of Canadians by payday lenders even as coronavirus relief is supposed to include access to affordable credit.

- The American Prospect examines the future of labour following the COVID-19 pandemic. Denise Balkissoon discusses the harm we do by undermining the rights of food sector workers, while Lauren Kaori Gurley reports on today's strikes of many major U.S. retailers. And Brett Nelson points out the need for organizing in response to the issues highlighted by the coronavirus to focus on issues which develop solidarity rather than undermining it.

- Finally, Bruce Arthur writes that we won't be able to defeat the coronavirus without fully working together - while noting that our treatment of people living with homelessness and precarious work falls far short of the mark.

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Jane McArthur and Filipe Duarte discuss how the response to the coronavirus pandemic is confirming the importance of collective responsibilities. Amanda Harvey-Sánchez writes about the need to shift toward a more caring social model. And Andrew Longhurst and Kendra Strauss point out the need to take the profit motive out of our model for seniors' housing, while Matt Gurney notes that the current catastrophic outbreaks are the result of decades of systemic neglect.

- Emily Pasiuk highlights the Moe government's refusal to address the safety of essential workers - which of course continues in today's push to reopen which places mandatory obligations on workers but not employers. Noam Scheiber reports on the Trump administration's choice to put employees entirely at the mercy of their bosses rather than enforcing health and safety standards. Dahlia Lithwick discusses the problem with treating essential workers as heroic martyrs rather than people who deserve protection, while Karlie Frisbie Brogan notes that grocery store workers (and others) can see through the insincerity of the attempt. And Michelle Paquette and Doug Yearwood write about the need for improved ages and working conditions which last long after the end of the immediate crisis.

- Bill Bostock reports on France's move to join the group of companies ensuring that bailout funds aren't siphoned off into tax havens. But Marco Chown Oved takes note that the Trudeau Libs refuse to provide similar reassurances about Canadian relief funding.

- Josh Taylor reports on Australia's move to ensure that online multinationals are required to share advertising revenue with local media, rather than taking windfall profits from their content. And John Ivison makes the case for Canada to finally do the same.

- Emily Flitter and Stacy Cowley discuss how the U.S.' business support program was set up to allow banks to offer "concierge service" for their wealthier clients, rather than actually ensuring that funds flowed based on need.

- Finally, David Macdonald highlights the growing number of jobless Canadians excluded from income support benefits as the COVID-19 epidemic continues. Toby Sanger makes the case to extend tax filing deadlines to ensure people with lower incomes actually receive the benefits that have been set up. And Zoe Christmas argues that we'd be far better off with a universal CERB than with the Libs' partial, separate program since set up for students and graduates.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Tobias Jones discusses how COVID-19 has emphasized the importance of social interaction to human well-being:

It seems callous to suggest that this tenebrous pandemic is letting the light in, and daft to offer immediate consolations amid so much grief. But there is a sense that, with the world having ground to a halt, our fantasies are finally taking flight.

Much of what we have always been told was impossible is actually happening: the homeless are (in some places) being housed in hotels while prisoners are (in others) being released. Kids are told not to go to school and to forget exams. Massive government spending is ensuring that people are guaranteed an income even if they can’t work. Private hospitals in Spain are being nationalised. A hospital has been built in London under a fortnight. In Portugal, tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers have been “regularised” and given full rights. It’s not quite a revolution, but it’s an epic conceptual awakening.
...
The penny has also dropped that wellbeing isn’t individual but social. We are not actually independent at all, but dependent. We can make each other sick and we can try to make each other well. We’ve understood that a healthy community (as Wendell Berry wrote in his essay Health Is Membership) isn’t merely human, but also “its soil, its water, its air”.

It has been fascinating to see the speed at which other attitudes have changed. The indignation expressed towards people not respecting social distancing (from those who would never normally describe themselves as moralists) has been understandably shrill: here too we’ve suddenly realised that the wellbeing of the group is endangered by indifferent individuals, and that community – for which we’ve yearned for so long – means originally simply a pooling of duties.

- Laura Spinney writes that inequality doesn't just exacerbate pandemics, but also plays a role in causing them. Don Pittis writes that the coronavirus pandemic offers an important test of a government's willingness to invest in avoiding impending catastrophe - and that the results so far look worrisome based on the even larger threat of climate breakdown. And Gregory Beatty discusses how the U.S. in particular is seeing greed and political posturing overwhelm even the most basic of responses to COVID-19.

- Robert Reich points out how many of the "philanthropic" announcements made by billionaires in response to COVID-19 represent little but self-aggrandizement on the part of people who are actively exacerbating the crisis through their mistreatment of workers. 

- PressProgress calls out the Fraser Institute's attempt to use a pandemic to justify the long-term use of environmentally-destructive plastic bags. And Regan Boychuk argues that the oil companies who have made billions polluting Alberta shouldn't be allowed to "dine and dash" as part of a recovery effort.

- Finally, Sara Mojtehedzaden reports on the payday lenders exploiting a mass crisis with the explicit encouragement of the Trudeau government. Rupert Neate and Jasper Jolly note that hedge funds are extracting huge amounts of wealth betting on chaotic markets, while Lawrence Delevigne exposes one investment firm's attempt to abuse relief funding to take in windfall profits. And J. David McSwane and Yeganeh Torbati report on the Trump administration's choice to dole out sole-source contracts.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- David Bush reminds us that the hoarders worth being concerned about are the ones accumulating obscene amounts of wealth at the expense of our society's ability to provide everybody with the necessities of life.

- Matthew Green makes the case that Canada's response to the coronavirus needs to focus more on the people who already had the least. And Tom Cooper points out how payday lenders are exploiting the pandemic (along with a lack of regulation and alternative income sources) to push people further into debt.

- Jonathan Freedland writes that Donald Trump's narcissism has definitively reached the point of costing the lives of his citizens. And Richard Wolffe comments on Trump's eagerness to sacrifice those lives for his own political ends.

- Kathleen Martens reports on the risk that ongoing pipeline construction will spread COVID-19 to communities along the way. And Paul McKay discusses why a fossil fuel bailout is the wrong response to the crisis.

- Finally, Fiona Harvey reports on the effort of scientists to ensure that climate change is met with as forceful a government push as the coronavirus. And Jeff Goodell writes that while we can't avoid some ongoing damage to our climate, there's still time to flatten the greenhouse gas emissions curve to reduce the eventual harm.

On spin over substance

PressProgress is right to point out how many landlords are using the loud announcement of coronavirus relief - which, if you read the small print, won't be available for months - as an excuse to keep charging rent as of April 1. (Not to mention to attempt to pressure tenants out of their homes when they're unable to work due to a public health emergency.)

But it's worth noting that the same dynamic applies in the opposite direction as well. The financial sector and federal government have made a show of announcing "mortgage relief", which would suggest a widespread system of savings in the cost of housing ownership which could be passed on to renters. They haven't been so vocal about that claim hiding a cumbersome and confusing process which is ultimately designed to keep power and financial reward in the hands of the banks.

In both cases, the headline fails to reflect the limitations of the government's actual policy. And the result is to set up obvious potential for finger-pointing between parties who wrongly think the other has been bailed out - leading to both an erosion of trust, and readily-avoidable policy failures.

But there are a couple of necessary changes which can be made to avoid similar difficulties. First, we should expect our governments to take an all-of-the-above approach to getting help to Canadians immediately, rather than looking for excuses to minimize the effect of announcements. And second, we should demand they recognize that (even more than usual) lives are at stake when their talking points fall short of their actions.